In the 1950s and 1960s, Ams­ter­dam grew beyond its for­mer bor­der, the motor­way ringroad. Exten­sive new res­i­den­tial areas were cre­at­ed in the west of the city, based on an urban plan from the 1930s, with large apart­ment blocks and low-rise row hous­es, float­ing in pub­lic green space. Only twen­ty years lat­er, how­ev­er, Ams­ter­dam-West turned into a prob­lem­at­ic dis­trict with a high per­cent­age of immi­grants and unem­ploy­ment. Recent urban renew­al inter­ven­tions, includ­ing the trans­for­ma­tion of many areas and the intro­duc­tion of new dwelling types, promise to change this situation.

In con­trast to the his­toric cen­tre, Ams­ter­dam-West offers space for archi­tec­tur­al exper­i­ments. The results are part­ly spec­tac­u­lar projects with bold colours and con­cepts, but also some attempts to cre­ate inno­v­a­tive res­i­den­tial mod­els for the spe­cif­ic tar­get groups in this post­war neighbourhood.