I accidentally went through Houthavens when I visited a conference in Amsterdam. It was 8am and everyone was outside with their kids, chatting with each other. I have never seen a new development that was so vivid. And so many people have access to a canal. Truly stunning place!

I first came across your channel through the "Let's Build the Perfect City" video and just wanted to say that you convinced me completely on how we can build beautiful new neighborhoods and districts for our cities. You have an amazing channel and really good insight and I wish you the best going forward!

My son (a student from Delft University in his final year) is lucky enough to be one of the first residents of this new neighbourhood. He shares the appartment with two friends; they have a shared living room/kitchen but each have their own bathroom. Just one of the interesting new concepts of 'living together while still having your private space'. A large communal room is under construction in the building. Meant for parties, a couple of exercise bikes, having meetings about shared interests (they're speaking of buying a boat together with their co-residents😊) watching a game on TV together, play table tennis and what not. Very interesting to watch how it's developing. Thank you for sharing your insights! 🖖

As nice as Houthavens is... the plans are from the 90s when they thought the "city would be finished". That's why it has relatively low density. You can see a similar thing in Oostelijk Havengebied which was developed at the same time (but then also got built at that time and not around 15 years later). It's nice enough, but too much lower density single family housing. The least they should have done is put more "portiekwoningen" there, basically two single family homes on top of each other like you can find in many other older Amsterdam neighbourhoods. IJburg, also designed in the late 90s, was supposed to be much bigger and have a proper metro rather than a light rail line that's often at capacity like it is now (with only half of the housing of the entire project being finished at this time). IJburg Haveneiland was supposed to have a third more residents which would have made commerce on the island itself more viable too. It's now considered a little boring. When Strandeiland is getting built they're planning to put all those people on an isolated island onto the same single tram line? Yikes. Sidenote; the reason why Houthavens is not more comercially mixed use is because they didn't want to cannibalize the commerce in the existing neighbourhood next to it which was struggling in the 90s to be attractive. Back then they thought these areas were "far away from central areas" and nearly suburban which is why they were built that way. They were designed to be an alternative for families leaving the cities to Almere (actual suburbs). Yet 10 years later the tide turned because the cities were cleaned up from the rough 80s and city living became trendy again. Right now with the housing shortage we're in, those areas outside the ring are quickly redeveloping and seen as very desirable as most places inside the ring have become very expensive. The scope of what's considered centrally located has changed a lot. Luckily the city is not making the same mistake again and is building higher density in the areas they are redeveloping around the motorway ring. Like in Houthavens all the buildings with "individual facades" are all incredible expensive houses being sold for around a million euros (not an entire "house", just an apartment in them). But to its defence... Stettineiland is NOT a gated community lol. You walking past the front years proves that. It's also not designed by "young architects" but by two architecture firms. If you saw gates at the entrance it's to prevent cycling and driving through the pedestrian streets. As far as rich enclaves go, this one has car lifts to the underground parking garage which is sort of cool. That way we at least don't have to see the SUVs.. An important thing to note though is that the city of Amsterdam owns a majority of all their territory. It leases it out to its users. That means the city has a tradition of redeveloping land itself. It designs the neighbourhoods itself (either hires architects and urban planners or do everything in-house, depending on the decade) according to its political values of the time (usually that is rooted in social democracy). That's why all newer neighbourhoods in the coming years will be mixed 40 social housing 40 "mid market rental" and 20 "market" housing. Designing entire neighbourhoods in one go is how most new Dutch neighbourhoods have been built since the 1930s (but has its roots to even the city planning of the canal ring). Dutch modern architecture in Amsterdam is generally very good though. WIth social housing looking spectacularly good so that you wouldn't notice it being such and even modern buildings. You're proving this point by not noticing (or at least mentioning) that the buildings on Karlskrona-eiland (Theme G) and Revaleiland (Theme F) is mostly social housing as well (note that at 8:48... the social housing is on the right and free market housing on the left). Newbuilds using traditional brick is fortunately very common in the city, and isn't specific to Houthavens. The reason why ornamentation generally not seen in modern Dutch Architecture (though I must say Amsterdam architecture is much better than the national and neighbouring countries' average) is because of general Dutch architecture philosophy, basically parroted around at the Technical University of Delft. Also, Pontsteiger definitely is part of the project. It was drawn up in the masterplan. That doesn't keep the architect of the masterplan to publicly rail against highrises elsewhere though lol. The current policy of highrises is that they will be built along the IJ river and along the motorway ring and some other suburban spots that will transform into a regional focal point. This way they'll be the best connected and offer the most value (views, relation to the older parts of the city, public transit already established, not interfere too much since these areas have more sparingly used space). I'm happy to answer more questions.

I live in this neighborhood, it's also important to note that it's part of the bigger plan in Amsterdam to develop the old industrial seaport areas. It started around 2000, eastern of the center (java-eiland), and has also reached the North (Old Shell-tower area, NDSM), and will probably be expanded, because there is a huge demand for housing. And of course, areas near water are usually quite popular for various reasons.

I live near to this neighborhood, and I like the Houthavens a lot. In general I don't like boxes, but this is the best that boxes can be. I like Art Nouveau and Art Deco. There is a bit of Deco in the Houthavens. One thing you may have missed; there used to be a very busy road in between the Houthavens and the Spaarndammerbuurt next to it. Now there is a park instead! Where did the very busy road go? It went underground!!

it's so beautiful to see a new city quarter taking inspiration from the older parts of town and not just be filled with copy paste modern blocks!! would love to live there! would be cool to find a way to build like this everywhere!

Many cities in The Netherlands have done this, in many city centres new developments must have a (red) brick outer wall for example. Some flats where I live have the style of an old flour mill they are built next to. I have also seen something similar in Austria and Germany where new modern buildings have old looking features. Best example is near Zaandam near Amsterdam where several large modern buildings have been built in the style of local traditional wooden houses. It is sad that in some regions native styles and materials seem to have completely disappeared while they were often gorgeous and definitely worth keeping. Especially in Asia and Africa where many modern city centres just look ...... unremarkable. But it is all politics, really. What you need is a local council with enough power and backbone to tell developers to $%$@^& off if they can't follow local style rules.

I noticed in Alphen aan den Rijn they also overhauled a little part in the city centre, also building the buildings in this old Dutch/Amsterdam style. It looks so neat

Glad I subscribed a couple months ago. Truly quality content, you show inspirational and informational stuffs and go out of your way to make these. Keep it up!

Once again you’ve knocked it out of the ball park with this video! Great job and keep up the amazing work!!

I used to live in Westerpark just around the corner from Houthavens until fairly recently, so it's nice to see it almost completed now. I've watched its development since the start (never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Dutch build!). I just wanted to give you a very well deserved handshake. That was a fantastically put together piece and very informative/so well researched. If you come back, make a trip to the opposite side of the northern part of the city in the east and go visit Ijburg. Its a similar blueprint, but some of the modernist architecture there is absolutely beautiful.

Excellent overview of new city developments! Keep up the good work!

Awesome video! I went to high school next to the residential area in the houthavens (2016-2022). It was super cool seeing how the area changed over time and experiencing it in real time! I'd walk around the neighbourhood every so often, and each time there was a new surprise :)

I watched your perfect city video! It was very interesting and gave me something to think on. Would you be interested in making a video about the shortcomings and accomplishments of American cities? I am really curious since I want to see how they’ve expanded and changed. Especially with public transit not being so good over here. (I think we need more trolleys and trains)

Great video! I’ll definitely be visiting this neighborhood when I’m back in Amsterdam in a few weeks

Really good video, enjoyed it.

I lived here back when there was temporary student accommodation (see 2:29), loved it, and so was devastated to come back 3 years later in 2016 to see my old neighbourhood flattened. The Ponsteiger high-rise still horrifies me today. (I was pleased to hear that apparently the way the bathrooms are constructed means you can hear your neighbours peeing.) But I have to say I've been really impressed with how the new neighbourhood is turning out, despite the fact I could never afford to live there! Happy for those who can, and for those lucky enough to get a place in the social units. Amid this housing crisis, let's see how the rest of the city's developments shape up out in Strandeiland and the Haven-Stad...

Great video, my high school is here and now i am studying landscape architecture and spatial planning. So very interesting to have a new insight into a neighbourhood i saw develop over time, without thinking about it in this way

As someone who lives in Houthavens, this video offered some nice insight into the unique style of the area. Very well done!

Great video. Great job!

Great video, very interesting and a great analysis

subbed after 90 seconds. You had me on 'so on my first trip to holland, i visited a construction site'. Nice intro!

Wow I love this! Nice mix of traditional and modern and gives a nice nod to the cities history - would be epic with more shops and maybe they need a town square but otherwise perfect

great video, thank you very much!

love the content, good job

Amsterdam is such a cool place!

Great case study. The Dutch really know how to do these things well. I think Island 1 is my favourite one. Seems like a really go reinterpretation of past designs, with a modern flavour, but not in a cliché/pastiche way. The only things I'm not so sure about with this development are it feels like there's not enough commercial/retail units and no visible public transport, which makes it seem a bit quiet. But maybe that's a bonus when you're so close to the centre of Amsterdam? I'll have to visit to get a proper sense of the place.

This is brilliant. Very reassuring

Amazing video man, the only thing I may disagree with is the fact that a lot of the stripped down facades in modern buildings is the fact that modern architects have an obsession of being different and not copying the past. And since the past is well known for ornamentation the architects decide to either make the building weird or oversimplified.

Great video!

Keep going bro...your videos are really good👍 you will get popular

Nice to see! I had an office there from 2000 until 2005. There were a few empty lots but still plenty of timber companies there at the beginning, though by the end almost all were gone. It's unrecognisable now. Friends will move in to a place on that island "which is still being built" later this year. On a future visit to Amsterdam, you might want to visit Overhoeks - a new "green" neighbourhood. Though wait a year and give the plants time to grow!

Wow! As a Dutchie, I've never heard of this neighborhood before. I love that there is so much variety, but it still fits nicely with the other surrounding neighborhoods. We need more well-designed neighborhoods like this all over the country, because newly constructed neighborhoods are starting to look the same, with little diversity these days. It's not as bad as other countries, but could definitely be improved. Thanks for the detailed video!

Fun video, please do more like these!

Nice to learn more about it! It's a really beautiful neighborhood, actually more beautiful than you see in the video.

Hey fun, that's where I live was my initial response before clicking the video :) For me personally the best construction project which was relatively recently finished is the tunnel that breaks up the traffic and helps keeping a big part of the neighborhood both clean and nicer/safer to walk whilst keeping the benefit of a good connection using public transit.

I used to live at Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam, it's next to Houthavens but when i moved there Houthavens wasn't much yet. It was so cool to see day the big progress they made. I would go to work and come back to see apartments had 2floors more and canals were digged. Now moved to Oud South and even though i love the architectonic here i still miss Spaarndammerbuurt looking out over Houthavens.

Great documentary.

You should also check Holland Park in Diemen, close to Amsterdam it also tries to bring homage to the older style of architecture but with a modern twist :) and Oostpoort in Amsterdam

Great video, on a great neighbourhood in my city! Fun fact with Amsterdam. You will notice on every residential building (as well as the rest) in Amsterdam feature a central protruding beam, with a hook attached. This was a common feature everywhere in the country early on, for moving large items upstairs, before elevators, though most cities in the Netherlands abandoned their inclusion on new construction. Amsterdam has retained the tradition, to include it onto EVERY new construction, whether it is required or not. A sort of unofficial signature.

Thank you for this great video! It’s indeed a nice area - not very affordable, but nicely done and much better than the alternative

OMG! I grew up close to Amsterdam. I love this so much! I have never seen a better interpretation from oldloved into newmodern. I love my Volks! 🤩

Cool video! There is actually a new neighbourhood in The Hague that makes use of traditional architecture. It is called Vroondaal

man watching these videos makes study for urban design

A good place to look at good architecture, check out Roombeek neighborhood in the city of Enschede. After the fireworks disaster in 2000 it had to be rebuild completely. Which further invfluenced a new building style in the municipality (Boddenkamp in the same area is later, but clearly influenced bythe design of Roombeek)

Interesting video! I live in the older neighbourhood (Spaarndammerbuurt) across from the Houthavens (not in the nicer "Amsterdam School" buildings unfortunately :D ). I can still remember the old port and company buildings, it was kinda a mess really. It really changed a lot, especially with the tunneling of the road in between upon which they build a park. This video was really quite interesting, lots of information I didn't actually know - mostly because I didn't really pay much attention to why and how of the development. The area definitely improved and it has had some positive influence on the Spaarndammerstraat itself. New shops and bars opened up, but it does get a little bit too busy sometimes. And lets by honest, the newer residents are not quite as...well...eccentric, interesting and funny as older generation. I do prefer the people from the Spaarndammerbuurt...they are just the right kind of slightly mad. :D

this is a really cool idea, i love this

interesting video of my hometown, i recommend the east side of town for your next visit. IJburg is the predecessor of Houthaven and Zeeburgereiland is a new city centre

Brother eagerly waiting for your new videos.

Great video! New sub :)

You should see what they did in Gdansk. A beautiful example of modern, but fitting, architecture on the little city island (Wyspa Spichrzow).

It reminds me a lot of the Prince Hendrik canal area in my hometown Katwijk which has been redeveloped in the same way before

you should visit Hamburg's Hafencity, also a lot of styles, all different... but i agree with you, the amount of look alikes isn't a modern thing but it seems to be not only on houses, but also on cars, phones, clothes, all of it...

I wish I had known about this development when I visited Amsterdam. They're building a new section of town in my city on a former car factory. I wish they had taken this design approach.

at @10:00 you state its more quiet then you would like. And indeed there is no single soul on the streets on the video. This is because most people who can afford a home in these neighborhoods require a dual income so it means they work during most part of the day. You should re-visit in the weekends or after 17.00 in the summer. Its a whole different story then... You will see this everywhere in the Netherlands.

i like this modern interpretation of past features, it makes me thinking of the quite similar project in gdańsk. or near where i live i leave where i spoted houses with what i call a "german roof" with traditional roof shape

If you enjoy the different island design, there is the town of Hoofddorp a collection of 13 small island with each a different theme and many the same goals. Its about a 40 min travel from Amsterdam by public transport.

I doubt that this area is being built-up accessible to different social groups. The median gross income in North Holland is ~40K, and from the graph at 7:48 I can see that only 2% of properties are actually affordable to people with this level of income. The next 20% percent may be bought by a couple of professionals. And everything else is the level of top management to me.

Passed by Houthaven a few days ago not knowing what's going on next to me :D. I have to go back now when watching this video. Not today unfortunately it rains all day, typical Dutch weather.

Very interesting.

I actually delivered in this area a few days ago, its a very cool concept indeed.

Happy to hear that a decent percentage is social housing. I've been reading a lot of "yeah but if we build more higher segment homes then the people currently stuck in social housing can move over" and stuff like that but people who already live in social housing don't always have the financial means to move over and the backlog of applicants for social housing wouldn't be resolved either.

It's good that they're building more housing, but i would've liked to see it have more of a neighborhood feel with it's own public and commercial space and better transit connections. One nitpick: we don't use the german prounciation, so it's not "pontschtaiger" but pontsteiger, with the "st" pronounced like (st)one and the "g" as in lo(ch) ness. don't fret it however as dutch can be quite difficult to pronounce.

please make another video and come to tampere to cover our new built island and wetsern city center, hiedan ranta!

Interesting video, though I'm not a full-on admirer of styles like this, it is *ABSOLUTELY* an improvement compared to the monstrosities that were built in the 70s and 80s in the Netherlands. If you want more suggestions for future places to visit, I can recommend two that I've been to myself. - Brandevoort, Helmond. Basicly built as a 'fortress city', it looks and feels very traditional despite the place being only built quite recently. - Vathorst, Amersfoort. This place is more contemporary and modern, but has some connections with the past also. The main reason to visit the place is because of the 'Foortse Towers', built by German architect Hans Kollhoff, that look very pleasant despite being skyscrapers. There's also Westergouwe in Gouda and then there's projects in other countries like Heulebrug in Knokke-Heist (Flemish part of Belgium), Le Plessis Robinson (Paris, France) and of course Poundbury and Riverside in London, but the other ones are less known and definitely worth the visit. Oh, and Dresden and Frankfurt, but I assume you already know of them since you're German. Cheers!

@10:35 It is closer to the center of Amsterdam then the place I park when I go there. (when I drive).

This is a very good example of how to build a new area or town that has character already built into it and serves the needs of its residents. I've come across too many residential estates that have identical houses such that its easy to get lost. They have no character and no amenities, so good luck when you need milk, bread or anything else because you ran out of these things, you won't find a nearby shop that sells them.

Please come back in a year or two, to see how things have changed! The social housing parts are nearing completion. Next month the building reserved for social housing of people aged 18-28 are completely finished and everyone has moved in.

Are you going to continue making videos on this channel? I like your content very much.

First time encountering your channel, I was wondering where the last site in your intro video was taken?

You see the same thing happen in London where new builds around Kensington and Chelsea are all characterful and fit in but everywhere else just gets boxes

0:33 this is down right disgusting

There's a few other very similar (smaller) islands that have already been built like this in Amsterdam, although they're mostly just single strips of buildings along a narrow island in comparison to a small neighborhood like this

houthaven is indeed a great neighbourhood. With Ijburg my favourite part of Amsterdam, Houthaven edging it as it's more connected.

Only downside is that these houses of a reasonable size cost between 1 and 6 million euros, while mini apartments of 60 square meters already set you back over half a million. Hardly a solution for the average family that is in desperate need of housing in the Netherlands now!

Do you have a video about the hafencity in Hamburg?

Reminds me of paupys neighbourhood in Vilnius, just on a larger scale.

please upload again...

what a cool place, seems like a nice place to live and visit. Hopefully it influences other projects, im honestly sick of the same repetitive glass buildings. There is so much potencial combining modernity and culture.

Side notes: 1. This is a car free zone. If you own a car it will be very expensive to park. There is only 0.2/4 car space per residence in that neighbourhood. 2. The park price starts at 6 euro an hour and renting a parking space is around 200/300 per month. 3. The gemeente rarely gives out parking perments for a fair price. 4. There are no shops or supermarkets in the area. Only at the Spaarndammerbuurt. Overal nice area to live.

Yoi gotta take a look at holland park in diemen to

I grew up in the Netherlands and although i love its cities and could not stand how busy it was.. There are so many people per km2. I prefer now living in a Swedish village/city of 10 000 people. Here i get the space i want and although its not that beautifull of a village nature is all around and its nice and calm.

Ever heard of Brandevoort? A neighbourhood built in a style like an old city center. Including canals. Where no two houses next to eachother are the same.

It seems a place where also houseboats could fit in some of the the canals making it feel even more Amsterdam like.

isle 4's my fave..thus far ;)

Looking at that island where everybody could do "what they wanted", so I looked outside here and I thought: Oh, nice of them to pay hommage to Belgium.

Love the intro.

its hard to get politics involved with making a city "beautiful". unfortunately, the best tool for that is money, but then we only build beautiful for the rich. one thing i would suggest is making at least the facade need to be built using local/predtermined design trends. and although this neighborhood is pretty to look at, it still lacks the livliness that makes a city feel alive. i think that can be remedied by local gathering places, like cafes and restaurants and a major park/playground, but rich people in general also tend to not aggregate in community spaces.

A good example of successful modern development on a human scale.

i used to work here. it's a very nice neigbourhood

Nice

My son stayed in some student residence in this neighborhood. and whilst it is nice, it also doesn't solve a major issue in Amsterdam: lack of housing, let alone affordable housing. It is too low density for the current demographic pressures facing Amsterdam.

Can you explain further why building heights matter in next video?

I wish all our future neighborhoods were made like this

Of course the Dutch are the ones challenging mainstream architecture. The entire city of Rotterdam is already an experimental architecture expo of the past 70 years, and every recently built neighbourhood I've seen in the country (Leidsche Schans my beloved) has had a pretty strong sense of "dutchness" despite being very modern and functional

I'd be interested to know how the Dutch do underground parking so close to the water. Where I live, we don't seem to be able to get it right, and lots of parking garages in the port area flood whenever there's heavy rain.

Fantastic essay! It's a great looking neighborhood, too bad cool developments like these are unatainable for even the middle class.

I laughed out loud hearing "Pontsteiger" being pronounced like a german would. 9:10

I was in Nulang a few years ago and it's a really beautiful country also the Dutch people are beautiful and the Protestant majority in the Netherlands