Eastern Harbour District Amsterdam

Book excerpt: Amsterdam's Oostelijk Havengebied or eastern docks area consists of a number of artificial archipelagos laid out around 1900. When the once-flourishing docks fell into disuse, it was decided to transform the area into a high-grade residential district. Begun in the 1970s, that transformation is now almost completed. Many big-name Dutch architects contributed to fleshing out these plans with housing. So the eastern docks area is not just a successful and highly sort-after residential district, it is as much a catalogue of 20 years of Dutch architecture and urbanism of the highest quality. This book gives a complete overview in words and images of the planning and architecture of these eastern harbour docklands supplemented by themed essays by specialists. The book also gives a broad overview of Dutch housing of the past few decades.