Waterfront
Oeverlanden, Amsterdam (2019)
Type Design workshop
Area 17 ha
Location Oeverlanden, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Partners Lydia Oehlwein, Mariana Cunha.
The north side of the Oeverlanden roughly consists of 2 parts:
a nature reserve, east of the Anderlechtlaan
a recreation area, between the Anderlechtlaan and the Ringvaart of the Haarlemmermeer.
Location of the planning area
The Oeverlanden is located on the north side of the Nieuwe Meer, on the side of the Oude Haagseweg, in the middle of Amsterdam city centre and Schiphol Airpot.
Arial photo of the planning area
The I-SURF design workshop is part of the NWO-funded design research project “I surf – Instruments for sustainable urban riverfronts”, which tests, refines and demonstrates the use of four spatial design instruments previously developed by dr. Claudiu Forgaci at TU Delft (Forgaci, 2018) that can aid designers in developing social-ecologically integrated solutions for urban riverfronts.
The design on Oeverlanden, facilitated by the instruments introduced from the workshop, aimed to provide an integrated urban design solution "establishing a more sustainable and resilient relationship between the natural dynamics of the river and the socio-economic importance of riverside public spaces".
Diagram of the design instruments for sustainable riverfronts
The Connector implements the principle of Interconnectedness with a procedure that helps the designer highlight and reconfigure the network elements of the URC and reassign them in a non-conflicting spatial configuration.
The Sponge, applying the principle of Absorptive Capacity, aids the designer in making an inventory of all open spaces of the URC, classifying them into (existing and potential) elements of water space, public space, and green space, and critically identifying their qualities and attractiveness.
The Integrator, implementing the principle of Social-Ecological Integration, helps the designers identify social-ecological conflicts and synergies on two levels. On the one hand, it examines the interaction between network elements and open space elements separately. On the other hand, it confronts the networks and open spaces to reveal further synergies between their spatial configuration and spatial composition.
The Scaler applies the principle of Interscalarity by revealing scalar interactions among the spatial elements identified by the Connector and the Sponge. As a reflexive instrument, the Scaler helps the designer identify the scales of context, focus and detail on the scalar spectrum of URCs and, in consequence, to make (potential) interdependencies, cascading effects and path-dependencies explicit.
Oeverlanden is a green park area at the edge of peri-Amsterdam, which is faced with urban development pressure. How to revitalise the riverfront life while maintaining the ecological quality is the core design question for our group during the workshop. The design instruments were applied in the process exploring the social-ecological integrated design. The preliminary design employs a green bridge for connecting residential areas and green-blue gardening & natural areas, embracing water sensitive design, as well as providing the education and art spaces below the bridge.
Applications of the design instruments
Sketches of the Green Bridge planning
Water Sensitive Design of the Green Bridge
Preliminary design of the Green Bridge