From ‘great station areas’ to greater added value
“Small railway zones become big railway zones,” headlined Stadszaken.nl last Tuesday. The article focused on two station areas in transition: Schiedam and Hoofddorp. These “unusually large tasks of an overarching scale” need not only money but also outside expertise to make them a success. Such luck that we are working on both projects!
In Schiedam, we drew up a quality plan with the municipality to steer developments in the right direction. By setting broad requirements, all of Schiedam benefits from this development. We then elaborated this in the urban development vision so that the unattractive, ‘complex’ conditions in the area become a more finely tuned and pleasant part of the city.
For the Hoofddorp station area, we first worked on a densification vision and now on the development framework. Here, we aim for a lively and liveable station area, using densification as one of the ways to achieve a pleasant, sustainable environment that can be widely enjoyed.
We like working on station areas, precisely because that is where we see the best opportunities to tackle major social issues in coherence. We are not interested in small or large railway zones, but above all in maximising added value! We have a lot more to say about this. We will do so in a new edition of our bookazine Out There. Keep an eye on us if you are curious about this.