The Bijlmer area is the result of a large expansion of Amsterdam in the late sixties and seventies. The utopian modernism that underpinned the plans for the neighbourhood envisaged a metro system, a road network free of crossings, uniform thirteen-story housing blocks coupled with parking garages and extensive green space.
In practice, it delivered an unsafe neighbourhood with problems and an unforeseen multi-cultural population. Now re-branded Amsterdam Zuidoost, the neighbourhood has been urged to provide a differentiated housing stock and to improve its management of the public realm.
Part of this strategy is the transformation of the Bijlmerpark into a new urban park with seven hundred homes and six hectares of sports facilities. Mecanoo’s response to this brief has three main elements: the integration of housing within the landscape, clear boundaries and entrances to the park and an intensification of activities.
