Almere is a new town, foun­ded in 1977 on arti­fi­cial land. Right from the start, the town con­sidered itself not only an over­spill for nearby Amsterdam, but also a field for exper­i­ment­a­tion. In recent years, Almere focusses on the increased demand for indi­vidu­al­ity in hous­ing areas.

Homer­uskwarti­er is a self-build area, with an icon­ic urb­an design by OMA. Besides self-build houses for lower incomes, there’s also a tiny hous­ing build­ing expo. Neigh­bour­ing Plan Duin is a new-build area with houses scattered amongst arti­fi­cial dunes. Exper­i­ment­a­tion is taken to the next level in Oost­er­wold, a dis­trict based on an urb­an plan by MVRDV: here, res­id­ents even have to real­ise their own infra­struc­ture.
The city centre of Almere, based on a mas­ter­plan by OMA, stands in dir­ect con­trast to these low-rise devel­op­ments: it fea­tures a mix of shop­ping and hous­ing typlo­gies in a high-dens­ity set­ting.