“The Netherlands needs a completely new building culture.” This, according to architect and urban designer Floris Alkemade, is the answer to the question of how to solve the housing crisis and keep the Netherlands livable.
The housing challenge currently facing the Netherlands is perhaps the greatest social challenge since the Dutch post-war reconstruction of 1945-1965. A solution must be found for the acute shortage of housing for the growing population. However, this issue cannot be viewed in isolation from the other complex problems facing the Netherlands: climate change, the transition to renewable energy, and the sustainability of agriculture and the living environment. Issues in which the scarcity of space has become central.
Fundamental demographic shifts are also a factor. Residents’ needs are changing, requiring a diversity of housing types as well as a rethinking of the identity of village and city centers, the combination of living and working, and the organization of an affordable society. As the current building culture is faltering and we are discovering the downsides of our ingrained patterns, it is time to change direction toward a new social, technological and economic concept.
Speaker
Architect and urban designer Floris Alkemade studied Build Environment at TU Delft and worked at the leading international firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) from 1990 to 2008, becoming a partner in 2001. In 2008, he founded his own firm, Floris Alkemade Architect (FAA), with projects in the Netherlands and abroad. For several years, he lectured at Ghent University and the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. From 2015 to 2021, he held the position of Rijksbouwmeester (Chief Government Architect) within the College van Rijksadviseurs (Board of Government Advisors). He provided the Dutch cabinet with solicited and unsolicited independent advice on architecture, urbanism and landscape, and published the essay De toekomst van Nederland – De kunst van richting te veranderen (Thoth, 2020). Alkemade also co-authored the recently published Report State Committee Demographic Developments 2050 (Jan. 15, 2024) on the population growth and prosperity resilience of the Netherlands. His current projects include the development of the Evoluon area in Eindhoven and the conversion of monasteries.
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