The new town of Almere lies on arti­fi­cial land and was found­ed in 1977. In the 1990s the crit­i­cal mass of inhab­i­tants was reached and the munic­i­pal­i­ty decid­ed to final­ly insert a cen­tre into the town. An ambi­tious mas­ter­plan was made by OMA and filled with build­ings by inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned architects.

Now that Almere final­ly has a heart, the city con­tin­ues to grow and serve as an exper­i­men­tal field for all kinds of hous­ing typolo­gies and inno­v­a­tive neigh­bour­hood con­cepts. Across Lake Weer­wa­ter lies Hor­tus, a neigh­bour­hood-to-be, based on a mas­ter­plan by MVRDV. It start­ed out in 2022 as the grounds of hor­ti­cul­ture expo Flo­ri­ade. Over the next years, the grid of gar­dens will devel­op into a new dis­trict with 660 dwellings.