Amstel dam - the far side of a storm, reflections on calmer waters.

It must be over 20 years since our last visit to one of the world’s greatest cities – Amsterdam.? This time our trip was curtailed by Storm ‘Babet’ and a call from the crew of the ‘Princess Seaways’ to suggest we might wish to consider leaving a day earlier than planned, due to rapidly approaching storm force winds and dangerously high seas (and a subsequently, cancelled sailing).

Good call, given what we’ve subsequently experienced in Northeast Scotland over the last two days.

Despite our love for this stunning city and the wonderful, multicultural and largely progressive folks who live there, 8 hours on, and safely back in our own home, my ‘sea legs’ are still catching up due to the motion aftereffects of rather higher seas than makes for comfortable sailing. And we thought we’d beaten the Storm forecast…

I may be going off my interest in being ‘more Pirate’… (for a bit anyway).

It's easy to fall in love with a place called Amsterdam. Seduced by a short city break, crisp blue sunny skies, warm Autumn leaves, where wonder lust combines with all those ‘differences’ that make this city, this landscape, and this culture, seem like very green grass on the other side of the North Sea. Characterized by skylines punctuated by characterful old friends, narrow tree lined streets, canals, waterways, bridges, varied, yet consistent brick faced merchants houses and…bikes.? Bikes. Bikes as far as the eye can see!? Love was definitely in the air (as well as those other intoxicating scents characteristic of a liberal northern European culture).

?Cycling and bikes are very strong indicators of some of the visible differences between Edinburgh, and the Netherlands.? It is mesmerizing, simply sitting in a pavement café, watching the extraordinary volumes of cyclists which add to the theatre of rich, colourful and varied street life. This is a city which demonstrates in very real time, those multiple animations and diagrams which circulate the internet amongst urbanists and eco-sustainability progressives, frustrated at the grindingly slow pace of the changes required to meet our fundamental, and well understood, health and sustainability needs in the UK. A low cost, clean, simple and convenient public movement system which prioritises active travel and accessible public transport is imperative.

Trams are literally central to Amsterdam’s primary streets, with buses and cars in single carriageways, next to cycle lanes and then pavements. These are all framed within maximum 8 storey (circa 20 meters in height), mixed use buildings.? Animated edges, with cafes, shops and some offices, characterise primary streets and corners to secondary, predominantly residential streets. ?On-street parking is limited (for cars anyway), with space prioritized for literally tens of thousands of bicycles (or children’s play areas and pocket parks within tertiary residential streets).? The shared use of various street spaces is essential – with unwritten (or possibly written) rules of engagement. It is simultaneously chaos, with a hidden order which translates into a highly effective choreography of movement and mutually respectful manners (with the occasional Dutch expletive – but mainly at tourist, such as me, who have yet to master the rules of this high-speed game of street chess. Fair play).

We met with our guide Charles outside the Apple Store, not far from Vondel Park and Rijks Museum.? Charles is a family member and proud resident living in the north of the city.? Our tour began with a stroll through central streets, past Dutch spires, market stalls and yes, some other ubiquitous international high street shop brands too.? We were then taken underground to the new Noord/Zuid Metro line, completed in 2018, which bisects the city, as the name suggests - from North to South. It passes directly under the historic Central Station and Het IJ (waterway) which has been the historically natural limiting edge to Northern City Expansion. This tour provided a perfect cross section from the historic city core to the very outer limits (including for us, a stroll under the A10 city ring road and out to the flat agricultural hinterland beyond the city’s contemporary edges)

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The development of the urban structure of Amsterdam is made clear, (together with 20th century urban design mistakes), in the ‘Xray’ of the city – or a ‘Figure-ground’ map revealing the city’s ‘bones’ – built form and open space. Look to the Noord of the map and compare and contrast that, with the central core of the historic city to the South. Good Cities i.e. good places for people, need good structure.

With moving escalators lined with hundreds of archeological found artifacts on display in the middle isle, the inevitable spoils of carving a burrow beneath this medieval urban jewel, are testament to the endeavor and the ambition of the city’s leaders. This is public mass transport at its best – convenient, affordable, (9 euros a day gets you unlimited travel across all public transport modes in the city) seamless, gliding smoothly on silver rails, through contemporary, spacious underground stations – sparklingly clean alta quartzite floor tiles twinkle in well-lit spaces. No litter.? No chewing gum. No dirt and no grime. Maintenance, is taken seriously here.

The line takes us within a few short minutes to the very suburban edge of the city, just shy of the A10 motorway city ring road. The Neighbourhood is being carved from 20th century previous development of very mixed urban design quality, into the fabric of a variety of mosaic pattern 20th century planning and architectural experiments.? It feels like a work in progress.

Individually, there are some great examples of fine 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s residential architecture. Medium density apartments, medium rise with pocket parks, allotments and plenty of mature green space maintained for nature.? A late 20th century low rise shopping arcades provides for local retail, health, and other service necessities meeting the general daily needs of local people within a 5–10-minute walk. ?It has embedded care facilities for older residents in the mix, progressive Montessori schools for younger people and student accommodation in high rise blocks.

But good quality sustainable places need structure.? And this part of the city is sadly lacking the robust, time-tested urban structure that is demonstrated so well in other parts of the city.? High rise 21st century residential towers are springing up all around the new metro station – more typical of a dystopian blade runner film set than of the central city’s underlying character, structure and form.? The sum of the parts must be greater than the whole – and here we have a series of ‘Jawa Sandcrawlers’ making their way through a sea of undefined ‘green’ space – neither urban nor rural.

All this is typical of a creative design culture with a yearning for a less class dominated hierarchy than too many of us Brits seem ingrained in.? The spirit of Van Gogh’s central message of the importance, beauty and richness of everyday life, honest labour on the land and simple nutritious food shared around a humble table, remains a lesson we all need to heed – and not just here in the Netherlands.

Egalitarianism may still be aspirational in the Dutch culture, despite the increasing property rent prices driven up with this new metro station and the ever-present risks of gentrification.? The Dutch, it should be remembered, are close contenders too, for their stake in a failed neoliberalist global economic, social and environmental experiment. The Netherlands has had almost as many tax havens and complicated tax avoidance schemes as the UK. ?But it’s still a worthy aspiration and endearing cultural characteristic reflected in the democracy of bicycles, people focused place shaping (and more recent moves to better regulate big money).? It’s one we might all learn from in the omni crises we find ourselves in, post 2008, and to varying extents, across the globe.

Returning to the Centre of the city we hop, from a timetable-less bus stop (buses pass evey 10-15 minutes), and make for the free passenger ferry which crosses the IJ every few minutes. ?

The view back towards the North shore is dominated by glass and steel ubiquitous skyscrapers complete with giant ‘children’s’ swings on the open top floor. ?The Delugan Meissl Associated Architects ‘Eye film museum’ blinks white, angular and utterly out of this city – landmark it certainly is.? But at least it respects the low-rise character of the wider place.?

The Dutch can demonstrate some truly brave design, architecture and placemaking.? And landmarks can add to the legibility of the place. But this is all testament to the opposite, risking the ubiquitous playground architecture and fairground treatment which is increasingly eroding the local character of cities across the globe and delivering ‘anywhere cities’ which all seem to be competing to be more and more like, well, each other.

The contrast with much of the historic Zuid bank and some brilliant examples of contemporary contextually respectful and the utterly place-responsive Eastern Docklands, is remarkable.? How can one city demonstrate the fundamentals of great placemaking, healthy rich and varied places for people, well structured, well connected and diverse in both use and character, while at the same time copying glass and steel, out of scale, point slab ‘perfume bottles’ – with swings on top?! It creates an uncomfortable tension, and not just for those with acrophobia. Good placemaking must make some fundamental decisions about the underlying character of the existing place, knowledge of what helps keep us healthy, and respond accordingly, or risk damaging the very places we celebrate as being of great unique significance.

I returned to the south bank and the former 19th century Eastern Harbour’s Borneo-Sporenburg re-development by West 8 Architects and Urbanists.? Here are positive lessons in urbanism and contextual placemaking worth celebrating.? This is high density, low rise, well connected, urban living.? It’s not without criticism.? It’s not perfect. Not least in the authenticity masking the underlying developer’s economic model (big money master planning) and masked by an apparent diversity of fa?ade architecture.

But as a place – for living a good life in respectful harmony with the wider city, it remains, in my opinion, an understated beacon for others to follow. It demonstrates a respect and deep understanding for what makes the existing city a well-structured unique place – extracting the core DNA from the historic city, and in no way making a pastiche of the past.? This is modern, progressive placemaking at its best.? Landmarks are made by functional pedestrian bridges spanning the former Docks.? Arched like the back of an eastern cultural dragon to allow for pleasure boats to populate the retained historic docks. This is playful – but not childish kitsch, ‘anywhere’ architecture.? This is Amsterdam. And this is Amsterdam in the 21st century.

I didn’t have time to visit the emerging developments to the Northwest of the City.? But from the photographs shared by our host Charles, we can expect to see more of the high-quality urban design demonstrated in Borneo-Sporenburg elsewhere in the city’s Noord western neighbourhoods.? That dalliance, however, will have to wait for calmer seas and another whirlwind romance next visit.

Is Amsterdam almost nearly perfect? Well, in the cold light and the calm after the storm, no. It’s not.

It’s easy to fall in love based on a holiday romance. But look a little closer, and mistakes have been made, costs (especially for the Noord/Zuid metro Line) were, like most large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Edinburgh Trams, well over budget.? Out of scale ubiquitous glass and steel skyscrapers damage the Northern skyline of this predominantly low-rise city. And Amsterdam even has issues with Japanese knot weed and Himalayan balsam by way of non-native invasive species spreading through the allotments on the city’s northern edges.

But perhaps love, like friendship, is about knowing each other’s imperfections and still caring deeply for one another despite everything. I still love Amsterdam and consequently perhaps, better appreciate Scotland’s great cities, great places and the place where we call home – with all our imperfections.? For these are the opportunities for progress.? For improvement.? And for better places for everyone.

Am I disappointed that we had to leave a day earlier than planned from an already short break?? Sorry to have set sail earlier than our expectations, bound for home ports?

Of course.

But I’m also feeling fortunate to have re-acquainted myself with this beautiful romance via a fleeting, if dangerous, but wonderful urban affair.? Will I be back here again?? You Ba-bet ya… ?

Note on the author: Jonathan Clarkson is an interdisciplinary designer, teacher and urbanist practitioner with over 27 years of experience using design as a tool for, analysis, collaboration, solving problems and adding value.?Jonathan has publish a number of design articles and is a visiting lecturer and tutor at both Edinburgh School of Art and the Mackintosh school of art in Glasgow.