Amfora Amstel was developed by Strukton and was designed by Zwarts & Jansma Architects in close collaboration with Royal Theatre Carré and Intercontinental Amstel Amsterdam. This feasible plan gives concrete shape to Strukton’s much-discussed Amfora concept, an urban expansion programme involving the development of multifunctional facilities under the canals of Amsterdam.
Improvement of the social climate
Amfora, an acronym for ‘Alternative MultiFunctional underground/Ondergronds space/Ruimte Amsterdam’, involves a sustainable 6-storeyed urban expansion under Amsterdam’s system of historic canals. Underground densification in the heart of the city will improve the social climate above-ground. The traffic will be accommodated below ground level and the grandeur of the historic cityscape around the canals will be restored. It will also lead to the development of more room for green space at street level.
Underground expansion of surface activities
The Amfora concept increases local residential comfort. Thanks to Amfora, a whole range of functions that enliven the city – such as cultural institutions and places of entertainment – can remain in the city centre by expanding their activities below-ground. This creates opportunities to retain facilities that due to a lack of space have often been banished to the city outskirts, accommodating them under the Amstel in the city centre:
- lecture-halls
- cinemas and concert halls
- tennis courts
- a fitness centre
- an entertainment centre
- a shopping centre
Amfora’s favourable location in the city centre and the available connections will ensure that more people will make use of public transport.
Densification of the city without affecting its historic appeal
The Amfora concept is in line with the advice that the Board of Government Advisors gave to the Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in January 2010, to redirect the focus of spatial planning to the existing qualities of cities, towns and villages. A vision elaborated in the report Splendidly Compact NL describes the urgency, opportunities, possibilities and advantages of compact building in the existing urban area, with the report concluding that inner-city building is a necessary measure to keep the cities vibrant and to spare the landscape and at the same time helps to realise the various ambitions in the field of sustainability.
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