21st Century (2000–present)

Almere 2.0 Structuurvisie

2009 · Netherlands · Western & Central Europe · Garden city, decentralization, and the town-country synthesis · Planned by City of Almere

Structure map of the Concept Structuurvisie Almere 2.0: new housing and work areas, green-blue framework and the western/eastern growth directions · © Gemeente Almere — used with credit · Gemeente Almere, Samenvatting Concept Structuurvisie Almere 2.0 (2009)

Core idea

Green-blue growth & centers

Why it matters

Next phase of polynuclear Almere

Description

The Almere 2.0 Structuurvisie of 2009 is a growth vision prepared by the City of Almere, in concert with national government, for the next major expansion of the Dutch new town in Flevoland. It extends Almere's founding polynuclear structure with new centres and districts set within a green-blue landscape framework of woods, parks and water, including westward orientation towards the IJmeer and stronger links to Amsterdam.

Significance

Almere 2.0 continues the garden-city and polder-planning lineage that produced Almere itself, testing whether the Dutch tradition of state-guided town building can be renewed under twenty-first-century conditions of decentralised governance and market-led housing delivery. It is significant in debates on organic versus blueprint growth, particularly through its association with ideas of self-build and adaptive urbanisation.

What shaped it

Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1898 / 1902)
The compact city (1973-1990s)
Sustainable development (Brundtland) (1987)
Global financial crisis (2007–2009)

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →

hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.