Innovations

Variety: By hiring a large number of architects and designers, the appearance of housing blocks, open spaces, roads, and bridges is varied. This would be much less likely than if the design of the entire project was left to one firm's design team. Some owner's were even able to hand select their own architect to design their house, so long as they met the West 8 Master Plan requirements.

'Free-lot' Home Designs on Borneo

'Patio-Typology' Void : Due to the lack of available land; open space in Amsterdam comes at a premium. It is very progressive of West 8 to create open space in the home. Granted, some of these spaces are fairly small and its functionality is debatable, but patio's are usable year-round for home owners, who frequently build roof gradens. The void space also serves to provide more space for light to enter the house and drive deep into interior spaces, which has the effect of making smaller spaces in the dwelling appear larger (Russell, 2001).

Schematic Diagram of Interior Void Space

Image courtesy of West 8

Dutch Urbanism: According to the Charter for the Congress for New Urbanism, new urbanist communities meet the following objectives:

• Neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population: different housing types for different people
• Communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car: walkability to school , shopping, town center; shops and offices are located to meet the needs of even outlying neighborhoods
• Cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions
• Urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice

However, the Dutch focused solely on the housing end of new urbanist principles; specifically, housing the new, wealthy comfort class and providing them with options. There is little commercial and shopping activity on the peninsulas, and although transportation is nearby it does not fit under 'new urbanist' walkability standards. This 'Dutch Urbanism' does provide open spaces and parks, and people are friendly and intermingle on the safe streets in the neighborhood. The density and housing variety are the gold standards : 40 units/acre compared with 16-20 units/acre in US urban locations (Porter, 2002).