Working out the future with architecture: AMS Mid-City: imagining Amsterdam in 2050

AMS Mid-City: imagining Amsterdam in 2050

Abstract

In the academic year 2017-2018, nearly eighty trainee architects at Delft University of Technology’s Faculty of Architecture produced a picture of Amsterdam in the year 2050. Divided into eight teams, the AMS Mid-City – imagining Amsterdam in 2050 studio, supervised by Kees Kaan, professor of ‘complex projects’, focused on specific parts of the city and its surroundings: central Amsterdam, Overamstel, south-east Amsterdam, the Schiphol corridor, Sloterdijk, Zaanstad, the Stadseilanden and Oud-Zuid (the ‘Old South’, which despite its name includes the newly emerging ‘South Axis’ and South Amsterdam railway station). Besides the team productions, including readily comparable, clear scale models, all the participants completed projects of their own. In support of the research-by-design, an accompanying City Innovation Seminar was organized in partnership with the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS).