Amstel III Mixed Use Redevelopment Research Project

Initiating the “Plot Approach� by: relocating parking as triggering tool for new urbanity Amstel III Mixed Use Redevelopment Research Project July 18, 2013

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INDEX p.3 p.6 p.16 p.20 p.24 p.27 p.35 p.39 p.41 p.48 p.49

Project brief Case study Ownership structure Interviewing building owners City planning progress Interviewing city council Programmatic scenarios Living function as a MUST Plot approach and parking relocation Street making and area activiation Research conclusion

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AMSTEL III MIXED USE REDEVELOPMENT Research Brief:

Research Progress:

Amstel III Mixed Use Redevelopment Project develops urban strategies that can potentially stimulate the Amstel III office area into a mixed use environment. By studying foreign case studies, interviewing the city council and 2 of the building owners from the Hogehilweg area, the research have concluded that plot strategies may better to stimulate individual redevelopment processes rather than a top down master plan. Each plot approach/strategy can be custom made to provide different land lease contracts, program adaptations, as well as regulating the ownership structures. A give and take process between the city council (who will invest on the public infrastructure) and the building owner(who will redevelop the plot) can minimize the redevelopment risk for the area, guarantee freedom for individual redevelopment choices and navigate the entire area’s redevelopment direction in a more interactive manner.

1. Case study - Transformation process of empty offices in Taipei, Taiwan 2. Building owner analysis - Financial background - Organization - Interest on redevelopment - building redevelopment potentials 3. Interviews - Iris van de Horst, Zuidoostlob, Amstel III - Marlies Gijsel, Zuidoostlob, Amstel III - Pieter Roozenboom, Nora Chouli, Henno van Eijk, Uni-Invest - Nick Both, Revital Invest & Intercity Management 4. Formulation of redevelopment strategy: Plot Approach by relocating parking as triggering tool for new urbanity

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Vacancy now and it’s growing

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Amstel III office area is currently under urban redevelopment processes. It has several metro stops connecting to Amsterdam city center, the A9 and A highways connection to the national highway system, the A10 connecting to other regional centers such as Zuidas, Schiphol, future Amstel II business hub. The ambition of the city is to slowly transform the mono-functional office district which is currently suffering from 25% building use vacancy to a mixed use district with bigger enterprises and densified living functions, aiming at upgrading the area into a vbrant business hub in the coming 30 years.

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CASE STUDY: TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF EMPTY OFFICES IN EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

Impression of office buildings along Chung Xiao East Road in the 70s.

1970_Tong Lin Plaza_GF & Typical Floor Tong Ling Plaza is a typical office building built in the 70s in East District, Tapei. It is located along the Chung Xiao East Road. On the street level it has several shops and a passage that connects the Chung Xiao East Road and the secondary road within the urban block. On top , it has 13 stories of office floors.

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CASE STUDY: TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF EMPTY OFFICES IN EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

Offices built in the 1970s

1970_Tong LIng Plaza_Typical Floor 5 years after Tong Ling Plaza was built and in use, some of the floors became empty due to the economical crisis at the time. The East District as a whole suffers from the building vacancies from that time.

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CASE STUDY: TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF EMPTY OFFICES IN EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

1975_Tong Ling Plaza_6th Floor The owner of Tong Ling Plaza started to split the building ownership per floor and sell it on the market.

The first buyer bought the 6th floor and transformed it halfly into a karaokay bar.

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16-21 floor 11-16 floor 5-11 floor 1-5 floor

By investiagting into the land use regulation, we found out that two types of land use exists in East District.

First, along Chung Xiao East District where the office buildings are standing on, the land use is regulated as “Commercial Mixed Use Land Type 3”, which allows office buildings to accomodate commercial functions, leisure functions, and urban living functions. Within the urban block, the land use is regulated as “ Residential Mixed Use Type 2”, which allows for small cafes, grocery shops, and bakeries to emerged within the residential neighborhood.

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CASE STUDY: TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF EMPTY OFFICES IN EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

1990_Tong Ling Plaza_3rd & 4th Floor In the 90s, due to increasing commercial value of the East District, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors were bought by a disco entrepreneur and were transformed into a large scale nightclub, the “Luxy”.

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CASE STUDY: TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF EMPTY OFFICES IN EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

2000_Ground & Typical Floor Due to the incresing visitors that were brought to the commercial and leisure programs in the office buildings, the East District has gradually become a hip area for night life and small retails and cafes emerged along side the secondary roads within the urban blocks.

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Original buildings Retail extensions toward street

Tong Ling Plaza

Types of retails and commercial programs are regulated according to the width of the street (traffic capacity), and not by zoning. Therefore the result for local street urbanism can be much more dynamic.

Small retails and cafes (blue) emerged as extensions from the building towards the street.

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EXTRACTING URBAN REDEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FROM EAST DISTRICT, TAIPEI, TAIWAN

1. Splitting building ownerships per floor. The result can lead to diverse types and scales of owners within the building.

2. A mixed use neighborhood with a good mix of big and small scale owners can lead to a 24 hour economy.

3. Differentiate different qualities of living, for example, urban living should be much more easy going with noise regulation than high-quality living.

4. Commercial programs can be regulated according to adjacent street profiles in stead of zoning. This can lead to more spontansous developments of small scale infrastructures and commercial activities.

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Ownership as crucial factors determining future change

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Office buildings are owned by various kind of owners. 33% of vacant offices in the Netherlands is owned by foreign building owners.

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119 6a 2 6 There are several types of building owners in 50 109the area, each of them has a 4different finantial 119 and management structure.

2 Our research tries to categorize their finantial structures in relatioinship to building redevelopment typologies.

For example, through our interviews, we have learned that it is possible for property developers to sell out their buildings, entirely or by floor, when the value of the building drops to a certain level and that the use f building insullation/installation have come to an end. However, it is diffucult fo real estate fonds to do so because they cannot convience the bank on the value drop.

Even if they can, the bank would like them to redevelop the entire building.

Local owners are far more interested in the redevelopment of Amste III area than international owners. Through our interviews and investigations, international woners of this area come from Germany, Sweden, and are distanced from the redevelopment initiatives. Local owners can be considered as actors in the first phase of the transformation process of Amstel III. ull H

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PARKING NUMBERS AS CRUCIAL FINANTIAL FACTORS FOR OWNERS TO DETERMINE URBAN CHANGES Since each private plot has a certain amount of parking lots. Through our interviews we learned that the building owners do not have urgency to reorganize the parking, however, they can accept the parking owners that stall cars in a more economical way and street parking (if the city council is willing to let them). They also suggest underground parking. But they will not invest anything unless there are incentives to do so, such as more amount of parking spaces, being provided in parking owners than ground parking, or the raising value of their parking ground in the future, etc.

Business owners who are finantially doing better can be seen as active actors in the redevelopment process of Amstel III. They are also more active in observing the changements of the area in order to speculate the property value change. However, building owners who are finantially less capable at the moment has more interest to sell out their buidings entirely, therefore, these buildings can be considered as potential changements to the area as well. Building owners who are more suffering from high building vacancy has more pressure to sell out or redevelop the buildings. Building owners who has less building vacancy still seeks for different ways to upgrade and promote the buildings to potential office renters.

Currently office buildings in the Hogehilweg area are mainly with one elevator core and two fire escape exits. Redeveloping these buildings into double use buildings may require an extra elevator, which can be combined with a vertical parking tower.

Combined fire escape exits with doors towards exterior are necessary to meet fire regulations.

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Through the interviews, we have learned that it is possible for property developers to sell out their buildings, entirely or by floor, when the value of the building drop to a certain level and that the use of building insullation/installation have come to an end. However, it is difficult or real estate funds to do so because they cannot convience the bank on the value drop. Even if they can, the bank would like them to redevelop the entire building. Also, for some property developers it is possible to develop all types of programs. For housing developer and famly owner it is not that flexible. It might be easier for them to sell out parts of their plots to other types of investors or developers.

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INTERVIEW WITH BUILDING OWNERS 16-04-2012 Interview with Nick Both, intervity Management & Revital Invest Mainpoints: - Campus Arena is a group developed to support the development of the Hogehilweg (addresses that is with the Hogehilweg). This group started to remove vacancy campaign along the Hogehilweg and imrpove the street image in order to attract more potential renters. Nora Choulle (Uni invest), Martije Kaas (Skep), and Nick Both (Intercity)is one of the leading person in this group.

- The real estate crisis is just starting now.

- It is possible to split the ownership of a building into floor, because Nick also does building management so it will be the same task as before. But the problem now is not no one can get a loan from te bank.

- At this moment bank also stop investing into ground lease (?)

- Nick is interested in developing housing, but he doubts that perhaps only low cost living will be made there, and then there will be the risk of a ghetto.

- Politians still allow more empty offices to be built.

- Everything depands on price, he can buy empty offices if it is with a good price, he can sell buildings or floors to other owners with other programs if they offer a good price. BUt the main difficulty at the moment is finance.

- Parking towers could work.

Nick Both (N) Hein de Haan (H) Tsaiher Cheng (T) T: If I understand correctly, Revital is a real estate fund?

N: We are Intercity Management. We have together with some other investors these two buildings (pointing Hogehilweg 4,6). This one we manage for Vodelpark Vastgoed Holdings. And this one is from Trellum Mcquious BV. These are all private company. Hogehilweg 4 is around 50% empty, and 6 is quite full. We bought 4 almost 2 years ago, that time it was completely empty. What we did was we put air conditioning in, new toilets and installations. The office market in the last two years in Amsterdam South East was very slow. But we do see in the last 6 months, a lot of offices are coming back again to Amsterdam South East.

But the Het Hogeweg (need to check again which one) is doing very bad. It is almost empty. So we do have buildings that are doing pretty ok, but some are doing pretty poor, and is in urgent need of investment.

T: How many buildings you own in entire Netherlands?

N: Around 100. We invest in mainly commercial developments.

T: So why did you want to take that risk two years ago? Knowing that the office rental market is not doing so good.

N: Well, we bought it in a very low price. So we bought it with 1.5 million euro, and we renovated with another million. So with 2.5 million euro we have a completely new building. And that is the only solution is you want to rent out nice buildings. Because almost 5 years ago, we did the same trick with this building, the 6, at that time, success was guaranteed. That was before the crisis. It was a good time.

T: Do you maybe want to sell it again?

N: Yes, of course that can happen. I know there is an investor in the area that is looking for buildings to buy. But I think they would like to buy buildings with very cheap price. And we only sell if we can get a good price. I don’t think it is a good time. Cash is king at the moment. So keep the current renters in and work hard to find new ones. Last 6 months though, a lot of big companies are moving to Amstel III, near the stadium. There are also building tenants moving back to the area at this moment. All the buildings are built in the 90s. A lot of landlord didn’t do anything to the buildings. Together with the vacancy, there were too many developments. It was way out of the limit. Together with the technical stage of the buildings, this vacancy rate has come. But I believe in this location. There are 5 lanes connected to here, to Utrecht, to the North of Holland, to Amsterdam, to Schiphol, etc. Cars can come to here and park here. Archis (check which one) moved out from this building 6-7 years ago already, nothing has been developed here. It is a very old building.

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T: You see in this case study in Taipei, there were also a lot of empty office buildings, after the vacancy came, and they sold the building per floor.

H: Yes, they have a union of owners. Mix of functions.

T: So the question is, do you find it feasible to sell the buildings per floor?

N: Our building? The main problem in this situation here is that a lot of small companies cannot get loans from the bank. To give an example, we have some office buildings in Arhem, before when the economy was good, and we wanted to rent out the small office units to small companies. But everybody wants to actually “buy” a small office unit. But now, no small companies can get loans to buy. Not in 2-3 years. The real estate crisis is just starting now. Before the bank want to invest, we first need a healthy market. Of course it is an option. But you have take care to make a union of owners. And a new owner can not pull in easily.

You know, if you want to be the owner of a building. You want to be the boss of course; you don’t want to have neighbors, etc.

T: In Hong Kong the owner is allowed to sell out the ground floor. So my question is that if Iris says you can sell only the ground floor, will you do it?

N: If it is in a good location, it is possible.

T: So sell parts, not selling everything.

N: I think it is hard. Because if you start to sell, you want to sell everything. Or I will prefer to keep the 3rd and 4th floor, for the current renters, and sell the rest. We have already splits in other examples. We have shops on the ground floor and on top apartments. And that works fine. It is an option, just depending on the calculation.

T: Because you also do management, so you will manage the entire building anyway, so it doesn’t matter so much.

N: Yes, it doesn’t matter so much.

T: How do you negotiate the ground lease contract with the city council if it is a multi-functional building?

N: it depends on a lot of factors, it depend on the location, the investments, how long is the building already vacant, etc.

T: So if there is someone who wants to buy your ground floor and make it into retail program, how does it work with the ground lease?

N: We have to change the zoning plan, and then is the ground lease. But bank doesn’t really like the ground lease system in Netherlands. At this moment banks doesn’t finance private ground lease anymore. Everything stops now because of the bank.

N: We have started collaboration here with almost all the landlords. To invest in the area. We call this group “Campus Arena”, we established a website and we are really at this moment by the tax office to get an approval to invest together. After that we can really start to do some investment together. We want to make the Hogehilweg a campus boulevard. We want to improve some common issues, like the safety aspects, give the place an address, etc. We try to upgrade the open space, we share the cost and invest in our own area.

H: Wow, it is quite radical.

N: Hogehilweg is shared by different small companies. There was a CEO of an international company who was thinking about renting office space here. But at the end he didn’t do it because of the vacancy issue.

H: It is a bad image.

N: Yeah, it is a bad image. So we also want to get rid of the signs “Te Huur”. Show the people what it is, the “Campus Arena”. I will show you the website. Everyone can find their own building in the website. I think we are now 70% of the owners now participating in this plan. We also want to ask the city council if we can start to put some cafes, living .etc. But it is a lot of work.

T: Another question is, are you interested to organize the parking vertically, and sell the land that is freed from parking lots.

N: If you have really ones? Why not. It is do-able.

N: And I know the city council also want living. But the first question I will have is who wants to live there? I am afraid that this area might become like a ghetto, like the Bijlmermeer.

T: Why do you think it will be a ghetto.

N: Because probably a developer will develop housing in the lowest category, with very low prices. I think what you need is people who can spend some money.

The question is how to attract people to come over there to Amstel III. Otherwise you set problems for the future. You need people who are active.

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N: I think the price will drop and then some more investment will come in of course. But it really depands on the politics as well. Because the politics are still approve companies to build large vacancy buildings.

It is ridicules. It is making the problems bigger. The local government needs to earn money by selling land.

They have to pay social security money! It is politically correct to say that everybody has to take care the problem. But a developer’s job is to develop. The only person who can stop him is the government. We have been active in this market for almost 10 years, since the internet crisis in 2001 there are already a lot of vacancy in the market. But the government still approves new buildings. So you see what I mean. The vacancy rate of our buildings is raising, it is difficult situation. The vacancy of an office building influence the open spaces, and then it influences the building next to it. If you look at Hogehilweg. The area close to the station is doing pretty good. Atlas is doing good. But around the Hogehilweg area not much has been happening. Stena will have a lot of vacancy in the future.

T: Maybe they will sell?

N: Yeah, maybe, and maybe we will buy, but it really depands on the price.

T: So Nick, what is your planning with the group Campus Arena? You want to do it for many year?

N: Yeah, we believe in the location. We have good locations, a lot of parking. Atlas was a bad building 5 years ago, and pink property did a really good job, now they are doing good with all the sun screens, cafes, children center, etc. And we have enough money, only different is that we have a lot of owners to deal with, and they have only one. But getting things financed is the most difficult issue now.

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INTERVIEW WITH BUILDING OWNERS 30-04-2012 Interview with Gijs Albada Jelgersma, IVG Netherlands B.V. Mainpoints: - Gijs has properties more next to the Station. He will move his office there next year.

- They are financially capable to change the building or develope new ones.

- He thinks it is better that if the city council can regulate in a way that it is clear “what not to do”, instead of “what can be done”.

- If the future program of the plot is not clear in 25 years, it is difficult to calculate the ground lease cost.

- Parking tower can be installed if it really works, preferabaly with double amount of parking spaces to earn more rent profit.

- Underground parking is preferred.

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City Planning Progress

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Currently, the city council has changed the gound use from office use land to mixed use land, therefore it is possible to adapt for more spontaneous types of developments and different programs such as housing and retails in the area.

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Along the metro line, green paths with recreation and landscape modification is undergoing planning as well. In the future, this will promote more pedestrian flows to the area as well as linkng Amstel III office area and the Bijlmermeer.

Local initiative Glamour Manifest has been promoting the communications among building owners in the area.

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NTERVIEW WITH CITY COUNCIL 04-04-2012 Interview with Iris van de Horst, Project leader Zuidoostlob Summary: - Iris said: Housing is possible and she is aware that there should be more housing. She does not know where the first housing could be in the Amstel III area.

- In the Structuur plan it is a mixed use area, and she wants to do housing independently from the bestemmingplan. (Becuase it takes 26 weeks to have a permission to build a house).

- it is possible to have short term housing in the area, if it is not labelled.

- She puts foil around the building to make sure there is no development outside of the building.

- It retails are included in the zoning plan, it has to be regulated.

- To put retails, need to explain fesibility, and good spatial order.

- It is about what you regulate upfront and what you do with individuals.

- Splitting building into floors with different ownerships is possible.

- The finanatial structure of most of the owners is like a Christmas tree. If you track it, the biggest owner behind it can be a German bank.

Iris van de Horst: (I) Hein de Haan: (H) Tsaiher Cheng: (T) T: So together with Hein de Haan we are working with the Stimuleringfonds on this research project in Amstel III. We are looking for mixed use strategies that prepare a mixed use urban planning environment.

So that means that are either land use regulation, or building re-programming that can encourage small ownerships.

I: And what do you mean by land use regulation?

H: Like the zoning plan, or bestemmingplan.

T: Like how is it possible to use land as an instrument to stimulate mix use developments.

I: You don’t mean that the government owns the land and then so they can do everything right?

T: No-no, everything is privatized in South East Asia.

I: OK. T: So I am going to show today 2 examples, one in Taipei, which is an ex-empty office building, the Tonglin Plaza, how it transformed from a vacant office to a mixed use office. And also vacant industrial building areas from Hong Kong, how recent governmental policies try to give ways to private developers for transforming the industrial buildings to other functions.

I:OK. T: So first this is Tonglin Plaza in Taipei, in the 60s, the government built major infrastructure along this area and locate office towers next to it. Before, the area was nothing and far from city center. Within the block, there are housing apartments. But in the 80s, there was an economical crisis, during that time, half of the offices moved out.

I: But the area was already a mixed use area?

T: Well, it was mixed in the sense that there was office along the infrastructure and housing within. But it was not mixed within the office buildings.

I: Right, both senses were already present.

T: So this is the Tonglin Plaza building in which we analyzed. You can see the façade, it is built with curtain wall structure. This is the ground floor, where you can see there is a passage that connects the main infrastructure and the secondary infrastructure within the block. And this is a typical office floor.

I: Ok. T: So what happened after the crisis was that, the owner of this building releases private ownerships to smaller owners, which say, one owner per floor.

H: So before it was one owner per building, now is one owner per floor.

T: So this act caused later a chain reaction in program change in the building. Our analysis put it into 4 phases, in the first phase the owner of the middle floor sub-divide the floor and rent out half of the floor to karaokay bars. And they made a secondary door here as the control point.

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I: And there is no bank that says “you cannot do this”?

T: Um..no.

T: So I will show you how the land regulation accommodated this program change.

There are 2 types of land in this area, one is so called “commercial mixed use land”, and the other one is called “residential mixed use land”. And each land use there is 4 types of ‘mix’, 4 degrees of ‘mix’. So for example, Residential land type 1 says that there can be absolutely no shop, only living. And type 4 is more urban living. And in-between you can have residential land that allows small shops, like bakery shops.

And within each type of land, a secondary regulation regulates for certain types of program you need to apply for program change permit, and for other types you don’t need to apply for permit.

I: It looks very much like how we are building up our zoning plan now.

T: After phase one, in the 80s, the globalization process started, so there are a lot of immigrants that moved to Taipei to look for job opportunities. And they need cheaper working spaces and living spaces. So you see now, the owner of the top floor changed parts of the top floor into service apartments.

I: And is this allowed in the zoning plan? Because my biggest problem with my zoning plan now is that I can put housing in Amstel III, but they asked me to research how can that be possible. In terms of safty, environment and air quality, sound quality has to be good. My biggest problem is that I have this big area, 125 hectres(?), and I do not know, where this first housing is going to be? And I also know one thing, that it is not going to go very fast. So now we have decided, we are not going to housing in our zoning plan.

T: No? I: No. Because we can make housing in a different way. Because it takes 26 weeks to have a permission to build a house. But If it is included in zoning plan it takes longer to start to build a house(?). But if we want housing in the area, the owners want us to speak out on this issue. So now we put in our “structure plan”(the structure plan of Amsterdam central government) that this is going to be a mixed use area.

I: And in the traffic research, I have put housing. And I put like peanut butter, everywhere (?).

I: If the government can buy back the ownership and just place housing there, it will ofcorse be much easier.

T: Sometimes in East Asia developer uses ”short-stay housing” to gain permit for housing, because short stay is something commercial, not really housing, so they avoid being confronted to the environmental quality part. Can this be applied here?

I: If it is not labeled yet, sure. I do like to use things that are not labeled yet, haha.

There is some sort of short stay that requires less permit, depands on the days the dweller stays. I think it is about 3 months.

H: It is like a long term hotel.

I: But the only problem is that the expat market is primary in the city center. The expats with money want to live along the canals. However, the expats with less money might be interested in Amstel III. T: So program change phase 3, there was more users in the buildings, therefore more retails emerged along the secondary infrastructure. And later, there was a large disco tech.

I: So how did they do that?

T: The disco tech guy bought the ownership from 3 floors.

I: Ah-uh, that’s the thing I wanted to know. You need height right?

T: It is much easy to buy small ownerships per floor to combine it. If you want to sub-divide a portion of the building from the entire building, it is less flexible.

I: I like this idea.

I: If you look at the ownership structure in Amstel III now, it is mainly vastgoed fonds. And they are not the biggest investors. They do not have a lot of investment capitals. So it can be interesting for them to sell it per square meter. Because they want to get rid of it. They are like a Christmas tree with a lot of branches, so they are like little companies, little companies…owned by a bigger company, and then several bigger companies together are owned by another even bigger company, and then at the end, you find out, they are owned by the German bank. Their biggest problem is that all their activities are financed through lending money. So they don’t have money of their own. And this is an enormous barrier to think about changing the building. And the bank does not gain interest in helping them to change the area or the building.

But I know, they have to sell. They need to sell. They told me in my face “Iris, my bank wants me to sell”.

T: So how to help them sell?

I: Therefore I think selling out per floor to small owners can be a nice strategy.

I : But I think this has to come with the next zoning plan. Because what I am now doing the the zoning plan now is to try to be as restricted as possible. I am putting foil around the building and tell them this is the area where you are allowed to make change.

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H: I am opposing to this, there should be other developments in the area.

I: My reason is that I do not want other activities happening but at the same time nothing within the building. I do not want zoning plan to become an excuse for this result.

I: I have had a very funny discussion with “Karanssa”. Now Karanssa is a guy who is very well known in Amsterdam. He builds a lot. Now his grandson is running the company. I was very much into pavilions at that moment, to allow pavilions to be made, etc. And he said “Iris, why do you want to put it up front? Because it is far easier to make a pavilion than it is to transform the existing buildings.”

H: Right, but you can also say, or to regulate them, that they have to build the pavilions and change the buildings together.

I: Yes, that is possible. But I am not sure if I should use the zoning plan as an instrument to regulate or stimulate this.

I: I believe that when some functions are pushed out, you need new space. Otherwise you are just creating new empty space. I believe in this. We can make pavilions, but we have to think in steps.

T: So back to Taipei, now in phase 4, you see more the interior of the disco tech.

I: Wow, how did they do that?

T: They reinforced the structure and make extra elevators connected to the ground floor. But I don’t think you can do this in the beginning.

I: Right, this comes later, in phase 4. Haha.

T: Right, so afterwards, the commercial activities started to gather more and more on the ground floor level and became a liner experience. This is another regulation that regulate the retail programs along the street. Depanding on the width of the street it allows different types of programs.

I: Why? T: Because, some of them have more traffic, you need loading space, etc.

I: I see.

T: And now, let’s jump to Hong Kong. There are at this moment a lot of vacancy in hong kong’s ex-industrial area. As you can see in this map. There are a lot of mini-towers in this area. Before, it is used as factory towers, where each floor contains 10-12 different light factories own by different owners. Now the government want to change it, so in 1991 they release a law called “Section 16”, where the owner of the building can change the ground floor of the building without changing the rest of the building, and they don’t need to pay the change in ground value.

I: They change the law? In hong kong you can do it.(sign) T: You can not change it here?

I : the only thing I can change here is the city regulation.

T: Does it matter to the out come?

I: Well it depands on what you want. For example, if I want to have retails in the zoning plan, it has to be regulated, but if it is inside the law, then it will be free.

T: Oh~ so in the zoning plan you need to give a maximum number for retail, whereas in law, you don’t need to?

I: Yes, exactly.

T: But how do you give a range? You give a maximum, or minimum, or a range?

I: That’s the blurry part, you have to comply it with “goede ruimtelijke ordening”.

T: Ok. I: And that you have to research on the environmental impacts. And you have to show that it is possible to adapt several “sensitive functions”, like day care, etc.

I: And this days, in the “Wet ruimtelijke ordening 2008”, you also need to explain how you can do, that the “houdbaarheid”, the feasibility.

T: But that’s quite difficult, how can you do that?

I: that’s the problem. Many people ask me, Iris, why you don’t give your zoning plan complete freedom? My answer is, when the judge is going to ask me, so Ms. van de horst, explain me how you are going to make this plan. And then I will say: well, I don’t know!

T/H: Hahaha.

I: The current Wet ruimtelijke ordening 2008 is relatively new, so I am not sure if the feasibility part has already been to court. But I need to explain it anyway, that’s why I have decided to make this strict rule, that everything has to be in the building envelope. Also because I want to give the transformation a chance, and not the new building.

T: I see..

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T: Section 16 in Hong Kong basically says that if changing the entire building will be difficult for the owner, then change the ground floor. And one doesn’t have to pay the difference in ground cost.

I: Yeah. But in the Netherlands office has the highest ground value. The ground lease is normally 50 years contract. And the offices in Amstel III have now around 25 years of presence. So we can not really ask them to give the money back to the city.

T: But the thing is that then they have to build the parking on the ground floor, which brings much more traffic to the area.

I: I don’t like parking on the ground floor.

T: But as I have discussed with Hein, there are a lot of open space in Amstel III, which is possible to reorganize the parking.

I: Yeah ofcorse.

T: like mini-parking-towers or so.

I: Yeah ofcorse, the thing that I was looking at, is that why don’t we organize all parking into one building.

And free the rest of the parking space from the ground floor of the area? So let’s say one out of four and free the rest. But this requires the working together with owners, which is kind of difficult.

I: The thing that we need to do, which is really stupid, is that this road (Hogehilweg?), is year marked as a 50 km road. So in my research for sound, this will come out too high. Because when you are researching for sounds, you do it with formulas, and there is an amount of traffic which is labeled onto a 50km road. But the traffic is not there! So the sound production of this road is not it will be in the research. But I have to follow the research. So I have to make this, which is the best strategy, into a 30km road.

T: Right, and then you can have living function there?

I: And then I can have easy living there.

I: That is also one of the reasons that I am not putting living function now in the zoning plan. Because if I put living function now, I get into the same discussion, 50km road needs to change it into a 30km road, and then I need a traffic decision, and then the stadsdeel (city council) says to me: That’s nice Iris, but if you want a 30km road, you need to put bricks in, instead of asphalt, and we need bumps. So we have to change the road. But I don’t want to change the road, because I don’t have any money.

T/H: Right.

T: We did a competition before in Sloterdijk. It is also about changing empty offices with multi functions.

And we have figured out several typologies that allow multi functions in one building and at the same time satisfy the fire escape regulation. Because in this way they can have separate entrances for living and working but have shared fire escapes that have doors only opening to the outside. So here in Amstel III, we categorized the buildings into A and B types. A type has only one core and one extra staircase. And B type has one core and 2 extra staircases.

I: So how difficult it is to make another staircase?

T: If it is only for fire escape it is very easy.

I: So what I need to do is put this kind of things into my zoning plan!

T: Yes, in some targeted buildings.

H: Yes, it will help a lot to create more mixed use buildings and environments.

I: So how may types are there? Because I see a lot of A’s.

T: Yeah, it is mostly A’s. And some B’s around the big road (Karpelsdreef?)

T: And if it is a big A, then it also gives more reason to change it into multi functional building with an extra staircase.

I: So it is also displays a different investment quality. Because you just put an extra staircase and then it is possible to transform the building. Because there is no welstand(Dutch regulation for…) here, it make it possible to do easy transformation without considering the look of the building.

T: So it is quite free in this sense.

I: Yes. H: In some past war neighborhood area, we also change several floors in some buildings and make them into elderly housing with extra elevators. So you can not only connect the new function floors to car park, but also potentially with elderly housing.

I: So what I have done is that I researched the height of the buildings, the complete buildings, by air photography. You know, I have so much data; you will fall off your chair. I need to know this in order to see if I want to allow roof extensions.

H: Normally the clear height of office floors is quite high, so it can easily allow program change for sure.

I: Really? Interesting…but still nothing happens.

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I/H/T: hahaha..

T: It will come..

I: But I am in a hurry!

(51:00-59:30 skip) I: So it is always about what do you regulate upfront, and what do you do with individuals.

T: Right, so what we want to do, is to interview you on your knowledge of the buildings, who are the owners and what is their financial scheme in terms of running the buildings.

I: Right, then I think you need Marlies. Marlies is the one who knows all of them, I mean, most of them.

I: Because, some of them, which is no joke, you can actually phone to their head quarters and they will answer: Oh-ho, really? We have er..something there? And then they will say: um…I will look it up. And then they put off the phone, and you will never hear from them again. And then you call them after a few days, and then they will say: Oh-ho, I still didn’t look it up.

H/T: hahaha..

I: Dat is echt stadsverneiuwing… (This is really city redevelopment…)

I: So we don’t know everything, we know what we know.

I: Uni-invest is a good party, we are friends personally. They do not have any money, but they definitely want to help with strategies.

I: And then there is this big building there, Pronam, they are the pension funds of IKEA. So they have a lot of investment capital. They are also the owner of this building and this building (pointing..). They are also interested in collaboration because they are renting out here, 80,000sqm of office space. So they are interested in this area to bloom. They are interested party to urban transformation.

H: And het neiuwe kantoor.

I: Yes, indeed, but they are quite small.

I: Euro commerce, you cannot expect anything from them. They are very conservative. Stena…stena, maybe. But Stena I will do it together with Uni-invest, because they know each other. More details you need Marlies. What I have noticed is that we these owners, you need a couple of foot holes, and then the rest will follow, like sheeps. You need to know some of them and be friend to them. Some of them will listen to you, and then the rest might also follow..

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INTERVIEW WITH CITY COUNCIL Interview with Marlies Gijsel, Zuidoostlob Mainpoints: - Stretegy has to function on one plot, because even if you are dealing with an area with multiple owners, one specific owner can change his/her idea, and then you lost your effort.

- Economical sustainability of the area has to be proven.

In Holland, the bestemmingplan is much stricter than the one in UK, becuase in UK an initiate that fits witht he bestemming plan can alsways be objected by the city council, whereas in Holland it is not possible.

- Ground lease encouragement is a way to encourage owners to redevelopment their buildings. Foreign owners usually want longer ground lease contracts to secure their banks.

- City council is going to allow “switching floors” within the buildings, In this way office functions can be concentrated in a certain part of the building, freeing other part of the building for other uses.

- The building owners in the area can be categorized into local, international, rich, poor, financed by bank, family, or private investors.

Iris van de Horst: (I) Marlies Gijsel (M) Hein de Haan: (H) Tsaiher Cheng: (T) T: Last time I have a question from the interview, you said the owners of the building will not prefer to sell the land because they got the land 25 years ago with a very low ground cost. But is it possible to sub-divide land and sell the empty part to other private buyers?

I: Yes, if you compensate them for the parking. But in terms of parking, it is a big asset for them. So they do not want to get rid of the parking. Because the building is worth nothing without the parking. As soon as you start the negotiation, one guy has his own parking, in his own ground. So if you want to convince them to make it into public parking, he will say that: sorry, but I have a better deal now. But one of the things that happen is that, when one owner wants to tear down a building and build something new, we as city government will come by and say: ah-ha, we have this regulation of 1 to 65, that is one parking space per 65sqm.

Because that is the regulation for this area. But lately, the new regulation implies that it will be 1 to 125.

That means 1 parking space per 125 sqm. So the owner will lose parking space. This is a counter incentive for urban renewal. It is hard for them to adjust. A lot of optimists have already tried to reorganize the parking by being with the owners. Once, a building owner tried to organize together with other owners to reorganize the parking spaces, they were so close to a deal, but then one owner dropped out. So at the end they didn’t succeed because when the new owner comes they have to start the negotiation all over again.

So basically I think every strategy has to function on the one plot. Even on each one plot it has to make sense. Because you can have a deal with one owner, but tomorrow one of the owners can sell.

T: Ok. Cause last time you mentioned a few things as your instruments: zoning plan, and housing program, which you do not prefer to be included in the first bestemmingplan. You can have several zoning plan over the years.

I: Yes, the zoning plan is not that hard. Or you can also have a partial zoning plan.

T: And structure plan?

H: Structure plan is city wide; it is on a city level. The structure plan people and the housing cooperation people go to the same birthday parties, but not the people who develop offices.

I: Yes, the office people are more with the banking people, and the two groups do not really mix up. So it is extremely difficult to develop a mixed use environment.

T: and the housing people are with?

I: With politians. The two groups even have completely 2 different financial structures.

T: So do you need to challenge structure plan?

I: No I don’t need to. At this moment Amstel III is listed as a mixed use area. This is enough for me.

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T: And do you need a range? Like a programmatic range?

I: Yes, with that I defined in the bestemmingplan (zoning plan). And I have to proof the economical feasibility of mine zoning plan.

H: This is a recent new requirement in zoning plan. Long time ago, it just defines things like traffic laws. If you want to take right, then what do you do, and if you want to take left, then what do you do, etc.

I: And now, all bestemming plans require a sharp calculation.

H: I think this is a step back.

I: You see there are 2 movements now in the Netherlands concerning urban development. One is saying that you should regulate less. The other one says that you have to proof everything, to make sure that everything works.

M: But it is also about the Dutch system, if you compare it to the system in UK. In Holland if the initiative fits into the Dutch system, you have to say yes. While in UK, you can always say no, so the bestemming plan is relatively loose.

T: So maybe I introduce the meeting focus a bit to Marlies , last time we showed some different strategies collected from international examples to Iris. One of them is mixed land use. The other one is mixed use building stimulation strategies.

(Showing graphic). So one of them is to split the ground floor and sell it to other investors and make the ground floor into different programs, such as retails, etc. And then the government gives some sort of discount to the owner if he is willing to do that. Another example is to sell out floor by floor to different private owners…

Basically Iris told us that perhaps vastgoed fonds might be interested to sell out their properties floor by floor since they are looking for ways to devaluate their buildings gradually. And how about the rest? It will be the question to you.

M: What we are talking now with one of the owner is that, about “erhpacht”(ground lease). They prefer a 50 year contract because they need to borrow money from the bank, and they need to be sure that there is no accident in-between. What we do now…(show graphic…), these type of things are now being thought of in Amsterdam.

I: But are these enough of an incentive for them?

M: I am not sure, I don’t think so. Because this owner now says they do not want to pay anything. So now we want to take this part of the land back (pointing). We as government will develop this part of the land.

I: The thing is that with this building, the police owned it for a little while, so they make the entrance from this part for their cars.

T: Ok, so you mean ground lease encouragement is a method for owners who want to re-organize the original buildings.

I: And another potential method is what you mentioned, to sell the ownerships floor by floor. Because then it is possible to introduce new owners who do not have enough capital to buy the entire building. At the same time, the existing building can devaluate bits by bits, which is less risky for them. You have to understand that behind all these buildings, there are people like you and me, who invested our pensions into the buildings, through funding organizations T: OK. I: For example, in Sloterdijk, there is a building that is owned by the German dentists, for their pension.

Suddenly it makes it much more personal if it is about 150 dentists. Haha..

I: Other owners might have more capital, and some rely on banks, and the banks forbid the value of the building to go down.

I: And this one, it is owned by “Cern”, which is a Swiss research center, in Geneva. They are individual, and not relying on money from the bank, so the financial scheme of each owners are all very different.

M: And this one (pointing) has global properties around the world, and only 3 properties in Amsterdam, so their involvement is much less, they are not at all interested in complex transformation processes, if you understand.

I: But are these enough of an incentive for them?

M: I am not sure, I don’t think so. Because this owner now says they do not want to pay anything. So now we want to take this part of the land back (pointing). We as government will develop this part of the land.

I: The thing is that with this building, the police owned it for a little while, so they make the entrance from this part for their cars.

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T: Ok, so you mean ground lease encouragement is a method for owners who want to re-organize the original buildings.

I: And another potential method is what you mentioned, to sell the ownerships floor by floor. Because then it is possible to introduce new owners who do not have enough capital to buy the entire building. At the same time, the existing building can devaluate bits by bits, which is less risky for them. You have to understand that behind all these buildings, there are people like you and me, who invested our pensions into the buildings, through funding organizations T: OK. I: For example, in Sloterdijk, there is a building that is owned by the German dentists, for their pension.

Suddenly it makes it much more personal if it is about 150 dentists. Haha..

I: Other owners might have more capital, and some rely on banks, and the banks forbid the value of the building to go down.

I: And this one, it is owned by “Cern”, which is a Swiss research center, in Geneva. They are individual, and not relying on money from the bank, so the financial scheme of each owners are all very different.

M: And this one (pointing) has global properties around the world, and only 3 properties in Amsterdam, so their involvement is much less, they are not at all interested in complex transformation processes, if you understand.

I: And this one is privately owned, and they might want this building to be an image building.

I: And euro commerce is a developer. They have 25,000sqm on the otherside of the highway. “Skep” bought property here 2 years ago with the price of 250 euros/sqm, which is very cheap. And now they are doing property upgrade, het neiuwe kantoor. They only upgrade by doing small offices. They are also renting out by the weeks.

T: So can I categorize the owners into local/international; rich/less rich; and financed by bank/vestgoed fonds/private(family)?(36:20) I: Yes, but when I am thinking about the strategy you mentioned, to sell out the building ownerships to different floors with different private owners, why is it not happening now?

T: Because you don’t have such agent in Amsterdam. The people who organize these types of transaction.

H: Like “urban resort’ will be one of these guys.

I: I see. Because I cannot think of any regulation that forbids these.

I: What I am going to do is allowing “switch” in the buildings. So the users can switch floors if they want to.

But everything has to happen within the building.

M: I just think that the current owners are not capable in organizing other new activities into the building.

I: Yeah, that’s why we are saying about the agent, the “beheerder”, for example like “Stena”, or “Intercity management”.

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Programmatic Scenarios Boundary Unlimited & Hein de Haan A+S

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M

M

1-4fLOOR

1-4 FLOOR 5-8 FLOOR

Warehouses Office buildings

9-12 FLOOR Night entertainment 13-16 FLOOR programs 16 + FLOOR

Commercial programs

Programmatic Scenario ONE: Night entertainment programs which can be compensating to night time use of the area and make use of the exisiting parking spaces (for night time use).

In the west side of the Amstel III office area, large numbers of industrial ware houses can be partially transform to adapt night entertainment programs, such as pubs, disco dance floors, night shows, drive-in cinemas.

The area is perfect for such programs since there will be no residences complaining about the noises. Along the routings connecting to te metro stops there can be other types of commercial programs such as shops, restuarants, hotels, etc. to complete the commercial loop.

Customers to leisure and hotel programs

Provide social opportunities for business people

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M

M

M

1-4fLOOR

1-4 FLOOR 5-8 FLOOR 9-12 FLOOR 13-16 FLOOR 16 + FLOOR

M

Programmatic Scenario TWO:

Commercial programs

Commercial/retail programs which can be realized by car mobility to the area and metro accesibility, for example: chinatown type of retails, internet shops, wholesale shops, etc.

Even though Amstel Ill is suffering from building use vacancy, there are still incentives that are currently bringing new users to the area. These incentives include the day care and restaurant facilities in the Atlas building (northside of Hogehilweg area), the success of Het Nieuwe Kantoor (Hogehilweg 19), the planning of a park alongside the metro line, etc. Commerical activities along the mail roads can create a loop by connecting two metro stations.

Customers for restuarants

Dining programs for office workers

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1-4 FLOOR 5-8 FLOOR

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Living functions as a MUST to sustain an area for the long run.

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-Entrance

FLEX LIVING TYPES

change -Splitting

URBAN LIVING 3.

3.

$

-oors 1-3 stars hotel - Student housing

1.

-Parking tower

A B

$

P

FLEX LIVING

2.

4.

4.

1.

2.

--Parking 1-3 stars hotel -underground Student housing P - Short term housing

2.

-Parking

1.

P STANDARD LIVING street

- 1-3 stars hotel - Student housing --Road Short term housing

3.

1.

path

1.

QUALITY LIVING

4.

- 1-3 stars hotel -New - Student housing -entrance Short term housing - Appartment housing

4.

2.

3.

for road

2.

1 2

3

$

All types of flex living

The masterplan should support the spontaneous developments of each private plot by giving underlining guide lines. Differnt types of flex living zones should be developed to allow different types of living standards to emerge. For example, middle class housing will not be allowed to develop along the main infrastructure but it is possible for short-term living.

1-4fLOOR

1-4 FLOOR 5-8 FLOOR

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Initiating the “Mixed Use Plot Approach� by: relocating parking as triggering tool for new urbanity

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PARKING RELOCATION STRATEGY BASED ON INDIVIDUAL PLOT

-Entrance change -Splitting floors

$

A B $

-Parking tower

P

change

change

-Splitting

-Splitting

floors

floors

-Parking

-Parking

tower

tower

-Parking

-Parking

$

$

A

A

B

B

$

$

P

P

P $ underground underground A

-Parking

-Parking

street

$ street

-Road

-Road

path

path

-New P

-New

entrance

entrance

for road

for road

P

P

B

P

P

-Parking underground -Parking street -Road path -New

P

P

P

entrance

P 1 2

for road

Private parking

3

1 2

1 2 To take the land property of Hogehilweg 4 as an example. Hogehilweg 4 has 75 parking lots at this 3 moment adjacent to the office building owned by a private owner.

$

$

3

$ Increase new entrance to enter private plot

Private parking Time-shared public parking

Parts of the parking can be organized into timeshared private parking to facilitate new leisure or commercial programs in the area.

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P

-Entrance -Entrance

-Road path $

$

A B

A

$

B P

$

$

A

P

$

$

B

P

Install P P parking tower+ an extra staircase P und connecting to new P program

P

tting

3

s

$

A B

floorsfloors 1 2

P

P

$

rground

ing

t

3

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

-New-New entrance entrance Total parking amount -Entrance Enhance pedestrian change -Entrance path -Splittingchange

(original+compensated) for road for road

New program and entrance

$

1

$

A

1

floors -Splitting Relocating parking into parking towers: Parking towers are often used in eastA Asia. Normally, 2 2 $ meters. Therefore, P floors can parks 2 cars, 3 3 each parking and has the clear height of around 1 A B -Parkingfloors 26 cars can be parked in a vertical cube that is around 6M(W) X 6M(L) X 12M(H). During our tower $ B interviews with the building owners, we-Parking confirmed that this product is possible to installed if ef-Parkingtower $ ficiency is achieved.

B

$

$

d

B

Increase new entrance to enter private plot

path path A

P

P

tower tower

-Road-Road

P

1 2

$

street street

$

ing

A

$

-Parking -Parking

P $

$

B

-Parking -Parking

B

r

A

$

underground underground

$

ing

$

-Parking -Parking 3

$

ance

Create a new building entrance

for road

B

P

1 ge 2

entrance

-Splitting -Splitting

A

$

P

change change

-New

A B

$

P

P

P

P

nce

underground -Parking

ad

-Parkingunderground

1 2

street

3

-New

$

-Parking

P

-Road street path

P

P

P

P P

-Road path

entrance-New for road entrance for road

$ $

1 2

3

1 2

P

P$

$

Relocating private parking to street parking

P

Enhance pedestrian path

3

Total parking amount (original+compensated) New ground use for events

Relocating parking into street parking: During the interview process, we learned that the building owners are interested to park their cars along the street, in this way they can get rid of parking lots in their plot with least investment. The ground can be used for temporay event features, or for example, for a large scale market.

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-Parking underground $

A B

street

B

$

P

-Parking

A

$

P

P

P $

-Road

$

path

P

P

-New

Install -Entrance parking change tower+ an extra -Splitting staircase oors connecting to new -Parking program tower

P

P

P

$

entrance for road $

A B

P

1 2

A

P

$

B

3 Enhance pedestrian path

$

-Parking underground

1 -Parking 2 street 3

P

P

P

-Road path

P

P

$

P

-New entrance for road

1 2

3 Total parking amount (original + compensated) New housing ground

Apply flex living plot regulation

$

GROUND FREE FROM PARKING CAN BE USED FOR NEW SMALL SCALE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS Ground along the Hogehilweg that are freed from parking lots are developed into housing with small shops or offices on the ground floor.

The city council will regulate new buildings’ plot sizes and ownership types to prevent investments leading to more spatial vacancy. In order to prevent more empty buildings being built, buildings with small ownerships and alternative investments are encouraged to built in each plot with a suggested percentage.

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2012

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2032

PLOT APPROACH CAN LEAD TO MIXED USE URBANISM The increasement of users and residents have brought more urban flows and investments into the Amstel Ill area. Along the Hondsrugweg, an international company’s headquarter could occupy the street crossing with a mini-highrise. A wholesale shop could occupy the ground floor of the former office building. These will upgrade the Hondsrugweg into a real urban boulevard street.

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H Ho og g eheh ilwilw egeg

H

og

eh

ilw

eg

H H og o eh ge ilw hi eglwe g

H

og

T sh ime P Tar Ro asrhk imede Pu ianrg Ro atrek ed ut ing e

FROM PLOT APPROACH TO STREET MAKING

H

Ka

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H

rs pe l

dr ee f

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Plot owners can potentially group themselves according to the concept of street making. By 1-2 street making initiatives it is possible to activate an urban area.

Individual owners are free to join in or drop out during the process and do not interfer with the urban re-development process in the long run.

eg

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H

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PROGRAMMATIC SCENARIOS

FLEX LIVING ZONGING 3.

3.

2.

4.

4.

1.

1.

Timeshared Parking Route

1.

1-4fLOOR

2.

1.

4.

1-4 FLOOR

STREET MAKING

5-8 FLOOR

2.

9-12 FLOOR 13-16 FLOOR 16 + FLOOR

2.

3.

Hogehilweg

Hogehilweg -Entrance

-Entrance

change

change

-Splitting

$

floors

-Splitting

$

A B $

-Parking

A

floors

B

-Parking

P

tower -Parking

P

-Road path

RESEARCH CONCLUSION

-Splitting floors

3

$

$

A

$

P

-Splitting floors

P

$

P $

path

P

for road

1 2

A

P

P

B $ 1-4fLOOR

-Parking

Hullenbergweg

Hondsrugweg

underground

P

entrance

$

B

tower

1 -Parking 2 street 3

3

1-4 FLOOR

P

P

P

-Road path

P P

-New

$

P

-Road

$

A

$

-Parking

for road

P

-New

P

path

entrance

A

3B

$

street

B

P

-Entrance

-Road

-New

B

-Parking

A

P

change

street

1 2

$

A

P

tower

-Parking -Parking

for road

$

$

-Parking

underground B

underground

-New

-Parking

$

tower

path

entrance

change

-Parking

P

-Road

change

-Entrance

floors

P

street

INDIVIDUAL PLOT APPROACH 1 2

-Splitting

P

-Entrance

for road

The research concludes that plot strategies may better to stimulate individual redevelopment processes rather than a top down master plan. Each plot approach can be custom made to provide different parking relocation strategies for new program adaptations. A successful give and take process between the city council (who will invest on the public infrastructure) and the building owner (who will redevelop the plot) can minimize the redevelopment risk for the area, guarantee freedom for individual re-development choices and navigate Karspeldreef the entire area’s re-development direction in a more interactive manner.

P

-Parking

P

-New entrance

P

underground

P

street

B

-Parking

P

-Parking

A

$

tower

$

underground

$

$

5-8 FLOOR 9-12 FLOOR

entrance for road

1 2

13-16 FLOOR 3

16 + FLOOR

$

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RESEARCH FINAL SYMPOSIUM / DISCUSSION / PRESENTATION The research’s final symposium took place on Sepember 3rd, 2013 in Vrijbrucht building, Amsterdam.

The following people attended the symposium: - Hein de Haan, Hein de Haan A+S - Tsaiher Cheng, Boundary Unlimited - Willem van Leuvan, PMB Amsterdam - Gert Urhann, Spontaneous City International - Bernadina Borra, Spontaneous City International - Astor Huang, PhD in Urban Planning, TU Delft - Doreen Chen, PhD Candidate in Gegraphy, University of Amsterdam - Laurens Schuitmaker, Glamourmanifest - Sietske Voorn, Glamourmanifest Below is a summary of feedbacks from the above people: - To use parking as a triggering tool for new urbanity in Amstel III area is a good and practical perspective, since the owners are keen to make profit from parking. However, I wonder if we could start with something that is even easier than relocating parking, something that you can even start urban change along the street by 1 plot/building owner and not by at least 3-4 to achieve a complete street atmosphere. A even lighter type of trigger tool. (Gert Urhann, Spontaneous City International)

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RESEARCH FINAL SYMPOSIUM / DISCUSSION / PRESENTATION - The Taipei model is extremely interesting since it allows much more spontaneous development based on, actually regulations! But at this moment only 2000 sqm of shopping and commercial programs allowed in Amstel III. I see it as an obstacle for more densely use of the area. (Sietske Voorn, Glamourmanifest) - It is quite hard for building owners to reach an agreement at the moment, according to our experiences of dealing with the owners, everybody is kind of cleverly waiting, waiting for some other people to make the first move, to change and so. Therefore, the proposal can work, but it will only work once someone start the first move, and ofcourse with the right economy and investment climate at the time. (Laurens Schuitmaker, Glamourmanifest) - I like the research and proposed planning method, however, I doubt whether the current economical climate supports even these type of minor urban changes. By the end of this year, the Zuidoostlob will cease to exisit, and the stadsdeel will take over Amstel III. That says that less attention from the city will be giving to the area. We can only wait for private to act, to be proactive, and we do need the economy back for this.

(Willem van Leuvan, PMB Amsterdam) - I think if you can staudy much more deeply about the types of commerical programs that can be in the area it can be even more interesting. Since that can be presented to investor groups and shop owners with much more detailed building types, open space designs, and support facilities (parking can be one of them indeed). Currently everybody is looking at the possibility to make housing there, but I would think commercial programs are also very important, perhaps even more suitable for the area. (Bernadina Borra, Spontaneous City International)

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