Perceiving the advantage of living in the Netherlands means getting around the city by renting one of the thousands of bicycles available in garages located throughout the city centers and near the stations. Riding two wheels, speeding through the post-work traffic on a rainy afternoon, paying attention to priorities, overtaking and turns - to be reported and strictly respected - it is easier to understand the mentality of a country that has replaced this vehicle with millions of cars , which clog the arteries of our large cities every day, polluting the air.

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, are three models of innovative and possible urban development, which can also be exported to our latitudes, with the advantage of those who have already experimented. From 24 to 27 April, Il Sole 24 Ore participated in the 21st Urban Creative City-Break organized by Stratosferica, an organization for the promotion of urban culture founded by Luca Ballarini and Giacomo Biraghi: a travel format to discover the transformations of international metropolises, thanks to the meeting with designers, urban planners, mobility experts, officials of public agencies, creatives and creators of new ways to experience the city.

Mobility

«In Dutch cities everything always starts from a station», says Paolo Ruffino, senior planner at Royal HaskoningDHV, a global engineering consultancy company. «The development plan followed the so-called “Transit Oriented Development”. The station is the fulcrum of the city's development and priority is given to density at these junctions to make the bike-train combination convenient, to the point that today half of train journeys start with a journey from home to the station by bicycle. Furthermore, the stations are seen as the entrance of visitors to an area: the first impression is what counts, which is why the focus was on quality and beauty. From these nerve centers followed the progressive coupling of new centralities in a process aimed at polycentrism, but linked by the thread of connectivity, from rural areas to the Schipol intercontinental airport".

Real estate development

«Since 1994, to put a stop to suburbanisation and ghettoisation, the Netherlands has bet on the development of coordinated investments, part of a true territorial policy – ​​confirms Francesca Zirnstein, general director of Scenari Immobiliari -. We started from the four largest cities and some neighborhoods and moved on to 15 and up to 31 centers in 2007. Competition between urban centers increased rapidly and had an impact on the market and prices, together with the political push to attract investments, the population growing, the scarcity of supply, the attractiveness of the post-Brexit area and the approach towards buildings, including historical ones. Because if there is a need, in the country it is demolished and rebuilt."

Result: growth in home values ​​is among the strongest in the last 20 years. Today an apartment in the center of Utrecht costs on average 6,500 euros per square meter; in Amsterdam it reaches 10 thousand. 70% of Dutch people live in their own homes. «According to the CBS statistics office, the equivalent of our Istat – adds Ruffino – the Dutch population will exceed 20 million by 2070. The National Housing and Building Agenda envisages the construction of 900 thousand houses by 2030».

Rebranding

Finally, a coordinated action to relaunch the image contributed to the success of development in the Netherlands. «Even today we need to overcome barriers and difficulties», says Matthijs de Jongh, partner and strategy director of the creative studio KesselsKramer. «The city once known for soft drugs and prostitutes is now recognized as the capital of urban and social development». A system bet. «After all, as they say in Holland – concludes Ruffino – God created the world, but Holland was created by the Dutch».

Source Il Sole 24 Ore of 06/05/24