Het stadsranden-lab: new typologies for the urban fringe of amsterdam
Text AND EDITORIAL • ARCAM and BNA Onderzoek • January 2021
The urban fringe zone of Amsterdam is back in the picture. The urban fringe is where the city and the landscape meet, offering space for living, working, gardening, recreation, industry and all kinds of fringe activities. Every urban fringe is different. Yet every urban fringe works as a ‘crumple zone’: the space where the crash between high urban density and green landscape is absorbed.
Five urban fringe zones
Five test locations in the urban fringe of Amsterdam serve as research-by-design laboratories for Het stadsranden-lab, The urban fringe lab. Five multi-disciplinary teams explored these typologies, thinking about the different scales of the urban fringe and potential urban and architectural design solutions for new balances between urban density and landscape.
Chronicles of the urban fringe
Boundary defying explorations and initial findings were originally published in four stand-alone chronicles, published in Dutch:
A border is (not) a border: How limitless can you be?
The economic and spatial value of the urban fringe zone: Rules for the edges of the city
Nature-inclusive design: A mountainous and biodiverse landscape
Declaration of the urban fringe zone: 157 KM of cycling through the crumple zone
Urban fringe magazine
The complete ‘Stadsranden magazine’ boasts all chronicles, photo essays of the urban fringe zone of Amsterdam, provocations and design explorations for each of the five fringe locations, and food for thought on how to progress thinking about and working with the urban fringe zone. Read the full magazine here (in Dutch).
Header image: Magazine cover ‘Het stadsranden-lab’, designed by Edwin van Gelder (Mainstudio)