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Zuidoost, with the Oval Tower of 94 metres, and the
Teleport area close by Sloterdijk bus and railway
station, with its Crystal Tower of 95 metres. At
locations in the city where new construction is being
realized, the building height has increased over the last
decade. There are many residential blocks of eight
storeys in the Eastern Harbour District and in the new
district of IJburg. The most recent high-rise plans
include a 150-metre residential tower in the ArenA
area and the combined office and housing complex in
the Mahler4 district on the Zuidas, where construction
is already far advanced.
Amsterdam’s High-Rise Impact Report
In Amsterdam’s structure plans, in which the city
council has been stipulating the parameters for the
further development of the city since 1974, the
stimulation or limitation of high-rise construction is not
tackled as a separate topic. Nevertheless, a Hoogbouw
Effect Rapportage (HER, or High-rise Impact Report)
was introduced in 1991, obliging the developers of a
tower to indicate the technical impact on the
environment, such as wind interference, the effect on
light and shade, and hindrance for transmitters. Other
aspects considered include the view, privacy and social
safety. In the proposals for revision of the HER, all
buildings measuring 30 metres or more fall must satisfy
the HER requirements. There are no longer any
exceptions, because a great deal of importance is
attached to a thorough analysis of the effects of highrise
on the surrounding built environment,
independent of the question of whether high-rise is
desirable at a given location. In the area within the ring
road, an HER is obligatory for buildings taller than 30
metres. In the areas bordering on and outside the ring
road, this applies for buildings over 60 metres high,
with the exception of high-rise at traffic intersections,
where an HER is only necessary for structures higher
than 90 metres.
With the HER it is definitely not a question of aesthetic
considerations – the task of the buildings inspectorate
and planning authorities – but primarily a case of
assessing the impact of high-rise. For example, an HER
must consider the organization and function of the
lowest storeys, as these play an important role in the
propagation of urbanity in a given area. Points for
consideration include the programme of functions and
amenities at street level, the position of the building’s
entrances, and access from car parks. The HER is the
responsibility of the city boroughs. The gauging of the
impact within a wider radius remains with the city’s
central administration, since these effects extend
beyond the borders of a city borough.
Careful insertion of high-rise Compared
with other cities, Amsterdam is not an obvious highrise
city. This is not simply because the airport and the
historic city centre impose limitations and – though the
cost of land in the city centre would make high-rise
construction an attractive option, the historic centre
enjoys protected status. Thanks to the multifaceted
character of Amsterdam, the city’s promotional policy
can underscore this wide-ranging profile, in which
high-rise is only one aspect rather than a leading
component. The spatial planning policy is also not
specifically focused on high-rise, but on densification
and intensification. For some locations in the city, highrise
is seen as an obvious means to achieve the
intended densification, while for other areas a compact
built volume accommodating various functions is more
appropriate.
Locations in Amsterdam where the clustering of highrise
construction does seem to be an obvious choice
are traffic intersections and multimodal hubs. By
concentrating functions in this manner at a short
distance from the transport hubs, the capacity of the
amenities can be exploited optimally, and the walking
distances are minimal. This achieves one of the policy
objectives from the Kiezen voor stedelijkheid (‘Opting
for urbanity’) structure plan of 2003.
Existing and future construction plans can serve as an
opportunity to insert vertical accents, thus increasing
the legibility of the city. The city’s new 20th- and 21stcentury
centres then fulfil a landmark function in the
cityscape. By concentrating high-rise in strategically
selected zones, the urban structure is rendered more
transparent and explicit.
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PlanAmsterdam