[AmterdamNoord.

tmp]
The aim of AmsterdamNoord.tmp has been to develop a strategic proposal to enable different
forms of temporary use within an urban plan - the master plan for redevelopment of the
northern IJ-Embankment in Amsterdam. In this approach, temporary use is integrated into all
the stages of the new city development (as 'soft program') – being able to adapt its function
and position during the course of the long-term development process. The project has been
part of Urban Catalyst, an EU research project on new strategies for the development of
urban residual areas in European metropolises.
 

The Amsterdam Northern IJ-embankment can become a ‘safe shore’, where ideas, projects
and programs that are too ‘weak’ for the market competition of the central city will get
grounding, time and space to develop

[concept]

Urban developments are generally processes with long planning and implementation
timelines. During their trajectory they are affected by all sorts of uncertainties (economic,
programmatic, etc.). Besides, they often lack a sensitive relation to the available
characteristics of the site and its potential users - they are mostly projected by external points
of view and hardly generated by the forces at play in a certain urban context, making them
less robust in their local, ‘on site’ capacities. With this in mind, and long-term development at
hand, the municipality of Amsterdam Noord (SDAN) commissioned this research.

The strategic ‘infusion’ of time-based programs and architecture can work as a catalyst for
urban development. A particularly interesting value of temporary use is that it pioneers city
development and can point to a range of possibilities for the future. In such a development
process, the temporary users give initiation to and dynamics for the development of a vital
cultural, economic and social environment.
[methodology]

The project area - the northern IJ-Embankment in Amsterdam - is a rather complex urban
setting. After a long period of ‘decay’ following the dismantling of the heavy ship
construction industries, the area got entangled in an interplay between different authorities,
investors and potential users - all with their respective agendas. The start of
AmsterdamNoord.tmp has therefore been marked by unravelling and visualising the forces at
play in this urban redevelopment process, in order to start ‘designing’ and steering their flow.

Diagram showing change in relations (from 1980's till 2003) between alternative (squatting:
yellow/orange) and institutional (city: blue) forces in Amsterdam towards unusual coalitions

Northern IJ bank, former NDSM shipyards

Then, a strategy has been made to keep the future development of the area to some extend
‘fluid’ within the framework of the master plan. Thus, the developments can respond to the
changing reality during the 25 year trajectory. A catalyst function has been given to
temporary program and architecture - with a number of motives:

- bringing new users in, utilising / activating the time-gap

- by-passing moments of market stagnation in a difficult economic situation
- flexible handling of restrictive regulations / legislations
- creating a more sturdy economic microclimate
- changing ‘image’ of the area
- activating the potential coming from external initiatives
- pioneering and promoting a stronger future character for the area

With the municipality of Amsterdam Noord (SDAN), the outline for a ‘platform’ for the
infusion of temporary uses and users has been made. This platform stimulates, coordinates
and offers expertise - both to temporary users and to the project managers responsible for the
area. Because the platform can in principle act on the overall scale of the area (a few square
kilometres) there is a large potential for temporary uses to find a place within its territory
(either on short-term, or if desired more permanently). Finally, the prototype of a planning
tool to handle the time-space occupation of the area has been made (see diagram). This tool
‘manages’ the necessary information-base both for the Municipality, the planners involved
and the potential users and initiatives for the site.

SpaceTime diagram: 1 - existing use, 2 - planned, 3 - time/space gap, showing the

possibilities for alternative programs to enter the redevelopment process

[results]

The Urban Catalyst research at Amsterdam Noord has been in the unique position to research
the possibilities for temporary use while being amidst the development of larger scale
experiments in temporary use (like the NDSM workspace with 20.000 m2 and about 200
cultural users) on one hand and a large scale ‘try-out’ of open ended, dynamic planning
(master plan Northern IJ-Embankment) on the other.

The ongoing involvement of the local authorities (SDAN) in the practical development of the
area with implementation of temporary uses has been a very pregnant input for the
architectural research. It particularly allowed for further thinking an sketching a wider scope
of possibilities and scenarios for temporary use in Amsterdam.

 [see ] publications (pdf): 1 - Unconventional Coalitions in Amsterdam Noord or 2 -

Platform for Temporary Use in Amsterdam Noord
  [team ] Ana Džokić, Marc Neelen, Milica Topalović
 [background ] AmsterdamNoord.tmp formed the core of Urban Catalyst at
Amsterdam North and has been developed in collaboration with the Municipality of
Amsterdam North (SDAN): Con Vleugel, Rob Vooren, and Ted Zwietering. Urban
Catalyst is a research project that investigated the potential of temporary uses as a
motor of urban change in five European cities. The project has been funded by the
European Union.
 [timeline ] april 2002 - june 2003

 [publicity ] results published at templace.com (2003); presentation at Urban Catalyst

conference (Berlin, 2003); Urban Catalyst, a-matter (2003); Temporary Amsterdam,
lecture organised by Platforma 9.81 in the context of project Invisible Zagreb (Zagreb,
2004); Urban Catalyst, book is in preparation, download preview publication (pdf).

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