Background
Amsterdam’s Zuidas district is renowned as an international knowledge and business centre. Many prominent companies have their offices here (Google, AkzoNobel, ABN AMRO), but the area also offers an excellent housing environment, with spacious hotels and recreational facilities. Some 2,000 dwellings have already been built. The Zuidas is, and will become a steadily more vibrant city district, with around 3,000 inhabitants today, which will have increased to 15,000 by 2030. The number of commuters is set to increase from 110,000 now to around 316,000 in that same timeframe. In addition, the Vrije Universiteit is home to almost many students. In the future, around 350,000 people will make their way around the 2.7 million square metres of the Zuidas district, many of them expats and foreign visitors.
The Zuidas has the reputation of being a place where nothing much happens. And that’s odd, since the Zuidas has so much to offer. There are a growing number of schools, day care centres, shops, bars and restaurants, turning the Zuidas into a district of Amsterdam where everyone can live, work and enjoy recreational activities. The Zuidas is already home to a whole host of amenities, many of which have yet to be discovered by their intended users.
The Zuidas is continually in flux, sometimes literally: major construction projects and the creation of the Zuidasdok mean that pedestrian and bicycle paths are often temporarily diverted. As in the rest of Amsterdam, mobility on foot and by bicycle is encouraged and the use of cars is discouraged. People also need to be made more aware of the convenient connections between Buitenveldert (Gelderlandplein) and the Zuidas.
Find an innovative solution to increase the liveliness of the Zuidas district and that contributes to the transition from just a business zone to a business/housing zone.
Criteria
Issued by: Programma Leef Zuidas
