More on Almere and Self-Build Housing

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, many New Towns were planned across Europe, both to provide more affordable places to accommodate growth, and as a reaction to the massive government built social housing projects found in many cities. In Holland, one of the best known New Towns is Almere, a satellite town on reclaimed land outside of Amsterdam. Today, the population of Almere is approaching that of Amsterdam and one day, it is expected to surpass it.

I was very fortunate to learn about Almere from Jacqueline Tellinga, District Manager Homeruskwartier for the City of Almere. She also kindly shared her powerpoint presentation with our group, from which I took some of the images in this post. She also gave us a tour, along with Michelle Provost who heads up the International New Town Institute, based in Almere.

While much of Almere is now quite similar to many other Dutch cities and towns with a similar achitecture and separate zones for different uses, the city has been an incubator for many new planning ideas. Rather than build the city centre from the start, the decision was made to build a number of self-contained communities, each with their own village centres, on the expectation that eventually a city centre would be built.

Rem Koolhaas was retained to design a new city centre which has been built in stages over the subsequent years. Walking through the pedestrian only streets (all servicing and parking is underground) I found it to be a fascinating, but somewhat surreal place.

It suffers from the challenge of trying to build at once a place that is supposed to look like it developed incrementally over many decades. As a result, it has a ‘Disneylandish’ feel about it. Here's a video I found on-line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN_wHY7xECU

I found the choice of materials somewhat strange. Dark brown concrete panels can be found on many of the buildings, with green roofs above. I was told the brown concrete is intended to signify the soil…..

While the City Centre is remarkable in its own way, the most astounding part of Almere is the latest residential experiment. Just as the New Towns were a reaction against the massive, monolithic mid-century public housing projects, a Dutch politician decided it was time to offer alternatives to the large scale projects being developed by governments and the private sector. It was his idea that low and modest income households should be offered the opportunity to purchase a lot and build a new home on very small lots.

An overall concept plan was created based on the circle. While at first this seemed a bit strange, it was pointed out that most of the medieval European towns were designed with strong geometric patterns, including the original phases of Amsterdam with its circular canals.

The government offered lots as small as 80 square metres to the public. (The government owned all the land since it created it!) To help potential buyers understand the overall layout, the site plan was painted on a gymnasium floor. Most of the initial buyers were immigrants to the Netherlands who were attracted to the idea of being able to build their own home from standard plans offered by homebuilders. However, unlike similar programs in Canada, there were very few design controls, and most lots required the builder to attach the house to those on neighbouring properties.

As evidenced by the accompanying photos, homebuyers often selected unusual designs and colours from catalogues, with little regard to what was, or might be built on adjacent lots. In some areas, buyers could chose free-standing houses from the catalogue. What was most remarkable was that these designs were often more ‘traditional’ in appearance, especially when compared to the attached houses. Surprisingly, many architectural critics found these homes to be quite vulgar!

House sizes ranged from small 60 square metre single level units, not dissimilar to Vancouver’s laneway houses, to much larger three and four level units. In addition to individual homes on small lots, the plan allowed for small ‘collective developments’ that included both clusters of row houses and small apartment buildings like these shown below.

The units generally were built around a central area designated for special uses. One of the first ‘special uses’ was a mosque! The local planner tells me there has not yet been any concern expressed by other purchasers.

This development is being hailed as a major experiment in ‘self-build’ housing, something that England, Germany and other European Countries are considering. But it’s not just European countries….I believe this is something that the Mayor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing is also looking at as well. While I would not expect single lots being made available in Vancouver, the idea of offering parcels to co-housing groups, coops, building societies, etc to build smaller townhouse or apartment developments may well make sense in some situations. Something to watch.

Amsterdam's Schiphol to Almere Self-build to Rotterdam's Bienalle

After three days without much sleep, my body finally rebelled, and so accounts of our meeting with the planners of Schiphol Airport, and visits to the International New Town Institute and Almere's bold self-build housing experiment will have to wait. So will a brief review of how the Russians manage to keep a satellite gallery of the Hermitage operating in Amsterdam.

However, in the meanwhile, for those who want to see Vancouver become an international global hub in addition to the 'gateway to Asia', pay heed to the words I overheard at Schiphol airport. Vancouver will never become a major business hub as long as the Canadian Federal Government continues to protect Air Canada by restricting landing rights for airlines such as Emirites . Amsterdam's airport serves 301 destinations. Compare that with YVR. You don't know how many international destinations we serve? Well it's less!

At Almere, where Rem Koolhaas and his OMA firm have played a major role, I witnessed a most fascinating town centre and what has been described as the boldest self-build housing experiment in Europe. What did I think?

OMG!Lots of photos and commentary coming later today, even if I have to give up my geneva gin and nights on the town!

But now I'm off to a Press Preview of the Rotterdam urban planning Bienalle, followed by a visit to the office of Rem Koolhaas and OMA. My colleagues know I don't like his Seattle library. But then I do like it more than most of Libeskind's work. Maybe I'll put it that way!

More to come.

Amsterdam: A City of Contrasts

I don't think I have ever met anybody who didn't like Amsterdam.

That being said, most of us tend to think of Amsterdam in terms of its 17th century buildings lining canals with narrow vehicular streets (except where a canal was filled in), an extensive tram network and bicycles...lots and lots of bicycles.

Today, on the first day of our tour of the city, I discovered many parts of Amsterdam I had not seen during previous visits. After a brief stop to look at the Jordaan area which is the area most of us know best, it was off to the redeveloped Docklands areas. Our guides were Tahira Limon, International Press Officer for the city, and Ton Schaap, a longserving architect/plannerl in the physical planning department who was instrumental in planning many portions of the revitalized Docklands areas. ("You're from Vancouver? Give my regards to Larry Beasley!")

I was keen to see some of the container housing that I have read much about; however, it was only accessible by boat. However I did see some from a distance and managed to get much closer to a large new residential development that has been designed to look like stacked containers. Do take note Bruno Wall and Stu Lyon, if you have not already done so, since it looks remarkably similar to your plans being prepared for the 900 Block East Hastings (illustrated in a recent blog post on new developments around Vancouver.)One of Amsterdam's biggest challenges is dealing with bicycles and automobiles. I was interested to learn that the city is planning to allow only electric cars by 2040 (all Cars2Go are electric now) and while many developments do not have any designated parking, new parking under this building is accessed by an auto elevator.The Dutch seem to be quite comfortable with automated solutions. Indeed, I also saw an automated garbage collection system around the city that I'll write more about in a later post.While on the topic of cars, I noted that all parking spaces in Amsterdam are pay parking; however, there are no parking meters. The city got rid of them years ago; today there are ticket dispensers. This got me wondering why Vancouver is continuing to install very expensive parking meters when it could be instituting a much more cost effective system similar to that in Amsterdam and other European cities. You can still pay by phone or credit card. But this approach seems much more reasonable. And the short walk from your car to the meter is quite healthy!

There is a lot of new development taking place along the waterfront, generally in mid-rise building form. In addition to new residential buildings, generally selling around 5000 Euros a square meter ($650 a foot), there are new office and public buildings. Our group was given a tour of an impressive public library that was remarkable in many ways. However, two small details worth noting were the quality of the food in the cafeteria (especially compared to what's served at our main Public Library)and a clever detail to mark the rows of plush seats in the library theatre.I will post more photos of new mid-rise developments in a later post, (including the 30% of all units that must be social housing) but do want to share a few images from IJburg, a new residential community being developed on seven artificial islands in a lake on the east side of Amsterdam.To date about 18, 000 of the proposed 40,000 new homes have been completed and include some very interesting housing solutions. While many of the low and mid-rise blocks would never be approved by Vancouver's Urban Design Panel for being too plain and boxy (where are the balconies?), many of the fee-simple three and four storey waterfront rowhouses are very interesting. The city subdivided lots which were sold to individuals who built the homes with 'zero- side yards'. (You will note the Dutch architects have managed to avoid the temptation to mimic too closely the architecture of yesteryear!)Even more impressive were a number of floating home communities. While the water is not as tidal as in Vancouver, I would like to think that something like this would be very popular in our city.Later in the day we went to Zuidas, the new Business District that is being constructed on both sides of a major highway and train line not that far from the historic centre. With excellent access to the airport and the old city, about 27 million square feet of development is planned, all on city owned land. To date about 6.7 million square feet has been completed, housing some 400 local and multi-national companies, along with new housing, schools, university and medical facilities. Of course, there are also extensive bicycle storing facilities. This underground garage stores 2,500 bikes on pull out frames!The standard of design is mixed, but there are some amazing 'look-at-me' buildings by architectural firms from the Netherlands and around the world. A major challenge facing the development is how to deal with the wide swath of highway/railway. There had been a proposal to surpress it and build over, but the 2.5 billion euro price tag was too high for the public-private partnership that had initially planned to take this all on. Now alternatives are being considered, but the scale of the undertaking is most impressive, and not something I was at all aware of.The day concluded with a dinner at restaurant De Kas http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/which prides itself on home grown ingredients. It is designed like a greenhouse, and I couldn't help but think it is the sort of place where our mayor will want to have dinner with Amsterdam's mayor when they are together. As an aside, Amsterdam's mayor is appointed, not elected!

So apologizies to all those who showed us around today for not doing justice to the high quality of our tour and places visited. Suffice it to say, Amsterdam truly is a city of contrasts...it is much more than those charming 17th century buildings leaning into the canals. It is a surprisingly sophisticated international financial centre, which perhaps shouldn't be surprising when one considers the major role the Netherlands has played in the financial history of the world.

An international Mediatour of the Netherlands

It is ironic that recently I found myself in a public debate with Vancouver journalist and broadcaster Michael Smyth over the merits of Sister City relationships and the benefits of travel between cities and countries around the world. I say ironic since today I begin a seven day Mediatour of the Netherlands at the invitation of Johannes Vervloed, the Dutch Consul General in Vancouver, along with architects and journalists from Guatemala, Brazil, Germany, India, Egypt and the Netherlands.

As readers to this blog and the Vancouver Sun well know, I have always been fascinated by world travel, and in particular, the lessons that various countries can teach other countries. Some of the ideas that I collected during my nine month around the world Sabattical can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqjIhgoi4b0 (But I must warn you, it does go on much too long and it is best to have some good alcoholic beverages to accompany it!

My arrival today in Amsterdam follows a number of diplomatic meetings related to the initiation of a sustainable building network between the Netherlands and Canada. The first meeting occurred in the Hague in January, led by Anke van Hal, a profesor in sustainable building at Nyenrode business university and TU Delft, in collaboration with Annemarie van Doorn of AMN Amro and the Dutch Green Building Council, and Irene Salverda of the Association for Canadian Studies/Milieu Centraal.

This was followed by a meeting in Vancouver during Globe 2012 which was attended by a broad range of Vancouver architects, engineers, academics, and developers. The Canadian Embassy will host another conference in the fall of 2012 in Ottawa.

The proposed network would support Dutch and Canadian entrepreneurs and academics to create and improve international business and academic opportunities in the field of sustainability and the built environment. While it is easy for most Canadians to understand why the Dutch have much to teach us; after all, this is a country of windmills that has always done more with less-it will be more interesting to explore what we have been doing in Vancouver, and elsewhere in Canada, that will be of interest and benefit to the Dutch.

The discussions to date have identified similarities and differences between the Dutch and Canadian sustainable building technologies. It is noteworthy that in Canada, energy is still relatively inexpensive (gasoline here is almost twice the price of Vancouver) and Canadians are not motivated to save energy the way the Dutch and other Europeans are. However, Canadians are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to cut CO2 gasses, and whether this is sufficient to change habits remain to be seen. It also remains to be seen whether there is sufficient support from a federal government that often speaks in three letter words...OIL!

Over the coming week, I will be exploring Amsterdam's new docklands developments and new communities being built on man-made islands from dredged sand. In the docklands I'll keep my eyes open for Amsterdam's famous Container Housing, some of which provides expansive student housing. I will also be visiting (no doubt with some envy) the extensive new Dutch business centres where four hundred companies, including many leading multinationals have located.

Other highlights of the tour will include a visit to Almere: City of Growth to learn about the Dutch experience with the creation of sustainable new towns. (Yes, I'll have photos of UniverCity to show!)

In mid week we will be in Rotterdam, a major port city that has a lot in common with Vancouver. While there we'll have a Press Preview of the 5th International Architecture Bienalle-Making City http://plusmood.com/2012/04/the-5th-international-architecture-biennale-rotterdam-making-city/, something I am very much looking forward to.

Later in the week the tour is off to Dordrecht to visit the very first Ecolodge. And while others head off to the Villa Flora, the new main building of the internationally renown Floriade, I will be meeting with local officials and academics who are keen to further explore what Vancouver and Canada can contribute to an ongoing Sustainability Network.

In between the tours, I suspect there will be an opportunity to drink some local beer and find something to eat as well.

The Netherlands and Canada have enjoyed a very special relationship since the end of the second world war. There is much the two countries have in common; however there are many key differences. It is my sense that we can learn much from the Dutch in terms of what to do, and they can learn much from us in terms of what not to do!

Let's see how right, or wrong I am seven days from now.

SFU's latest initiative: City Conversations

First and Third Thursdays for City Conversations

April 13, 2012

SFU launches ‘City Conversations’ with ‘State of the Arts’

A new series of lunchtime meet-ups featuring prominent experts discussing timely matters of civic importance will launch on April 19, at SFU’s Vancouver campus.

Designed to provide contrasting views in order to promote discussion on topics ranging from transportation, city planning, environmental and social issues, and the arts, City Conversations will be held the first and third Thursday of each month.

The inaugural conversation, State of the Arts, will examine the current artistic scene in the Lower Mainland.

Vancouver is a vibrant city, but its cultural quantity and quality are not often compared to New York or Toronto. With the recent end of the Vancouver Playhouse Company, along with public battles by small independent theatre owners fighting for financial survival, Vancouver’s cultural scene is under significant strain. What will it take to raise Vancouver’s cultural star?

Featuring PuSh Festival executive director Norman Armour, Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith, and ION Magazine publisher and founder Vanessa Leigh, State of the Arts will explore these issues and more when the conversation begins on April 19.

What: Launch of City Conversations: State of the Arts
When: April 19, 2012 – 12:30-1:30pm
Where: SFU Vancouver, Room 1425, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings

Cost: Free

Sister Cities: Beneficial exchanges or just junkets?

Last week it was revealed that a number of Burnaby politicians and senior officials visited Mesa Arizona during spring break. It made front page news in the Province and many people were upset, not the least of which was Mike Smythe, Province Columnist who was also filling in for Bill Good for the past two weeks on CKNW.

Mike Smyth argued that this trip, and in fact all Sister City trips are essentially junkets with little or no payback or value. He thought it was outrageous that the Burnaby delegation would go off when taxpayers are being nickled and dimed to death. He also questioned why other politicians would travel to other places during such difficult economic times.

As someone who believes there is much to be gained from travel, I didn't agree. While I could understand why many would question the appropriateness of going to Mesa in the spring, and disagreed with the idea of spouses accompanying politicians and officials on these trips, I can see the value of Sister City relationships. This is especially true where there are obvious opportunities for information exchange or business development. For example, many Canadian cities are now 'twinned' with those in China, Japan and Korea where much can be gained.

All but nine Metro municipalities have Sister City relationships. Vancouver has a number of Sister Cities and I have visited all of them...Los Angeles, Guangzhou, Yokohama, Edinburgh and Odessa I understand the relationship with Yokohama led to Nissan's decision to launch their electric car in Vancouver. (Nissan is based in Yokohama). While I can't comment on other benefits, I do know that the Mayor of the City of North Vancouver benefitted from the relationship with a Japanese city where he learned about waste to energy incineration.

Every week, in advance of the CKNW Civic Affairs Panel, Lesli Boldt, Frances Bula and I are invited to suggest potential topics. Having heard Mike Smyth's rant, I thought this would be a good topic for us. Let's just say it was a lively conversation, and at one point I challenged the host to speak to Burnaby Mayor Corrigan about his trip. Today Corrigan appeared on the show, and gave a reasonable account of the benefits of the trip. While I suspect he didn't convince everyone on the benefits of Sister City relationships, he did win over some callers.

My concern is that if we go overboard in criticizing politicians for travel we'll get very insular politicians. There is much to be learned from travelling to other cities, especially when the trip is hosted by another city or government. In this regard, I'm pleased to say that next week I am off to the Netherlands at the invitation of the Dutch Consul General and government. I'll be blogging regularly about what I see, as well as writing some columns for the Vancouver Sun and other publications.

Next month I'm off to Korea. This time, I have not been invited by anyone; but wanted to visit the EXPO 2012 in Yeosu on the southern coast of the country. If any of you have travelled to either country and have recommendations, please let me know.

Why I hate parking at Royal Centre

I hate parking in the Royal Centre parking garage. I try to avoid it whenever I can. But not wanting to be late for Christy Clark's speech to UDI at the Hyatt Hotel, I parked there today. I shouldn't have rushed. Christy arrived late.

Why don't I like parking at Royal Centre? For one thing, it's very expensive...$3 for 20 minutes...yes 20 minutes. But visitors don't know the rate until they are at the entrance gate. Furthermore, you get charged the $11 evening rate regardless of how long you park. Less than an hour? It's still $11. This is wrong.

But that's not my main grievance. I hate the fact that despite the high price to park,and three levels of parking, the operator Standard Parking Canada Ltd. has only installed payment machines at Parking Level 1.

As a result, people parking on other levels invariably tie up elevators as they shuttle between floors; or they cause delays at the exit since they often stop too far from the machines, or don't seem to know how to use them. Just watch what happens after a major function. What is so astounding to me is that this situation has been the same for some time. I have complained to parking and hotel staff, without any success!

To add insult to injury, on one occasion, the pay machines were broken and did not accept credit cards. This happened again this evening. So what did the operator do. Instead of having some one fix the machines, they put up a paper sign saying cash only. Why wasn't someone there fixing the machines?

While I will continue to try and avoid parking under Royal Centre in the future, in fairness to tourists and other visitors, I would urge the operator to install additional machines on each parking level. I would also ask that the machines be reprogrammed so that one doesn't have to pay the $11 evening rate regardless of the amount of time parked. And if the machines break down, fix them right away! If Standard can't manage this, there is a new parking operator in town.

Increasingly, I believe downtown parking rates are deterring Vancouver area residents from coming downtown to shop, dine or attend the theatre. I hear these complaints from callers to radio talk shows, and in personal conversations. While the situation may not yet be serious, if I was a downtown merchant I would be concerned. Especially when shopping centres like Oakridge are planning major expansions. You don't pay to park at Oakridge...or Park Royal...or MetroTown.

So come on Royal Centre. It's time for some Royal treatment in your parking garage!