Amsterdam-Noord is a work­ers’ hous­ing area in trans­ition. It con­sists of a mix of garden cit­ies from the 1920s and post-war res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments. After dec­ades of neg­lect, a pro­cess of gentri­fic­a­tion is cur­rently under­way – and arouses con­sid­er­able con­tro­versy.

In Van de Pek­buurt, hous­ing cor­por­a­tion Ymere recently real­ized a prize-win­ning, large-scale renov­a­tion scheme. Adja­cent neigh­bour­hood Bloe­men­buurt is also in trans­form­a­tion: Built in the early 1930s, it con­sisted of social rent­al apart­ments, which have partly been merged into lar­ger free-sec­tor rent­al houses.

A short ride with the new metro leads to Plan van Gool, a hous­ing area from the 1960s, which has also recently under­gone a renov­a­tion. The aim was to bring the hous­ing blocks up to stand­ard — regard­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity as well as safety.