Almere

outskirts of Almere

view from the residential all the way to the parking garage

On our visit to Amsterdam we went to Almere, something one of our landscape students aptly named a baby city. Almere is almost finished being built according to a master plan done by OMA, with just a few buildings not yet complete. The master plan calls for verticality, something done through much of the Netherlands, because of the lack of land. The city has a parking garage on the bottom level, then stores and then finally housing on top, with visual connections between all three levels. In the center of the development this works well, however in some places there is not enough pedestrian traffic to warrant such a use of space. Toward the outskirts of Almere, it is mostly deserted. The retail spaces sit empty, much like the sidewalks.