The sails have been set! Amsterdam’s Havenstraatterrein is being redeveloped into ‘VrijHaven’. RED Company and the Caransa Group were chosen by the City of Amsterdam to transform the area. The Future Mobility Network was asked on board to advise within the project on making mobility in the area more sustainable.
VrijHaven will be a special neighborhood with affordable rental and private sector housing, with also space for makers and numerous community facilities. The original rough atmosphere and experimental character will be continued in the new design. There will be room for approximately 350 homes, 70% of which will be in the affordable segment and 30% in the free sector.
The Havenstraat site has a special history. For a long time there was a railroad and after it disappeared it became a frayed edge of the city. Remaining elements of the station area and railroad yard still give the area a unique atmosphere. And an additional connection to mobility. Because the immediate area is a busy urban area, there is an extra focus on mobility solutions. The Future Mobility Network has managed to give shape to this in an innovative way.
FreeHaven and EnergyHaven
The area will be an energy-efficient, healthy and energy-producing district. In addition to all the measures and construction methods that guarantee minimal environmental impact and make the district future-proof, the use of sustainable mobility also fits in with this. The Future Mobility Network drew up a plan in which there is room within the district for a mobility hub at the edge of the plan, a large bicycle parking facility, measured incorporation of mini-hubs per block and the deployment of various types of partial mobility. The car will be removed from the streetscape and sustainable mobility encouraged.
Thus pedestrians and cyclists will come first in the area, which will bustle with energy and meet the sustainable ambitions of the city of Amsterdam. A VrijHaven for living and working and at the same time an EnergieHaven, in which with energetic measures, ambitious BENG scores and the connection to a smart grid, efforts will be made to be sustainable in many ways.