The $1.8 Billion Plan for Amsterdam 

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Hoog try not to glaze Amsterdam for 5 minutes challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

Remember having a coffee in Houdthaven and being like “oh would love to live here let’s have a look” and there being literally nothing below 1.2 mil 😢

5:34 MEME, Eiland

What a pity that there are not more cafes and shops, big developement projects always fail because they seperate living, leisure and working, instead of packing them close together

My favorite Netherlands psyop channel uploaded again 🎉🎉

Interlinked

So I just looked up what up for sale in this neighbourhood. Cheapest you can find is €369000 for a 39m² appartment. Most of them are between 500k and 1million. If you want to live on meme island, there's 1 appartment you can still bid on, but it's currently on €925k.

Your VA failed the replicant deviancy test 9:21 send him in

I've lived all over Amsterdam: NIeuwmarkt (the oldest part of town), Amsterdam Noord (post-war high-rise similar to what you see when he mentions de Bijlmer), Oud West (trendy neighborhood from around the turn of the century), Zeeburg (worker's neighborhood also from the turn of the century), Ijburg (man-made island from the turn of the millennium) and Zeeburgereiland (a neighborhood "completed" in 2018). I can say that Amsterdam has learned from its mistakes and mastered the art of building exceptionally great livable neighborhoods (Ijburg and Zeeburgereiland are perfect examples, ask anyone who's actually lived around here). They continue, however, to struggle with 1. making them beautiful (although they have some very nice buildings and moments), 2. connecting them efficiently to the rest of the city, and 3., of course, making them affordable for people to invest into (buy a house and form/become part of a community). This is an awesome video.

A niche youtube channel about architecture has become for me a top 3 best youtube channels to ever exist, and I don't even like architecture unless I'm watching your videos.

This channel is an ode to the Netherlands urban planning ♥

I walked through this neighborhood last year and was so impressed by it! so beautiful and calm, this is truly one of the best modern urban planning and architecture projects I have seen so far

What if we kissed in the Meme Island 😳👉🏻👈🏻

I mean, even the Bijlmermeer (a supposed dystopic housing development) looks 100 times better than any social housing project I’ve seen built in that decade

You didn't mention public transport, which there is practically none in this area (1 bus stop), passing through the houthavens everyday I can tell you this is the worst area in Amsterdam for traffic, maybe in the future it will improve but at the moment I don't see any plans being made

The principle of a container with strong constraints but with room to play and be creative and unique within those constraints applies to so much in life. From good architecture and neighbourhoods to raising children to employee job satisfaction. It is what we naturally feel joyous about. A balance of certainty, familiarity and safety but also freedom and change.

Hoog is definitely sponsored by Amsterdam.

As someone who was born and raised in this city: just to be clear, true locals all hate this building (Pontsteiger) with a burning passion. It embodies an elite that is completely detached from reality. Just like the building, which is like a fortress for rich people, inserted near what has been for decades been the most valuable building in the city. Drive your mercedes AMG straight into the parking garage and never meet another soul! Sounds like the future already. "How Amsterdam built a monolithic eyesore with the most spacious and luxury interiors no working class person could ever afford" In a city lacking tens of thousands of housing units, this is the shit that keeps making it through all the "bureaucracy". We'll soon have dozens of these developments and will be no closer to a housing solution. "Progress!"

Great video, as usual - I loved the part about how the Bijlmermeer not only provides homes, but also *information* on how to not build massive housing projects. Cheers!!

It looks amazing. Though I doubt that this is affordable by any means. Even ignoring the canals, hiding most of the car traffic and parking spaces undergrounds has to be expensive.

travelling to Amsterdam for the 7th time in late june. cant wait to walk the streets after watching your videos. Thanks!

Best YT Channel hands down. The Visuals The Storyline The Presentation its Grand !

this is one of the best videos i've watched this year. i love everything, the topic, the animation style, the cool and rational explainations. what a brick!

"built to match the vibe" is a good sentence, def top 10

The narrator you found and the voice filter used is exactly the same as famous voice actors from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Pretty amazing reproduction of that exact style.

Fckn coool as always, next level storytelling and visuals

I am usually irritated by an advertisement in the middle a video-I have a premium account to avoid them. The ad in the middle of this video was handled so artfully, The same vintage voice from the previous segment was brilliant. The ad did not interrupt the video, but enhanced it; kudos

Amsterdam is by far the most advanced and beautiful city I've ever been to. It's like a hopeful view into the future

Can we appreciate the visuals and animations? It is so beautifully made!

Goed filmpje weer hoog. Interesting to see different variations. Structured chaos is a great way to stop making vinex wijken. Unique homes make you feel more strongly connect to said home.

"give them choice" is an interesting take when there is so little availability at such high cost.

wat een prachtige docu,bedankt.............

Love how your style is developing, clarifying and improving! Keep being unique.

It's interesting you mentioned the "organized chaos" design language. I stayed with a friend living in NDSM Warf last year for a few days and saw the exact same design philosophy. Lots of large apartment buildings but every one of them had their own design and style so as to avoid a "sameness" affect. That same friend said that locals refer to the Pontsteiger as "the toilet bowl" so take that for what you will lol :D

Meme Island? You misread the name, Hoog. It's Memel Island, with an extra L. Named after Memel, the old name for the Lithuanian city of Klaipėda.

once again you delivered us a masterwork

this is an incredible video. I lived in Houthavens for a couple years and your explanation of it all really puts words to how it felt to live there.

I really like how some of the names derive from other towns/cities in Europe that were relevant to the timber trade.

Honestly jealous we don't really have many neighbourhoods like this in London. Nordhavn, kobenhavn sv, and carlsberg factory neighbourhoods in copenhagen are absolutely amazing

Dude these videos are always amazing, thanks for another banger :)

As a born Amsterdammer, i always suprised about Amsterdam. its keep innovating and growing with each day ! we only with 800.000 citizens

Ongekend, wat een bizar hoge kwaliteit hebben jouw video’s!

Really informative video! I live in the Houthavens and did not know all this. It’s really well thought out and the ‘vibe’ of the neighborhood is really good.

As someone from Amsterdam, new neighborhoods like Houthaven and IJburg symbolyze a typical issue for Amsterdam (and in ways the Netherlands in general). It is a big-city neighborhood, a city with a center that is not really built for cars, yet the suburbs are built around cars specifically. I don't have an issue with the cars themselves, but reaching these neighborhoods from anywhere outside of Amsterdam using public transport is a ridiculous time-investment. I used to live in Haarlem, at 5 min from the train station, which in turn has a 15 minute connection to Amsterdam central station. However, getting to my work in IJburg was a daily 2x 1 hour+ commute. Don't get me wrong, I love the style of some streets in these neighborhood (not all, but still better than your average big city modern construction projects), but my pet peeve, public transport, tends to get overlooked, while it should be the perfect location for it.

Build for beauty, and the people will add the function. Build for function, and beauty will forever struggle.

Genuinely, some of the best videos on this site.

I lived in houthavens last year in a student accom and saw a lot of the construction that was happening. It was always such a chill environment, lots of dogs and very naturey with the park and what seemed to be a kindergarden right by it.

OMG DRONE SHOTS???! You officially broke the Internet

Hoog, I want you to know that as a random 27 y/o dude from Washington State in the U.S. who will most likely never be fortunate enough to step foot anywhere near The Neatherlands, I watch every single one of your Dutch/Amsterdam/Netherlands videos more intently than just about anything else on youtube lol.

>Mentions dutch once *EYES GLOW IN SPICE* W I L H E L M U S

Having been living in Amsterdam for the past 3.5 years, from which 1.5 years in the Houthavens. I can say with certainty that the Houthavens is one of the best designed neighborhoods of the Netherlands because of its location (15 minutes walking to the city centre), its facilities (multiple gyms and supermarkets inside 5 minutes walking) and its mixed demographics (students, families and elderly living next to eachother). There’s even a dock which is filled with people taking a swim in the ij during hot summer days. Some buildings got nominated for awards and prizes and you can see why. It’s where old and new collide. It’s amazing city planning and a strong piece of city design.

The views from above are better at showing how few distinct buildings there actually are. These are not rows of separate buildings but buildings with variable facades. This is necessary to place the auto infrastructure below.

I work just next to Houthavens, glad to learn more about its history!

Me a southern european: WHY CANT WE BE LIKE THEM

the editing is top tier!!!

Amsterdam is a giant art project

I recently stayed at a hotel in the Ponsteiger building, and walked through the full area on the way to westerpark. For me, it doesn't come close to the vibes of true, old Amsterdam, but for a new development is one of the best I have ever experienced - managing to incorporate some soul and feeling to a brand new, purpose built area

I've been following you casually since you started uploading and I can only say: you deserve all the succes! These videos are insanely well-made and researched.

Hij is weer erg fijn! Dank, De mazzel

Amazing how you absolutely transform these, already quite interesting topics into high quality, high production value masterpieces like these.

It's Memel-eiland, not Meme-eiland (I assume named after the Memel river, the border between Kaliningrad (Russia) and Lithuania and from 1918 to 1945 the easternmost border of the German Empire)

Love it, the music is very harmonious and well chosen and the video is informative and soothing. I want to visit Amsterdam, now!

The neighbourhood will be safe so long as it is expensive to live there, or if there is at least some expensive to living there.

Dude this video was freaking amazing. Those little models are also really nice, might need to get myself the pack that comes with both.

I love that fake advertising for the islands that blends a 50s narrator with CGI from the 80s. ♥

Leuk gedaan weer vent. Was al fan van jouw Bijlmer video en nu eentje over de buurt waar ik zelf woon, awesome!

Do I want to know how expensive the "afforadable" houses are? Looking at all this I can only imagine that it's really not for your average joe.

That ad break blended in so well I had to watch it twice lol😂 had a feeling cause the graphics but the quality got me😂just shows the lengths u go to entertain us👊🏽

The "options" are severely circumscribed. The blandness and uniformity of the sites may appeal only to a population without alternatives.

Currently working at Karlskronaeiland and having worked on various other islands. its pretty cool to know the history about the project. As well as various other details that are mostly/never spoken about on the jobsite

Yeah cool, now make the housing affordable and I am in

I used to live there as a student. At one point in time (2000-2010ish) it was a complex of student housing made out of shipping containers.

This was interesting to watch, thank you!

Can't wait to see the new Not Just Bikes vid about this place!

It looks like a normal european city but this guy describes it as literal heaven

I was actually invited to a party at Houthavens not too long ago. I walked up to the neighborhood and was totally confused why I'd never seen this place before, or even any neighborhood like it. It looks lovely, though still a bit too new. It's got that metaphorical factory smell on it, like a model city more than an actual living one.

It’s not different. It’s the same expensive unaffordable bs housing that Amsterdam has been building for 10 years.

i lived in the bijlmer for maybe a month or two and it was really nice. theres been some new development that brought mixed use stuff and some more variety. It seems it wasnt perfect when it was built but its adapted and improved over time. I just really like how the density of the buildings allows for a lot of public green space your basically just living in a park, I definitely think theres more that could be built upon that idea

how did you get the Middle American accent '50s narration ?

It is genius. You need that space to prevent crowding. You need to mix classes but too much will cause conflict. You need height but too much is cramped and suffocating. It's a wonderful blend of density, community and sustainability

Hunnyyyy! Hoog video dropped!

I work in the Houthavens and it's an absolute joy to walk through that neighborhood. I will say it's a bit of a shame it's so expensive. But walking around there you can understand why

Meme Island sounds like reddit

First off all.. a-ma-zing video again. For the people who are visiting this area , don’t forget to cross the park and visit the original Amsterdamse School area. You will be mindblown. There is a building/museum called “het schip” and worth visiting. I have lived in this area for over 20 years in one of those old warehouses and loved the transformation of this neighborhood from kinda bad to one of the most creative and inspiring places in amsterdam.

This video didn't go into this at all, but I do wonder how nice the INSIDE of these places is. How much noise gets in? Is there privacy or do the neighbors see everything you do? Is there variation on the interior layout, or does giving people choice not extend to that?

A few years back I visited the rijksmuseum and of all objects one painting impressed me most. Anybody who visited A'dam knows that the pavement and many houses at the grachten , canals are skewed ...this painting from the 17th century was made just after the finished canal builts. Everything in that picture is perfect and new..a real eye opener and realization of the workings of time.

Missing amenities could be added as floaters. Shops, market, cafes, community centres ect. The Dutch have already designed these for the 3rd world. Why not build at home too???

The quality of production of this one was amazing, well done

Build more houses. Lets keep housing price low, it is going to be a benefit for everybody.

My uncle life’s here. I’ve stayed a few times for a week when he was on holiday and it’s really comfortable and a cool place to be. on the Narva island.

you sound alot like the guy that voices for the channel fern

video production quality is through the roof, great job!

Cell within cells within cells.. interlinked..

Props to the production value of this vid. Amazing work.

Imagine living on Meme Island, what a joke haha

Ive been waiting so long for you to cover this. this video is a piece of art. bravo.

If only they’d build more social housing…

I do wonder where the supermarkets and such are in such a design, mixed use and walkable shops are an important part of liveability.

Amsterdam. How to make the houses as expensive as possible and then blame the inflation for it. They build alot of this close to the center. Very nice for the rich but a middle finger to the teachers, police officers and social workers in the city.