BOSS Magazine #58 - Gentrification

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boss magazine no 58 February 2017

AndrĂŠ Mulder Gentrification in berlin - paul stouten urban design & gentrification - Hella hendriks keeping the city alive birgitte de maar the housing association - henriette van der goes/Sake zijlstra debate - nikita baliga bangalore - Boudewijn groot london - Piet van der horst Amsterdam - eduardo mazuera cartagena/santa marta - tom van eerden/lisa kuijpers recd Anniek van der hoek ibt - Benjamin weihs/Jan ruttenberg student columns- joris burggraaff interview young professional

colophon BOSS Magazine is a publication of BOSS. Published three times a year.

BOSS Magazine

Nr. 58 Gentrification February 2017 BOSS is the study association of the department of Management in the Built Environment (formerly known as Real Estate and Housing) Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment TU Delft

BOSS Magazine Committee Editor in chief Suzanne Elliott Editor and design Tuur Pluijmen Editor Malvika Mundkur Editor Bente Bast Editor Juan Carlos Romero Contributors AndrĂŠ Mulder Paul Stouten Hella Hendriks Birgitte de Maar Henriette van der Goes Sake Zijlstra Nikita Baliga Boudewijn Groot Piet van der Horst Eduardo Mazuera Tom van Eerden Lisa Kuijpers Anniek van der Hoek Jan Ruttenberg Benjamin Weihs Joris Burggraaff (interviewed by Suzanne Elliott) Cover http://images.gmanews.tv/v3/webpics/v3/2014/12/2014_12_11_15_49_37.jpg Press Orangebook

From the Editor The ‘London Cereal Killer’, a hipster cereal bar in Shoreditch, London – as can be seen on the cover – was targeted during a protest against the ongoing gentrification in this neighbourhood. The residents of Shoreditch organised a demonstration against the takeover of their neighbourhood.

Over the years several cities, both national and international, are becoming a more and more popular place to live. Wealthy citizens and the creative young upper-class are shifting towards them and neighbourhoods are changing. New and hip bars are popping up in former old-fashioned and working-class districts and the streets

are visibly undergoing a make-over. The result of this process has positive and negative consequences. This magazine is about gentrification and gives various perspectives on this phenomenon, written by authors from different fields of the built environment.

Multiple international cities are addressed and compared, from where some conclusions can be drawn.

We would like to thank all the authors for their contribution to the first magazine of this year and we hope everyone enjoys it!

On behalf of the magazine committee, Suzanne Elliott

Juan Carlos Romero, Bente Bast, Suzanne Elliott Malvika Mundkur, Tuur Pluijmen

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contents 04 the border of gentrification 08 urban gentrification and urban design 12 gentrification to keep the city alive 14 housing corporation & gentrification 16 debate 18 gentrification worldwide 20 bangalore 22 london 24 amsterdam Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin) - AndrĂŠ Mulder

paul stouten

hella hendricks

birgitte de maar

henriette van der goes vs sake zijlstra

comparison of the phenomenon in different cities around the world

nikita baliga

boudewijn groot

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piet van der horst

contents cartagena & santaeduardo marta mazuera 26 conclusions editors 28 real estate career day tom van eerden 30

31 student columns 32 interview dura vermeer 34 booktips 36 comic 37

international business tour anniek van der hoek

jan ruttenberg & benjamin weihs

joris burggraaFf

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Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin)

the border of gentrification

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No pictures! the border guard shouted to us. It was

the Spring of 1989 and we were in Prenzlauer Berg, East Berlin, close to the Berlin wall, that symbol of a divided Germany that would disappear later in the year, but we didn’t know that yet, and neither did the border guard. You were not supposed to take pictures of the wall, or of anything else that might be considered as a state secret. He kept following us with his eyes, until we had disappeared around the corner, where one of my friends secretly took a picture.

During the German division, not only the country as a whole but also its (former) capital Berlin was split into a western section, occupied

by Americans, British and French armed forces, and an eastern section, occupied by the Russian army. East Germany and East Berlin were under communist rule, West Germany and West Berlin were part of the capitalist and democratic West.

Prenzlauer Berg at the time was quite an exceptional neighbourhood, considering the normal state of affairs in East Germany. Like many pre-war areas, its houses were cheap but also in bad repair. Quite often dwellings did not have a proper bathroom and in many cases war damage had not completely been restored. What made Prenzlauer Berg special was its inhabitants. The area was dominated by artists, and they were not the kind of artists one would expect in East Germany, those making ‘social realistic’ art, like scenes from the life of workers and farmers. It was the more ‘western-decadent’ (as they would be called) type of artists, making punk rock and the like. Many of these artists enjoyed the relative freedom Prenzlauer Berg offered them, not knowing that they were continuously being spied upon by the secret services, including many part-time staff members, usually being or posing as artists themselves.

When the German wall fell in the autumn of 1989, the already alternative scene of Prenzlauer Berg became even more

The early 1990s: The first trendy shops arrive

countercultural. Empty dwellings and industrial buildings were occupied by a squatter movement, that brought a new lease of life to the area. Cheap cafés, offering all day breakfast to young partygoers that had celebrated the night, were everywhere, although at the same time the traditional corner shops were disappearing.

I have visited Berlin, and especially Prenzlauer Berg, on an almost yearly basis from 1989 and I have seen many changes. The first change was brought about by the squatter movement, next the builders came in, part of a regeneration process that especially affected the streets and blocks close to the city centre. The second half of the 1990s was a period of relative quiet, with gentrification coming to a halt, to be picked up again from the second half of the first decade of this century.

As is often the case, gentrification in Prenzlauer Berg was triggered by the availability of cheap properties (the often substandard prewar dwellings), some forerunners (the squatters and artists that had chosen to live there) and an increasing demand for luxury accommodation. After German reunification in 1990, Berlin again

A tram in the streets of Prenzlauer Berg, 1989.

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Wallpaintings, including the international squatter symbol, early 1990s.

some despair in their eyes. The difference between their neatly polished hotel and the bordering squats for them was hard to take in.

When they looked to the left, they recognised the brightly polished Berlin that they had come to visit. This hotel was exactly on the border of gentrification.

The phase of a declining population and a halted gentrification process lasted for about 10 years. From 2005 onwards, the population of Berlin has been growing again. Although the number of births remained relatively low to start with, there was a huge influx of mainly young people from other parts of Germany. Berlin was again the city to be. This meant that the gentrification process took pace again. Even though some parts of Prenzlauer Berg still are looking rough, prices are soaring and young parents with small kids have become as well a feature of the urban scene as are hipsters still enjoying their all day breakfast.

became the capital of all Germany. This lead to a new influx of people wanting to live in the city. At the same time, everywhere in Germany pre-war properties were becoming more popular, especially those featuring late 19th or early 20th century (Jugendstil) details in the vicinity of city centres. Prenzlauer Berg was one of the places where these dwellings could be found.

However, the birth rate in Berlin, like many other parts of East Germany, had plummeted to figures far below the level needed to sustain the population (Paffhausen, 2010). As a result, Berlin’s population started to shrink. This lead to a decreasing demand for accommodation and prices that were either falling or at least not rising to the levels expected by property developers. This meant that the gentrification of Prenzlauer Berg came to a standstill. When walking the streets, it was possible to see a clear and often quite sudden divide between the streets and blocks closest to the city centre, where gentrification had taken place, and the parts a bit further away, that remained untouched by gentrification. A similar observation was made by Bernt and Holm (2005), who, discussing the distribution of restaurants found that ‘the roads to the north, east and west of the area (especially Danziger Strasse) were for a long time regarded as frontiers which could hardly be crossed, especially by more expensive restaurants; the few attempts which were made went bankrupt or were demolished’.

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During one of my walks, it was in the mid-1990s, I saw an American couple coming out of their hotel. They were looking to the right with

Like in the squatter days, graffiti remains a highly visible part of the townscape, quite often referring to the process of gentrification, that is considered as being undesirable by the large parts of the population. The newly elected Berlin city government has pledged to combat further gentrification, but how successful this new policy will be remains to be seen.

References Bernt, Matthias and Andrej Holm (2005) Exploring the substance and style of gentrification: Berlin’s ‘Prenzlberg’. In: Rowland Atkinson and Gary Bridge (eds.), Gentrification in a global context: the new urban colonialism (Routledge, London and New York).

Paffhausen, Jürgen (2010) 1990 – 2010 Berlin und Brandenburg: Bevölkerungsentwicklung Berlin. In: Zeitschrift für amtliche Statistik Berlin Brandenburg, 2010, Nr. 3.

Author With an educational background in social geography from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, André Mulder’s passion lies in residential real estate. He has been a researcher at the Housing Research Instituut (RIW), and has also investigated housing for the elderly in his past work. He is currently working for O&S at the TU Delft, where the impact of shrinking cities forms the focus of his research.

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Mall of the Netherlands

Focusing on new trends and developments, Mall of the Netherlands will become a unique covered shopping mall not previously seen in the Netherlands. By combining desires from consumers and retailers, Mall of the Netherlands will offer a place for local, national and international retailers, along with restoration, cinema,(brand)events and an aquatic park. It will be a destination filled with unique experiences and for everyone.

Leidsenhage will be completely renewed in the coming years. After its expansion and renovation, in 2019 the shopping centre will be known as ‘Mall of the Netherlands’.

Urban Gentrification and Urban Design In many periods of time dealing with an economic

growth, urban regeneration has been accompanied by avant-garde design. Since last year, gentrification as part of urban regeneration strategies has been on the agenda of local governments of many Dutch cities. The economic crisis seems to have been overcome and the plans elaborated on before the crisis have been dusted down and launched again.

In Rotterdam, this has recently led to the hold of a referendum on the so-called Woonvisie 2030; a vision on living in the city of 2030. Gentrification is on discussion with displacement of present inhabitants in favor of ‘new’ urban groups with higher incomes and higher education.

In urban history, there are more of this sort of processes to be found but the term gentrification has been created fifty years ago by Ruth Glass, at that time researching the same process that displaced people living in the poorer enclaves of Hampstead and Chelsea in London,which caused an upper-middle class take-over in these neighborhoods. In the Netherlands, we can distinguish two main waves; one in the 1960s and 1970s, and a second wave since the mid 1990s. In the first half of the 1970s, the Stokstraat in Maastricht was opened as a flagship of this strategy by changing a no-go area of slums into a no-go area for the poor by modernizing of the old housing stock into luxury art galleries, splendor shops etc. It took approximately twenty years, until 1993, for it to become an economic success for the entrepreneurs in the sense that they were able to get enough clients for their services and goods. Today it is one of the most luxurious streets in the Netherlands, with

Nieuw Crooswijk, Rotterdam Hagemeister.de

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Stokstraat, Maastricht. Past anderetijden.nl

Stokstraat, Maastricht. Present Chrys Steegmans/Panoramio

carefully maintained streetscapes, high-end bistros, art galleries and historically preserved housing and shops. The process emerged as an incidental and attractive anomaly on the housing market, but since the mid 1990s these strategies are much more generalized as urban strategies in their reference to global issues.

(Stadsvisie Rotterdam), as has been decided by the city council in 2007. These plans show strategies driven by competitiveness on urban economics between cities (inter)nationally, speeding up infrastructure and improving public transport, solving the mismatch between characteristics of commuters and the current city population, poor and unemployed. Most striking is the aim of building new housing for high(er) income and higher educated groups for a large deal through the demolition of affordable social housing for the less affluent residents. Gentrification is also seen as an instrument to increase the livability of the neighborhoods that were assigned in all sorts of urban renewal programs in the so-called empowerment areas. Though the municipality claims that most of these houses on the list for demolition are not matching with the current standards, most of these houses in the social rental sector are in a proper condition.

There is however an important share of the private rental housing stock that is in a poor condition. The focus in the problem definition of the municipality was not so much on physical problems within the urban fabric, but more driven by problems like unemployment, social safety, education, multicultural and minority ethnic neighborhoods and crime rates. Large spatial and physical interventions are seen as an opportunity to solve these social and economic problems and the local government has the intention to break through the ‘onesided’ (social) housing supply. That means that, apart from building new owner occupied housing in tower blocks, both in the city center and on brown fields, the idea is to support gentrification expanding within the former urban renewal areas.

In this paper, we define gentrification as the process by which residential areas are improved over time, which leads to increasing house prices and an influx of more affluent residents who replace the poorer population. Last decade, on the present gentrification wave, urban regeneration in the light of restructuring and urban renaissance, urban design was recognized as an important mechanism in re-imaging and place marketing of cities in enhancing competitiveness between cities. Urban design is used in this context as the art of making places for people, including the way places work and matters concerning public safety, the connection between people and place of living and work, as well as between nature and the built fabric. It concerns finding the right urban form in response to questions about planning of environmental processes, participation and social and economic issues. Design issues for intervention and changes in the urban and social fabric are the subdivision, the arrangement of buildings on the plots, building density and the divisions between the public and private domain. And, not in the least, the possible adaptations of the fabric to the mostly unknown social developments and requirements in the future.

The municipality of Rotterdam has been stressing gentrification in their masterplan on city development (Woonvisie), which is basically the follow-up of the city vision as a spatial development strategy

This state-led gentrification concerns a number of global issues driven by urban design processes: changing demographics resulted in 9

more one-person households; more space for the ‘creative class’; the attraction of higher income and higher educated groups or the attempt to keep them within the city boundaries. Quality of life includes a wide range of specific provisions and the building of new types of housing different than those focused more on conventional lifestyles and residential environments. In the landscape of gentrification, not every case shows a colonization of neighborhoods by higher and well-educated residents. For instance, in the Oude Noorden area in Rotterdam there were opportunities for neighborhood residents who were improving their social status (so-called social climbers) to move to new low-priced owner occupied housing or social housing that after modernization was sold to residents within their neighborhood. This is a fundamentally different strategy from the one pursued in the adjacent neighborhood Nieuw Crooswijk, in which urban design and iconic architectural projects were an agent of gentrification within a context of restructuring enabled by the local government. The design and planning process was constructed by bringing agents together that had an interest in financial investments and land, along with the relevant authorities, but without serious input of the existing population. This form of design-led urban regeneration created great differences between social housing and new built owner-occupied housing in image and qualities within close proximity to one another.

References Stouten, P. (2010) Changing Contexts in Urban Regeneration; 30 Years of Modernisation in Rotterdam.

Amsterdam: Techne Press.

Author

Dr. ir. Paul Stouten is educated in urbanism, urban regeneration, urban planning, urban design and housing. Besides he has made films about urban topics. He is Assistant Professor at the department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment TU Delft, where he is specialised in urban regeneration strategies, design and planning and socio-spatial processes. Paul Stouten has served as advisor and lecturing to various municipalities, nationally and internationally and external examiner in Spatial Planning at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He was involved many years, mainly in Rotterdam, in urban regeneration processes. His PHD was titled sustainable urban renewal. He has researched many topics on urban regeneration, urban planning, urban design and housing; e.g. strategic planning, sustainable development, homestead housing, participation, urban and housing typology.

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ABC Nova is a well-known construction partner within the central station area of Utrecht, a highly complex location with one of the busiest traffic routes of the Netherlands. More specific: ABC Nova is responsible for the main construction and stakeholder management on behalf of Prorail during the renovation and expansion of the Central railway station and public transport terminal. ABC Nova was also responsible for the Project management from the final design phase to realisation and construction of the new municipal offices with over 65.000 GFA (Gross Floor Area) and the integrated Project and Process management of ‘Het Platform’. This last project is a residential building, which includes a ‘Microcity’-concept with dwellings for young professionals and additional commercial services.

Gentrification to keep the city alive Gentrification

is the process of upgrading a neighbourhood or part of a city in social, cultural and economic terms, attracting wealthy new residents and users and the consequent expulsion of the lower classes. The upgrade is accompanied by an increase in real estate prices and rent levels.

The word ‘gentry’ literally means ‘higher position’, and therefore gentrification often has a negative connotation.

I would like to make a plea to see gentrification as a means for areas that are ready for a makeover (from a physical and social perspective) to be revitalized with private money. Those private investments lead to private ownership in neighbourhoods that originally consisted entirely of social housing. This diversity is necessary for cities to survive. I shall highlight my stance with some examples in Amsterdam.

Gentrification mainly takes place in cities with historic buildings, entertainment, culture and a large number of students and ‘alternative’ young people. The process is outlined by Metaal1.

Gentrification consists of three phases. The first phase, called the ‘artistic phase’ is characterized by the influx of ‘alternative’ young people, creative professionals and students. They improvise dwelling spaces in the dilapidated workers homes or create ‘lofts’ in old factory buildings. The phase that comes next is called the ‘mixedversion phase’, now also the cultural middle classes come to live in the district and the influx of immigrants is larger. Houses are being renovated and restaurants and cafés, galleries, small stages and shops settle down. The last stage is called ‘Upscale phase’. There is less mix; this phase comes with expensive deli’s, shops and offices and rents are going up. Not always all these three phases occur: many districts linger in the artistic or mixed phase.

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less as residential, De Pijp is one of the most desirable places to live in Amsterdam. The fact is that in both neighbourhoods a huge necessary renewal and preservation of the housing stock has taken place. Did this lead to expulsion? Gentrification and expulsion are often considered synonyms. But, in De Jordaan the majority of the housing stock is still owned by housing corporations and in De Pijp the share of cheap rental properties (as for 2016) is about 40%2. So nowadays these are mixed neighbourhoods.

I’d like to emphasize the fact that gentrification is not only about money but also about innovation, re-use, sustainability, attractiveness and room for growth. Or so to say; the ingredients that make a city a City, and prevent the inhabitants from falling asleep.

Time to rethink gentrification. Let us approach it from the perspective of the necessary investments that need to be done to houses and neighbourhoods to make them fit for the future. For example; performing the necessary maintenance, but also the huge investments in energy efficiency measures and the support for facilities at neighbourhood level. Are local governments or housing corporations able to do so?

What’s described above is apparent in the Amsterdam Jordaan and De Pijp. Whereas the first neighbourhood is experienced less and

In Amsterdam Zuidoost an apartment building with more than 500 dwellings was saved from demolition by a consortium consisting

of inspired concept-developers and a real estate company3. The owner, a housing corporation, had made several renovation plans but they all lacked financial feasibility. With a plan for affordable so called ‘kluswoningen’ this consortium attracted a group of new residents. They now form an entrepreneurial community even with its own brewery, where the neighbours are welcome for a beer! In Amsterdam West a housing corporation sold an unoccupied complex with social houses to an investor who, after renovating the property, offers them as mid-price rental homes. In Amsterdam the demand for this kind of houses is also enormous.

De Jordaan, Amsterdam / youropi.com

to know each other in gentrified neighbourhoods? People do not necessarily visit each other more often. But children are at school together and play at each others’ homes. In a mixed area it is much more likely to have contacts with people outside of your own group.

A nice example is the Hans Kemna casting Agency, located in OudWest (Amsterdam). For the film Shouf Shouf Habibi they just went to the streets to attract the actors.

Transformation of monofunctional apartment buildings in Amsterdam South-East

The Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, has a large social housing stock. Tenants have rent protection and rent increases are regulated. If a neighbourhood is rising, this has no direct effect on rents. It is true that corporations are more willing to sell property in these neighbourhoods. An example is the sale of social housing in the Van der Pek neighbourhood in Amsterdam. But here the question arises again, is a corporation capable of making the necessary investments to these houses and then lease them at the same price?

Or is it the alternative, demolition and construction of new energyefficient and comfortable, though often simple and small houses? I think we should be happy that characteristic blocks such as those in the Van der Pek are saved and get a second life.

I want to make a plea for corporations to keep a minimum of property in these neighbourhoods (financed by selling for example 70%) and also play an active role in the management at neighbourhood level.

“Let the gentrifiers come”, wrote Jos Gadet in het Parool4. In this article Gadet looks to the social effects of gentrification. Do people from different income groups and ethnic origin, for example, get

I agree with Gadet who argues that the city is undergoing an economic transition, its population changes and the facilities are increasing. ‘Gentrification offers an (often private) investment in the quality of the city and results in other benefits as well. It creates jobs, the empowerment of the neighbourhood, WOZ-values (Municipal property valuation) rise as well as the council tax revenues for the city, and the support for facilities widens.

So I’d like to contend that gentrification should be considered as the inevitable process to keep the city healthy and alive!

References 1. Metaal Gentrification, an overview, 2007 2. Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek Amsterdam, 2016 3. Consortium De Flat consists of Vireo vastgoed, Hollands Licht, Kondor Wessels Vastgoed en Hendriks CPO 4. Jos Gadet Parool juni 2015

Author Hella Hendriks is a real estate professional and makes concepts for buildings and urban areas. She also initiates her own development projects in cooperation with dedicated partners.

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The housing corporation and gentrification TAmsterdam here have always been neighbourhoods or districts of which are deemed ‘better’ or more liveable than others. Conversely, there are also districts which are more vulnerable and which sometimes decline further.

Then stakeholders need to turn the tide and improve the neighbourhood socially, culturally and economically. For example by ‘upscaling’ the quality of housing and improving facilities. By attracting other wealthy residents and users and by the (further) amalgamation of population groups, ages, (cultural) interests, etc.

DRIVEN OUT BY PURCHASING, SELLING AND LIBERALISATION Changes of residents and users lead to other stores, different provisions, alternative usage of public space, etc. Often people see that as an improvement, but sometimes this process can cause problems for residents. Feeling ‘being driven out’ of the neighbourhood. This driving out does not have to be active, like the major demolition of social rental homes in the 1990s, to make space for privately-owned homes. After all, if social rental homes vanish due to purchase or by increasing rent over the social rental boundaries, then renters cannot move to the next home in their neighbourhood. For example, if their family expands. We also refer to being ‘driven out’ in this case.

GOVERNMENT: LESS SOCIAL HOMES Currently 57% of all homes in Amsterdam are in the social rental sector. This percentage is much lower in some neighbourhoods (e.g.

Zuid, Centrum), in others it is significantly higher (e.g. Nieuw West, Transvaal). The majority of these social rental homes is owned by the housing corporation. The government is reducing the amount of social rental homes. Minister Blok states that the corporation must sell more of their properties to investors. This reduces the amount of social rental homes and those funds can be invested in maintenance and sustainable measures.

In practice: the waiting list is growing Minister Blok’s theory is correct: we could generate income by selling homes. Extra money to invest in the remaining social rental homes.

And also our renters and the neighbourhoods would benefit from this. However… While the government pushes for a reduction of the amount of social rental homes, we see a different development in practice: the waiting list is growing.

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Major concern Amsterdam keeps growing and so does the amount of low-income residents. Where do we allocate these home seekers? This is a major concern for housing corporations and also for Rochdale. After all, we were founded 100 years ago to provide affordable rental homes for people with low incomes and who need assistance. And this number is increasing.

And this is precisely why Rochdale has sharpened its direction. We have ceased selling homes in ‘popular neighbourhoods’. Social rental homes also (in fact) remain an important element in the range of homes. In neighbourhoods where the percentage of social rental homes is very high we wish to actively respond to the arrival of different target groups. Not necessarily by reducing the amount of social rental homes, but by adding more homes and target groups, for instance.

Offering a real home For the homeowner, the residents as well as the city, it is positive to have social rental homes in all the neighbourhoods of the city, just as it is positive that there are purchased homes, schools and other facilities. This defines the city. It makes every neighbourhood attractive for a variety of residents. And that is one of the spear points from our new path to offer residents a real home.

Author Birgitte de Maar is a member of the board at Rochdale, a housing association in Amsterdam

Development ‘Noordgebouw’ Utrecht: Inntel Hotels Utrecht City signs contract for 4 -star hotel with 162 rooms next to Utrecht Centraal

Utrecht City!

The 4-star hotel will offer 162 luxury rooms with private sauna or whirlpool, a restaurant, conference rooms and on the topfloor a wellness area with swimming pool and saunas.

Inntel Hotel Utrecht City is part of the unique development ‘Noordgebouw’. This building situated next to the new train station ‘Utrecht Centraal’ and the shopping centre ‘Hoog Catharijne’ is to be an “Urban Hub” of 23.000 m2 GFA. The building will combine a hotel, office space, retail and residential living space. This new building emphasizes the dynamic character of the city of Utrecht.

Project ‘Noordgebouw’ is a development of ‘Noordgebouw Utrecht vof (Dura Vermeer Vastgoed & VORM Ontwikkeling) in collaboration with NIC RE | Development. The design is by MONK Architects and Dura Vermeer Bouw Hengelo will be responsible for the realization.

DEbate 'Gentrification is a natural process in the development The best example of gentrification in the Netherlands certainly is Amsterdam. Though it is the main capital and the city with the most inhabitants, Amsterdam is currently one of the most popular cities of the Netherlands, both to live in and to do business.

Year after year, more people are moving towards the cities.

in favor

The trend of globalisation is also visible in the Netherlands. The amount of inhabitants in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht increased again in the year of 2016 (Vastgoedmarkt 4th January 2016). This is where gentrification benefits from. The amount of inhabitants is growing, boundaries of the cities are moving and residential areas are turning into booming areas with trendy cafés and restaurants. Examples in Amsterdam are De Jordaan, De Pijp, Oud-West and at the moment Amsterdam-Oost as well.

Logically, the process of gentrification has an impact on the city centre and outwards to the suburban areas. Municipalities or policymakers are able to create a good atmosphere by creating a catalyst for the area. A good example is the redevelopment of De Hallen in Oud-West. The improvement of an area and the movement of people towards that area certainly affect the residential prices. The shortage of dwellings increases. In this way you can state that gentrification is not a good thing. If gentrification is a natural process it will solve itself. Residents that are not willing to pay the amount will settle somewhere else. If the prices are really too high, the demand will decrease. Cities like London and Stockholm show that the housing prices can increase every year (Vastgoedmarkt 12th January 2016). Some people say it might be a bubble. Can this be a bubble when it is a natural process as the arguments above point out? And if it is a bubble, how can it be solved or prevented?

During the last economic downturn, Amsterdam demonstrated that the impact of the economy on the city was not as intense as expected. As long as people are willing to pay the prices, they will keep on rising. That is the game of supply and demand.

In Amsterdam the demand for dwellings is the highest in years. In this game policy makers are responsible to realise a reflection of society with social housing. This is the task of housing associations. In the meantime a city is enriched by gentrification.

It is an ongoing process. In Oud-West new businesses keep on emerging that enrich the area. How can this not be a good thing?

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ir. Henriette van der Goes is an alumna of the Master Management in the Built Environment. She graduated in July 2014. Currently she is working as a surveyor at Cushman & Wakefield in Amsterdam. She is specialized in valuation of (re)development, transformation and specific real estate. She is also one of the members of the board of BOSS Alumni.

References Vastgoedmarkt, 4th January 2016, ‘Vier grote steden blijven groeien’.

Vastgoedmarkt, 12th January 2016, ‘Grotere invloed beleggers op Amsterdamse woningmarkt’

DEbate of a city and is required in order for a city to grow’

against

Dr.ir. Sake Zijlstra is specialised in the field of housing management at the department of Management in the Built Environment. He is coordinator of several BSc. courses and tutor in several MSc. courses of the faculty of Architecture, TU Delft.

References Carpenter, A. (2016) Gentrification: Research and Practitioner Perspectives, CASCADE: NO. 93, 07, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. https://www.philadelphiafed.org/communitydevelopment/publications/cascade/93/07_gentrification Doucet, B. Van Kempen, R. and Van Weesep, J. (2011) We’re a rich city with poor people: municipal strategies of new-build gentrification in Rotterdam and Glasgow, in: Environment and planning A, vol 43. pp.

1438-1454 Priemus, H. (1978). Volkshuisvesting; begrippen, problemen, beleid.

Alphen a/d Rijn, Netherlands: Samson.

Smith, N. (1986) Gentrification and the rent gap, in: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol 77. No. 3 pp..462-465 Smith, N. (2002) New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy, Antipode, pp. 427-450.

Gentrification isn’t natural, it is a typical human invention based on principles at the base of our understanding of the economy. As such, gentrification isn’t a natural process but primarily a part of an economic model. Furthermore, gentrification is a policy process.

Our economy dictates that scarce and popular spaces should be expensive. While places and areas that aren’t popular, are cheap. And products that aren’t scarce, should be cheap as well. The problem is hidden in the very nature of real estate: the construction of dwellings has been typically known for its inflexibility and the long time it takes from planning to delivery (Priemus 1978). Hence, almost by definition, real estate is scarce. And when consumers express their desires – read: something becomes popular – the market needs quite some time to recognise, understand and anticipate this demand. The effect is that the market is lagging, always. This gives ample opportunity for gentrification to occur. Gentrification occurs as a result of the existing “rent” or “value gap” (Smith, 1986). The existence of the value gap indicates a low popularity while the area characteristics would suggest a higher potential.

This is the economic base for gentrification and is the incentive for the market to capitalise the value by exploiting popularity and scarcity. This leads to increasing prices, displacement and neighbourhood change, while at the same time attracting the “gentry” to the (now) attractive area.

At places where the value gap doesn’t occur, governments apply gentrification as an urban strategy (Smith 2002, Doucet et al. 2011). Governments do so by initiating or stimulating renewal projects and branding. This “state-led” gentrification (see Stouten in this publication) may result in typical gentrification issues such as displacement and this can in fact be one of the desired effects (by the state). However, “Displacement could force vulnerable households into less desirable and more impoverished neighborhoods” (Carpenter 2016). The gentrification of one area may lead to impoverishment of another and breeds segregation: the concentration of high incomes in one area and low incomes in the other. Gentrification in this case is a process of upgrading one area by means of governmental policies and instruments with the risk of stimulating segregation.

Can we consider gentrification as a “natural” process? And if so, do we regard displacement of inhabitants and replacing them with fewer (lower density) people with higher incomes, “natural selection”?

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A m s t e r d a m Cartagena Santa MartA ­

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Gentrification worldwide

The phenomenon of gentrification in urban areas is directly connected to economic, political and cultural and social circumstances, which differ from city to city and in consequence, have a considerable variation in different countries. As a way to better understand the subject, a selection of four cities in various contexts was made and is presented hereafter. This compilation further emphasizes the global character of gentrification and opens a window to other practices.

The local experience is condensed in the neighbourhood of De Pijp, in Amsterdam. In the European context, the case of London is analyzed, taking into account the recent political turnover after Brexit. In the Asian context there is the experience of Bangalore, where the rural and urban worlds collide. Furthermore, in South America, the case of two cities in the Caribbean coast is analysed alongside the impact of tourism.

The different articles approach the issue through a common framework.

First, defining the general situation and existing problems. Then, exploring the underlying causes behind its development. Finally, concluding with remarks on the future of these cities.

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Make way for the holy cow

cITY 1: bangalore

As an Indian studying in the Netherlands, most of my first encounters

Nikita Baliga

In Bangalore, a city in Southern India, one could find a cow, effortlessly strolling on a major road slowing the traffic or taking a siesta between the piers of the monstrous metro line that dominates the city’s skyline. It is a sight that we as Bangaloreans have never questioned and have gracefully accepted that the cow always has the right of way.

Trained as an architect from India, Nikita has two years of professional experience in the field of architecture. She obtained her masters in Urbanism degree in 2016 at TU Delft, The Netherlands. Her graduation in the topic of gender and space received an honorable mention for its daring perspective.

She also has an honors degree in the field of infrastructure and the environment from TU Delft. Nikita’s interest lies in the field of spatial planning with a special focus on safe & socially inclusive infrastructure in the developing context. She now works as an urban planner with Sensing Local, a planning firm based in Bangalore.

with people felt incomplete without a reference to the ‘caste, curry, cows’ stereotype about India. While caste and curry are being subject to their modern iterations, cows are still prominent in the constantly changing urban landscape.

This phenomenon is a consequence of the way Indian cities are getting urbanized. In the case of Bangalore, the market driven and quite often-unregulated urbanization and growth has resulted in the city swallowing villages, which were once peripheral. With rapid urbanization and increasing employment opportunities, these villages have also become homes for rural migrants. Some villages have gained the legal status of slums and are undergoing transformation, but the rural nature is still recognizable, the cow being one of them. The materiality of the houses, the parcellation of land and the typology of the built environment designed to support livestock reveal this rural nature. This rurality is now deeply embedded in the urban ecology of Bangalore.

The rural-urban dynamic in such close proximity has facilitated an inherent symbiotic relation between the urban poor and the elite of the city. The large gated townships as a result of the booming IT sector, at the urban periphery, depend on the working class for low skill services like domestic helps, security, cooks, etc, and providing alternate employment opportunities for the urban villagers. The smaller land parcels of these villages also give room for retail shops catering to the daily needs of the residential areas around. If the aesthetic of these villages do not favor the appreciating market value of the neighboring townships, a high boundary wall visually cordons them off.

In the name of development, beautification and image- building of the city these slums, previously villages are facing multiple challenges. On the one hand, the government is unable to provide good quality social housing and on the other hand the escalating land prices are making this economically weaker section more and more vulnerable in the eyes of big real estate sharks. “Driven by the urban dreams of this dominant class, and catering to the need of the corporations for a more “efficient and productive” urban space, the Indian state has gone full steam ahead in reclaiming land on which the urban poor live and work.”

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Bangalore, India Flickr/Ryanready

Hence, the fate of these villagers is to either be rehabilitated to poor quality housing which forces them to find alternate livelihoods or succumb to the economic pressure of developers by selling their land and moving to the urban periphery.

The question that has constantly been confronted with in the global south is, if, and how to integrate or make space for this rurality in the city. Having said that, there is a growing need and attempt to redefine and build stronger links between the urban and rural. From a standpoint of a planner, the goal is to inclusively plan for multiple stakeholders in the city, but the dominant capitalist development poses larger questions about gentrification; Should we ignore it?

Should we regulate it? Or should we just embrace it?

Indiatravelguide.org

References 1. http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/13rajeev.htm 2.https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2013/12/10/the-villagewithin-the-city-rurality-in-the-era-of-globalization/ 3.http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/ bitstream/10603/20003/11/11_chapter%202.pdf 4. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/6074/ 5.http://www.walkthroughindia.com/lifestyle/major-slumareas-in-top-indian-cities/ 6.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Slumsincreasing-in-Bangalore/articleshow/21962048.cms

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The impact of Brexit on gentrification in London cITY 2: LONDON

Boudewijn Groot After his Bachelor Architecture at the TU Delft, Boudewijn spent 3 months as an intern at Savills Research in Amsterdam. At the end of the internship Savills offered him a job at their investments department.

After 1.5 years at Savills he left for London. Currently, Boudewijn works for Marathon Asset Management, which is an American Hedge fund based in London. Together with another Dutch colleague, he manages a portfolio of 34 office properties in the Netherlands.

Since the vote of Brexit, the value of the pound has fallen dramatically

from a 1.30 euros pre-referendum rate to a low of 1.09 euros in October, which is a decrease of 16.2%. The falling pound resulted in a disagreement between Tesco (a major UK supermarket chain) and Unilever, about increasing prices to compensate the drop in the value of the pound. This forced Tesco to stop selling some of its most famous brands such as Marmite in the UK. Since the vote of Brexit, the Bank of England has taken a series of steps to support the UK economy such as cutting interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25%, which is a new record low. Since the vote of Brexit, hate crime recorded by police in England and Wales increased 41% in the month after. Since the vote of Brexit, ‘The number of homes for sale is at near 30-year lows and the number of mortgage approvals dropped 12.4% on the same month a year ago.’(1,2). We can conclude that the Brexit vote has had a more negative rather than positive effect. However, what can we expect of the impact of the Brexit vote on gentrification in London?

‘The term gentrification was first coined in 1964 by Ruth Glass to describe the changes she observed in the social structure and housing market of parts of inner London.’(3). The neighbourhood Islington, where my girlfriend and I currently live, is one of the best examples of this phenomenon. This neighbourhood has seen physical improvement of the housing stock, a housing tenure change from renting to owning, price rise and the displacement or replacement of the working class population by the new middle class. One of the roots of gentrification lies in the changing industrial structure of major cities with the switch from manufacturing industry to service-based industries (from blue-collar to white-collar jobs). London once had the largest manufacturing industry of Europe which shifted to what is now the largest financial industry of Europe. The financial industry has a lot of spin-offs to numerous other service based industries, such as the legal industry, insurance industry and technology service industry. The manufacturing industry of London has declined from 32.7% in 1961 to 11.0% in 1991, while banking, finance, insurance and business services has increased from 10.4% in 1961 to 22.5% in 1991.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Article 50 will be set into motion by the end of March 2017. However, the government is fighting in the Supreme Court for its right to trigger Article 50 and begin the process of leaving the EU without approval of parliament. However, if the decision needs to go through parliament, most MP’s will vote for Brexit anyway, as this was the vote of the people of the UK. Assuming May is able to trigger Article 50 at the end of March, the actual process of withdrawal must be completed within two years. Unfortunately, this time is much too short and the government of the UK does not seem to have a plan in place yet.

A couple of weeks ago, May has emphasized that the UK will pursue a hard Brexit during a press announcement. In my opinion, this will result in the UK gaining the advantages of the

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London Imouvin.com

EU for extremely high costs, but will lose their voting rights on EU politics. In the meantime, a lot of companies will have to re-evaluate their location for housing, due to all the uncertainty for trading in the coming years. Recently, J.P. Morgan announced they will transfer their trading floors to Dublin. This is the first bank to move their employees to another country and I foresee many more will follow, which will have a huge impact on London’s housing market.

city. London houses various large leading sectors such as the film production sector, architecture, fashion design, theatre, investment firms, research and science and many more. Other sectors need and will absorb the loss of the many banking jobs moving to other countries. Therefore, I suspect that gentrification of inner London will slow down to a halt but will increase fast once again when the storm of Brexit has blown over.

In the beginning of February, my girlfriend and I decided to move to South Kensington which is much closer to work. Normally, the residential rental prices increase every year at unbelievable high percentages, but now we managed to negotiate a rental discount of more than 10%. I think these are the first signs of the impact of Brexit on Gentrification in London. However, if you have a look at the research report on Resilient Cities by Grosvenor, we can conclude that London (taking the 18th place) is a medium to high ranked resilient References 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36956418 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37219803 3. Gentrification and the Middle-class Remaking of Inner London, 1961-2001, Chris Hamnett, Urban Studies, Vol.40, No. 12, 2401-2426, November 2003 4.http://www.grosvenor.com/getattachment/194bb2f9-d778-4701-a0ed-5cb451044ab1/ ResilientCitiesResearchReport.pdf

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De PijP, AMSTERDAM: Gentrification between 1989 and 2016 cITY 3: Amsterdam

Piet van der Horst Piet van der Horst is a project developer specialized in sustainable development of old industrial buildings to work-live ateliers, flexible units for both working and living, with a sustainable component and affordable for young creative people.

He’s an adept of phenomenological science, a method for analyzing cities, surroundings, spaces by just walking around, watching it your own eyes and describing what you see.

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The first time I was walking through De Pijp was in 1989. I was looking for a room because I was planning to move from my hometown to study geography and real estate economics at the University of Amsterdam.

I walked across the Marie Heineken Square, where the old Heineken factory was in a desolated condition, covered in graffiti and occupied by squatters from all over Europe. That day I had several appointments to view rooms.

My first appointment was in de Gerard Dou Straat, a residential street with traditional Amsterdam-style ‘pandjes’: narrow buildings with a traditional façade and five floors, four of which used for residential purposes and an unused attic inhabited by doves and mice. Each floor (of about 50m2) consisted of two studio-apartments: one in the front and one in the back.

The address must have been something like: “Gerard Dou Street 167-3-back”. Most of these ‘pandjes’ were social housing. They had been poorly maintained, but rental prices were low (€50 per room) and so were sales prices: approximately €100.000 for such a ‘pandje’ with 8 rooms.

The apartment, showed to me by my possible future landlord, was in a terrible condition with an outdated kitchen and stove, but it had a working shower and toilet that I had to share with my floor mate.

My next appointment was on the famous Albert Cuyp Market. The salesmen were all Dutch as well as their customers: mainly working class people. On the market the pandjes were in the same traditional design as in the rest of the neighborhood, though the ground floor was destined for shops that were selling fruit, vegetables, bread, meat and all sorts of products for daily groceries of the families living in De Pijp. The “apartment” that was shown to me was similar to the former one, but this one was cleaned and though it needed a good paint job, I immediately fell in love with it.

After I left the apartment, I walked across the market to the tram stop on the Van Wou Street (at that time a place for street prostitution, junkies and drug dealers). It might sound strange, but I decided this was going to be my new neighborhood. I rented the place on the market, where I lived for many years during my study-time and afterwards.

It appears that I was an early adopter, because in my years of living there I have seen De Pijp change from a white working-class- into a gentrified multicultural-neighborhood. When you make the same walk today that I made in 1989, you will see the old Heineken Brewery is restored and turned into a museum, with a popular name (“The Heineken Experience”), with the usual daily queue in front of it and 130 luxury apartments on top of it. Marie Heineken Square is now surrounded by bars and restaurants with their terraces crowded by yuppies and students on a sunny day.

Albert Cuyp Market amsterdam-travel-guide.net

Walking through the streets towards Gerard Dou Street you will meet people from all over the world. Not only the tourists, but also the local population is a multicultural mix of students, yuppies, locals, expats and people from all over the world. On the Albert Cuyp Market nowadays the salesmen are as multicultural as their customers and they mainly sell clothes, coffee and tourist merchandise.

Almost each ‘pandje’ in De Pijp is renovated in its traditional style with wooden frames, double glass windows in a combination of dark green and white paint and cleaned red bricks with their renewed cement adding. The design inside the buildings has turned the 8 rooms into 4 apartments: one apartment of 50m2 per floor. The attics are mostly added to the floor below, turning them into luxury 100m2 maisonettes with a roof-terrace. Moreover, every apartment now has its individual central heating system.

There are no more drugs nor is there prostitution in the streets of De Pijp. Both were legalized, regulated and moved; prostitution was moved to the Red-light District and drugs to the coffeeshops. This is not the right platform to discuss the ins and outs of this policy, but I can assure you the streets are cleaner and safer than they were back in 1989. The majority of the working class has left to the suburbs, although a small minority is still living in De Pijp. When you talk with them you can hear them complaining about ”these yuppies that took over our neighborhood” and of course about “prices that went sky high”. Well, they have a point there: rental prices went up from social housing to market prices (over €1000 per apartment per month), while sales prices have risen to over €250.000, per floor.

In the next 10 years, I think, the main transition of De Pijp will be one into an energy-neutral neighborhood. The combination of pollution, geo-politics and scarcity of fossil energy will increase the urge to turn the ‘pandjes’ into all-electric apartment-buildings. While The Netherlands is a gas-country - 99% of the dwellings has a gas-stove, gas-heating and warm-water on gas - it will (have to) turn into an electric country on solar and wind energy.

Though according to the trias energetica houses should be isolated first, and then provided of sustainable energy, it will be a transition of the installations, because the investment in isolation is too expensive for housing corporations and private home-owners. And why invest €20.000 in isolation if you can get free energy from the sun and the wind? Investment in an electric installation will cost approximately €5000 per apartment. But this transition desires a development of a new generation of solar energy-panels, mini-wind-turbines of infrared-light heaters, a new generation of designers, a new generation of supply chains and—to begin with—a new awareness of the need and the profitability of such a transition into a sustainable neighborhood.

But it can be done: after the oil-crisis in 1973, Holland changed from an oil-consuming country into a gas-consuming country. Within 10 years almost all houses were turned from oil consumers into gas-consumers.

Now we will have to turn each house from a gas-consumer into an electricity-consumer. Or even better, into an electricity-producer... your house as a mini-energy-plot, in a circular city.

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Gentrification in historical centers of Colombia: The pressure of real estate markets over the traditional population

cITY 4/5: Cartagena & Santa Marta Eduardo Mazuera Eduardo is an architect and anthropologist from Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia and has master degrees in History from the same University and Restoration from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain. Nowadays he works as a professor of architecture at Los Andes University and an adviser on cultural heritage and conservation.

Colombia has approximately 50 urban sectors which have been

declared historical centers, with a large amount of buildings which date to the colonial period and are considered part of the country´s cultural heritage. For over 50 years the government has applied different measures to procure the conservation of these areas in some of the oldest cities, ranging from simple administrative acts of heritage declaration and protection, to stricter laws of urban planning and even projects for interventions in architecture and public space, with the participation of private investors. The consequent transformation of some of these historical centers has resulted in the relocation of the original community, now forced to live in the periphery of the cities where rents and taxes are much lower.

The renovation of most historical centers in Colombia has been relatively scarce, given that thought-out urban plans for these sectors are rather recent and cities have had an irregular urban development with little interest in the downtown areas. These sectors have been modified without adequate criteria or sense of respect for architectural heritage, giving way to destruction and loss of emblematic constructions. This has been due to economic pressures that undervalue old buildings and give priority to commercial activities. Such urban areas have maintained to an extent the traditional population of workers and residents but usually share a common problem of very few inhabitants at night time and subsequent insecurity.

Over the past 12 years other urban sectors of cultural heritage value have been put through intense processes of infrastructure and real estate development that followed precise plans for the recovery of historical buildings, streets and squares. Even though these plans were initially designed to protect the physical characteristics of these areas, a crucial aspect was left out: gentrification. One example is the city of Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast, formerly deteriorated and partly abandoned which began its renovation around 2004 and now offers a variety of luxury services for tourists and economic opportunities for investors. Lower-income residents and small businesses have stepped aside and moved out of the old buildings that now harbor boutique hotels and shops, expensive apartments and restaurants.

However, many other historical centers of great importance in Colombia do not have a defined urban plan, clear development rules or effective social policies about vulnerable population.

The most dramatic case is worldwide famous Cartagena de Indias, also on the Caribbean coast, which was recognized as a tourist destination and architectural jewel. In the last two decades of the XX century and still ongoing today, Cartagena’s historic center has suffered a complete transformation regarding its activities and inhabitants. With colonial houses which can cost several millions of dollars, even in a ruinous state of conservation, the real estate business has forced a population migration.

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Cartagena, Colombia Flickr / Alexander Schimmeck

The Colombian government, through its Ministry of Culture, has insisted for over ten years in approving an urban plan for the historic center of Cartagena, but political and economic interest have stood in the way and prevented its regulation. The urban plan contemplates that some traditional activities and low-income housing should prevail, albeit in very limited parts. The risk of gentrification is still enormous and almost inevitable, given that the physical recovery of any decaying building is highly expensive and requires the participation of private investors who may identify a business opportunity in a renovation project. who may find attractive opportunities. Another threat is that to property owners in the surrounding area of the historic city center, where the urban plan seeks to protect the old city’s cultural value by limiting the development and density of high-rise buildings. This initiative has been confronted with the greatest resistance among landowners, who deeply influence politics. The current situation is a rapid increase in the cost of land with new building projects aimed at a rich population and the expulsion the former residents.

At a smaller scale, other towns like Villa de Leyva, Barichara and Honda in the central Andes mountains, have also encountered a similar phenomenon where people form the country’s capital, Bogotá, have acquired houses for a very high price and use it as a weekend shelter. This has increased property values in such small towns and now others look forward to this speculation, even if it means their own relocation. Those who refuse to sell their property and give up the economic opportunity of receiving much more money than they ever expected for their house, are eventually surrounded by new and richer inhabitants that will almost certainly pressure a change of activities and social profile in the neighborhood.

Although recent public policy in Colombia strives to avoid gentrification in urban areas where the cost of land has increased substantially, its mechanisms are still weak and its implementation is difficult. The government has very little resources assigned to counteract these situations where the traditional population could continue living and carrying out their ordinary activities but are currently facing economic pressures to leave. There are more chances in cities and towns where migration has not yet been forced and urban planning is still to be perfected and updated. People may yet have hope of staying in their homes if government actions considered other priorities than the wealth of a few individuals, the taxes they would pay and the new economic dynamics that could follow. This however is most unlikely in a weak economy that needs every bit of investment to improve. Sadly, sometimes the noble cause of conserving architectural heritage is derailed by the economic circumstances of high construction costs and real estate speculation with no government control, which result in gentrification.

References Calvo Posso, Ana María. Políticas y gestión para la sostenibilidad del patrimonio urbano. Bogotá: Centro Editorial Javeriano, 2001.

Dirección de Patrimonio, Ministerio de Cultura. Legislación y normas generales para la gestión, protección y salvaguardia del patrimonio cultural en Colombia. Bogotá: Nomos Impresores, 2010.

Dirección de Patrimonio, Ministerio de Cultura. Formulación e implementación de planes especiales de manejo y protección. Bogotá: Nomos Impresores, 2011.

Palacios, Marco y Frank Safford. Colombia. País fragmentado, sociedad dividida. Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2002.

Salazar Ferro, José. Patrimonio urbano en Colombia. Bogotá: Colcultura, Panamericana Formas e Impresos, 1997.

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conclusion cities The pressure put on inner city locations due to

the growth of urban population and the inherent dynamism of the real estate market make gentrification a recurrent phenomenon around the world. A series of trends can be identified with it, generally including price increases and changes in the services offered, to cater a more affluent audience.

The direct consequences can range from population movements, with influx of new users and displacement of local residents towards more affordable areas, to an image improvement that can benefit the economy of a neighborhood, attracting new businesses and tourism.

Regardless of these common traits, gentrification emerges in different ways, for diverse reasons and with varying outcomes. In the Western context, there is a recurrent shift from industrial to service-driven economy. This transformation makes old industrial areas obsolete, while at the same time their valuable location puts pressure on the demand side for new developments to take place. The same can be said for the areas that surround them, which frequently host the workers of such businesses and have developed accordingly.

In newly industrialized countries, gentrification is driven by an extensive urban population growth and it’s not limited to the central areas, but affects also the urban sprawl that characterizes these cities’ landscape. Other cases, like colonial cities in the Caribbean have a strong pressure coming from tourism.

Cities like London or Amsterdam have had waves of gentrification since their origins, due to their leading economic position in the European context. Most recently it has been characterized by the rediscovery of working class neighborhoods. And although regulation odes to protect the displacement of population, it also seeks to find a competitive advantage, that would improve its economic situation.

Cities like Bangalore or Cartagena, that have less strict planning regulations, present a higher degree of displacement, albeit with a distinctive dependency among the different parts of society. For the latter, a common aspect is the relation between inhabitants, ones working for the others.

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The biggest challenge in each case seems to be finding the adequate balance between economic growth and keeping a mix of different sectors of the population. On one hand, economic growth is necessary to finance the projects that benefit the cities and, on the other hand, a healthy mixed area benefits from increased social activity and creates spaces for people with different interest to meet and share.

Taking into account the inevitable growth of major urban centers and the increasing pressure over real estate in them, it is important to understand that gentrification is hardly avoidable and that it has to be taken care accordingly. This responsibility however cannot be taken solely by the governments and requires the participation of market parties and a greater involvement of society.

- Juan Carlos Romero

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Real estate career day

By Tom van Eerden The Real Estate Career Day (RECD) will take place on the 26th of April 2017! This is THE day to start off your career. It is the biggest Real Estate event in the Netherlands for students, hosted by the faculty of Architecture for the 23rd time. The aim of the RECD is to link students to companies in the real estate sector. Through diverse business cases and presentations, 1-on-1 talks, drinks and a dinner, the students will become more acquainted with various companies.

Over 250 students from different universities and over 30 companies will attend this exciting day. The companies are active in different fields of real estate, like project management, financial advisory, development and consultancy. Many of these companies are looking for new colleagues, so one of these contacts might very well be your future employer. It is the place to be if you’re looking for an internship, a job, or if you just want to expand your horizon. Make sure you don’t miss it! But don’t just take our word for it, let’s hear from Lisa, a former student of MBE in Delft.

“As of January I’m working for Deloitte Real Estate Consulting at our office The Edge in Amsterdam. As REC, we provide strategic advice to both public and private companies regarding their real estate portfolio and organization. Last year, during the RECD, I got

acquainted with Deloitte for the first time. In the morning I attended their business case and in the afternoon I had a 1-on-1 talk with some of my current colleagues. This provided me with a good overview of the firm and Real Estate Consulting - what their daily work entails, what clients they serve and what the work atmosphere is like. I found out that Deloitte matched perfectly with both the subject of my graduation thesis, as well as my personal preferences, so I was very enthusiastic! My next step was joining the in-house day of Deloitte, after which I applied for a job at Real Estate Consulting last summer, with success. I’ve been working at Deloitte for a few months now and I like it very much. If you ask me, the RECD is a great and unique opportunity for students to meet different types of real estate companies, and to find out if they are active in your field of preference or expertise. There is a fitting company for everyone, regardless of what phase of your study you’re currently in. Furthermore, due to the informal atmosphere, it is easy to get in contact with people from practice and talk about a job or an internship. A fun fact for us MBE graduates, is that many of us now visit the RECD not as a student, but with the various companies we work for, so we still see each other at the RECD once a year. I’m looking forward to seeing you at the RECD this year, with Deloitte!”

Tom van Eeerden Chairman RECD

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Lisa Kuijpers Former MBE Student

boss activity: International Business Tour

Stockholm, the land of lax and Pipi Langkous, was the destination of this year’s international business tour.

the mall. To close off the day Unibail arranged a bowling alley for us, where we all enjoyed some games and some drinks. Later that evening a couple of employees of Unibail joined us for a very nice dinner.

We began the IBT at the South Axis of Amsterdam with a visit to OVG and Savills. OVG shared some never seen before photos of their progressive project ‘The Valley’ with us, and the winning team of the case organized by them was invited to the start of the construction.

At Savills, the students got the chance to ask employees of different departments various questions, in order to get familiar with the different fields of work. We ended the day at Savills with some drinks before we had to leave for Schiphol to catch our plane to Stockholm.

Around 01.30 we arrived at ‘Lodge 32’, our hostel for the week.

Saturday was left open for us to explore the city, and in the afternoon we supported the Stockholm ice hockey team during an ice hockey match. That evening the whole group went to club ‘V’ where Fredrick, another exchange student that enjoyed our master programme from September ’15 till February ’16, arranged some VIP tables for us from where we could enjoy the Stockholm nightlife. Sunday was the last day of the IBT and after a free morning we all left for the airport with our suitcases to catch our flight back home…

On Thursday, our first day in the capital of Sweden, we visited the Kista Galleria mall, a project of Citycon. There, Jens, an exchange student that studied MBE in Delft, welcomed us and we listened to an interesting presentation by one of the Dutch partners. This was followed by a discussion on ‘what makes a good mall’. Afterwards, Citycon gave us a tour through the mall and we all went for some drinks. In the evening the group enjoyed a BBQ style dinner before we explored the local pubs of Stockholm. The next day was reserved for Unibail Rodamco, for another mall visit to the Mall of Scandinavia.

We were welcomed with a nice buffet lunch and a presentation about the company and its vision. We received a tour through the beautiful mall before we worked on a case on sustainability implications for

Anniek van der Hoek Anniek van der Hoek has a bachelor in Architecture and recently graduated from Management in the Built Environment. She is currently working as a Junior Project Manager at dvpc.

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Student Column:

Jan Evertsenstraat The old parts of the city of Amsterdam are

rapidly shifting from multicultural, working class neighbourhoods to places where students and yuppies run the show. The Jan Evertsenstraat is a typical example of this transformation: the current shabby shops are making place for coffee spots, supermarkets and smoothie bars.

The night falls on a Wednesday afternoon in October, and whilst the sun slowly disappears between the highrise on the other side of the highway, I am struggling to pull my bike from a bicycle rack at the waterside of the Westlandgracht. I am in a hurry: my evening shift starts at six, and I still need to do some groceries.

Swift as an arrow, I steer my bike through the Rembrandtpark.

Waiting for a traffic light, I catch my breath. The horrific decorations of Café Knibbel, Knabbel, Knuisje (English: “Nibble, nibble, like a mouse”) catch my attention. Who on earth would like to go there?

When the traffic light turns green, I cross the Mercator Square. The hipster bars have been popping up like mushrooms over the past two years, but fifty metres away, you can find Döner Plaza, greengrocer Istanblue and a casino, where compulsive gamblers can start at nine in the morning. It wouldn’t surprise me if the place does some money laundering on the side.

The more we head towards the city centre, the more cool bars I pass.

Then it’s time to do some groceries. I park my bike in front of the Albert Heijn. The neighbourhood committee was very upset about

The Albert Heijn, Jan Evertsenstraat amsterdam-athome.nl

the arrival of the multinational. With a microwave meal under my arm, I continue my journey. Another traffic light. One of the many pubs that is on my wish list, Café ‘t Stoplicht (English: Traffic light Pub), is located next to it. The regular, male customers drink their beers on Persian carpets, the traditional Dutch pub tablecloth. On the other side of the crossing, a new bar is having its opening party.

Gin and tonics are advertised, and the crowd generally wears white Adidas sneakers, black (ripped) jeans and camel coats. The last part of the route consists mainly of housing, and then I arrive at my working station.

The microwave is humming in the background when I have another thought about my bike ride; although I prefer bars over greengrocers, it is a shame that the current variety seems to be a short term street scene.

Jan Ruttenberg Jan Ruttenberg just finished his first semester of the master track Management in the Built Environment after completing his bachelor Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences. Next to studying, Jan spends his time as a bridge keeper in Amsterdam and at the graphic department of De Oude Bibliotheek in Delft.

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Student Column:

Airbnb – curse or blessing?

Probably everyone of us has booked a room on

Airbnb or a similar platform for holidays at this point. It is appealing since prices are usually lower than for hotels and self-catering facilities save additional costs. Furthermore, you get a more personal experience, tips and recommendations from a local landlord.

Airbnb is labelled as one of the most successful shared economy businesses with a global impact and a turnover rate of about one billion Dollars. Shared economy in this case means that residential space is offered in form of shared rooms, individual rooms, whole apartments or houses that are redistributed to travellers or for other temporary stay purposes. This is a win-win situation for the landlord and the temporary guests, especially in remote areas where tourist accommodation is not really profitable. However, there are also downsides to this process over its long term use since 2008: the rent margins for proposed residential space rises up towards hotel rents, and kicks–off a gentrification process in attractive, touristic cities.

In other words, gentrification means that an increasing amount of living space is becoming unavailable due to the more profitable Airbnb subleases.

Protests in NYC against Airbnb / QZ.com

Furthermore, in attractive cities for Western European travellers, like Budapest, real estate prices are on average lower than in equivalent Western European cities. There, it is even more tempting to change residential space to a Airbnb tourist accommodation. Insideairbnb. com is a useful database to get a feeling of the impact of Airbnb on local markets, through the constant collection of the available data on Airbnb.com. Affected cities have reacted in different ways to limit or participate in the margins of Airbnb: 





San Francisco introduced a hotel tax on Airbnb rentals New York limited the Airbnb stays to a period of more than 30 days only to lower the competition with the established hotel market. Beyond that a hotline was established for Airbnb related complains; if a landlord scores three complains he will be banned from Airbnb.

In London, the maximum rental period was limited to 90 days per year, introduced voluntarily by Airbnb



In Berlin, Airbnb providers are just allowed to offer space with a commercial license

The different approaches show that governments are struggling to decide if they want to claim profits, restrict or even ban Airbnb. One thing is certain; although Airbnb enables private landlords to use their resources more profitable, it puts additional pressure on the real estate market for everybody else who wants to live long term in a city.

Benjamin Weihs Benjamin Weihs started the master track Management in the Built Environment in September 2015 and is currently graduating. He was born and raised in Germany, where he also completed his bachelor degree in Architecture

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What is it like to work at Dura Vermeer?

An exclusive interview with Joris Burggraaff, a young professional

Young professionals in the real estate sector can

be an inspiration to current students. Therefore Suzanne Elliott met Joris Burggraaff for an interview at the Dura Vermeer office in Houten on the 9th of January 2017.

Can you explain what kind of business Dura Vermeer is?

Dura Vermeer is primarily a contractor, but a very extensive one as it is involved in construction, infrastructure, engineering and various other services. We develop, realise and operate projects commissioned by third parties as well as projects at our own risk.

Dura Vermeer stands out for innovative working methods, and that we always cooperate intensively with our partners and clients.

What happened after you graduated, how did you come to work at DV? About one week after my graduation, I started working in Dubai. I did this for about a year and flew quite often to both France and the Netherlands. I worked as an architect, an architectural engineer, a project manager, almost everything! It was a nice year, but I found out that family and friends are most important to me.

During my graduation I interviewed Dura Vermeer for my thesis, and found that key aspects like freedom, innovation, technique and professionalism had a strong presence within the company. So I thought: why not give it a shot? At the time, there were no job openings so I decided to make a video about how I wanted to change the world, starting in the construction business. I sent it to Dura Vermeer and several months later they called and offered me a job.

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What does your job as property developer consist of?

As a property developer I work in our office in Houten (near Utrecht).

In this office we are responsible for the development of commercial real estate. For me this job consists of being responsible for improving a small part of our built environment. My goal is to create a better world and I want to do that building by building. I want to increase the amount of good and beautiful buildings. Basically, for me, this business consists out of two different areas. The first one is the commercial area. This entails connecting all the dots by creating enough support to launch and finish a project, and aligning different means and interests of all the stakeholders involved. The second area is the one of the technical property developer (development manager). This is essentially directing the design team to get the

best design within the spatial and commercial boundaries. With my background in architecture in Delft, this is my favourite part - to actually create a building.

Could you describe a regular day at your job?

I’ll describe a random day. I hate traffic jams, which is why I get up quite early - usually between 6 and 6:30 a.m. The night before I check my schedule to see where I need to go, as I work at different locations every day. I use the mornings to check my email and catch up on the latest news. After this I have meetings with e.g. the design team, the financial experts or the notary about thermal energy storage. Sometimes it is more straightforward, more project management. Other times it is more “out of the box”. I work on a project called the Dutch Windwheel, and for this we have a lot of brainstorm sessions, since we don’t have a clear defined project yet.

This makes a nice balance between project management and the more creative part of the job.

What is your favourite part of the job?

I really enjoy finding out new things and experimenting, making mistakes or even failing and then finally have a success! Of course I like winning as well, especially in tenders, where we participate in competitions. It’s either winning or losing.

Furthermore, I love that moment when you realise that something your team and you have designed or constructed is beautiful. This can be the second that the Preliminary Design is approved or when I’m standing on the hollow core slab of the 3rd floor. Those are the parts I enjoy the most!

Which project you worked on so far was the most interesting for you?

I have been working on the Genmab Research Centre for about 2.5 years, since the very start of the project. It’s a project in Utrecht with laboratories and offices. I think it is important for all young professionals to experience a development project from the very beginning until to the end, at least once in your career. This project made that possible for me. I’ve worked on the legal, commercial and technical development side. In this project I also had the freedom to experiment with new technologies, like virtual reality, a 360 degrees camera and BIM. These technologies helps to keep our investor, financier, the end-user and everybody else who is interested, informed about the project.

Why would you recommend students to work at Dura Vermeer?

If you can take on the responsibility and the freedom at Dura Vermeer, you can really conduct your own path - especially if you work in our commercial real estate department. Sometimes the responsibility and freedom are hard, particularly if you’re young. But if you can take this on, it is possible to try new things every day. It is possible to fail and try again. For me this is really important. I see Dura Vermeer a bit as a corporate family business. It is corporate, because we act in a corporate world so we have to be strict and formal sometimes.

But it is also a family business, because it is ok to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying, get on your feet, try again and succeed.

There is space to develop yourself within the company. Besides this, because it is such a big company, it is possible to shift – even to do a traineeship and to see different work areas within the real estate, construction and infra business.

Where do you see yourself in the future at DV (short-term/long-term) Personally I see myself sliding a bit more towards innovation as well as acquisitions. Basically because I like new things and I like winning!

Are there any tips you would like to give to current students?

When in doubt, just do it. I think it is basically about not being too afraid of the consequences; there are always consequences, also negative ones. For me, the worst thing is to not do anything. So when in doubt just do it!

About the interviewee Joris Burggraaff (29) works at Dura Vermeer as both tender manager and property developer for commercial real estate. After he completed a bachelor course in Architecture, he began with the master course Real Estate & Housing at Delft University of Technology. He specialised in Urban Area Development and graduated four years ago.

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book tips Changing Context in Urban Regeneration - 30 Years of Modernisation in Rotterdam

by Paul Stouten This book presents an overview of theory on the changes in the population and social structure, causing different conditions and requirements for urban renewal plans. It provides a connection between academic debate and professional practice, by evaluating the urban renewal plan of Rotterdam that has been tested for more than thirty years.

the upcycle

by William McDonough, Michael Braungart In this book, the follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the authors predict the next step towards solving the problem of our ecological crisis. They suggest that we need to actually enhance the natural world as we live, create and build by redesigning our activity and hereby improving the environment.

Gentrification in a Global Context - The new urban colonialism Edited by Rowland Atkinson and Gary Bridge This book provides a new perspective and new evidence on gentrification. The process of gentrification is identified in the broad field of international urban contexts. Each chapter is covered by different authors, who all give an overview of gentrification in their own country.

Podcasts by Centre for Cities In these podcasts Andrew Carter talks to different experts about developments that have influenced cities in the UK over the past years.

They also address the challenges expected to be faced in the future.

1. City Talks: World Cities and Nation States 2. City Talks: What will Brexit mean for cities?

3. City Talks: Is gentrification a bad thing?

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boss magazine no 58 February 2017