21st Century (2000–present)

The Hague Central Innovation District

2018– · Netherlands · Western & Central Europe · Innovation districts, knowledge corridors, and economic clustering · Planned by City of The Hague
Skyline of The Hague seen from the Schenkviaduct, near the Central Innovation District.
Skyline of The Hague seen from the Schenkviaduct, near the Central Innovation District. · CC BY-SA 4.0

Core idea

Intensification around stations

Why it matters

Knowledge economy in inner ring

Description

The Central Innovation District is The Hague's strategy, pursued from 2018, to intensify the area between and around its three inner-city railway stations — Centraal, Hollands Spoor and Laan van NOI — into a dense, mixed-use knowledge quarter. The plan concentrates offices, education, start-up space and thousands of homes on already-urbanised land with the best transit access in the city. It is intended to strengthen The Hague's economic profile beyond government and international institutions.

Significance

The CID is a characteristic example of the innovation-district model translated into Dutch practice: growth accommodated through station-area densification rather than peripheral expansion, consistent with national policy favouring inner-ring intensification. It contributes to wider debates on knowledge-economy planning, affordability and the vertical densification of traditionally mid-rise Dutch cities.

What shaped it

Sources

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