Cre­at­ing Urb­an Neighbourhoods

Fun­en­park and Oos­ten­burg lie side by side, yet offer two very dif­fer­ent mod­els for con­vert­ing inner-city brown­fields into new urb­an neighbourhoods.

Both have an indus­tri­al past – Fun­en as a rail­way shunt­ing yard, Oos­ten­burg as a machinery pro­duc­tion site.

Fun­en (2000–2013) became a car-free neigh­bour­hood with 550 dwell­ings set in pub­lic green space, without private gar­dens or screens. Dense vari­ety and care­ful land­scap­ing make it a coher­ent whole without feel­ing like a gated community.

Oos­ten­burg takes the oppos­ite approach: urb­an, dense, and delib­er­ately rough. Some 1,800 dwell­ings in 70 build­ings are under devel­op­ment, along­side cafés, res­taur­ants and shops. The Van Gendthal­len are pre­served as indus­tri­al monu­ments; the Werkspoorhal is being trans­formed into a covered pub­lic space and social hub on the waterfront.

On this tour you will vis­it both new neigh­bour­hoods and get an impres­sion of their very dif­fer­ent urb­an qual­it­ies. Hear about the devel­op­ment of the urb­an plans and the social backgrounds.

Tour High­lights: Cre­at­ing Urb­an Neighbourhoods

  • Pub­lic space design by Land­lab (2008)

  • Urb­an vil­las by a.o. NL Archi­tects, Geurst & Schulze, Dick van Gamer­en, DKV, Claus en Kaan (2008–2010)

  • Fun­en­hof (Arons en Gelauff, 2019)

  • Explan­a­tions about  the mas­ter­plan of Oos­ten­burg by Urhahn and Studioninedots

  • Hous­ing pro­jects by a.o. OZ Archi­tect, Work­shop archi­tec­ten, BETA archi­tec­ten, Space Encoun­ters, Bur­eau Fraai, Paul de Ruit­er, Bas Jon­geri­us, Ron­ald Janssen (2021–2025)

  • Werkspoorhal (1929)
    Trans­form­a­tion of an indus­tri­al hall into a social hub

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