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Groot-Amsterdam [Greater Amsterdam]

2020 | Amsterdam is larger than the municipal boundary suggests. The city starts in the South at rural Abbenes and ends up North in the equally arcadian Westknollendam. The experimental residential-urban agricultural area Oosterwold near Almere forms the eastern border, the beach at Zandvoort the western border. But perhaps the city already starts in Leiden and the northern border is Alkmaar. There is something to be said for that if you look at where a large proportion of the inhabitants of those two cities already work. And perhaps the western border should also be moved a bit to the sea, because Amsterdam will soon get the energy for the city from there. The border of the metropolitan region is fluid, the municipal border less and less relevant.

The different spatial qualities and the beautiful metropolitan landscape are shown in this book Groot Amsterdam (Greater Amsterdam). Linked to the question of where changes are precipitated, caused by, among other things, the energy transition, the need for housing, changing mobility and climate adaptation.

Which spatial tasks are still local in a rapidly growing urban region and which should you consider on a regional or even on a national scale? The urgency to make and design policy on a regional scale is only increasing.

Groot-Amsterdam is a voyage of discovery through the area in which the photographic image is leading and theme maps, data visualisations and concise texts are included for clarification.

Photography & text Theo Baart
Maps Ton Bossink & Jurjen Tjarks
Design studio Joost Grootens
Publisher nai010 uitgevers + Ideas on Paper
384 pages | 30 * 24 cm
text Dutch
NAi booksellers

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