IJburg

Geschiedenis

IJburg is a residential neighbourhood under construction in 2013 in the east of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is situated in the IJ Lake and is being built on artificial islands which have been raised from the lake. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Oost.HistoryIn 1965, the architects Johannes Hendrik "Jo" van den Broek and Jacob Berend (Jaap) Bakema designed the Pampus Plan for a town in the IJ Lake which was to house 350,000 residents, most of whom were to come from Amsterdam. However, in national plans, another strategy was chosen, forcing people from Amsterdam to move to expanding towns in the area such as Purmerend, Hoorn, and the new town of Almere. As well as this, the Bijlmermeer was constructed to the south of the city and Diemen was expanded.The 1980s saw a change of policy and construction sites nearer to the city were sought. As Amsterdam is located between Schiphol and nature reserves such as the Bovenkerkerpolder and Landelijk Noord, the only possible location became Nieuw-Oost (New East).The Amsterdam city council decided to build the neighbourhood in 1996. Opponents of the plan called for a referendum as there were objections to possible negative effects for the nature of the IJ Lake. This referendum was held 19 March 1997. Although a majority of voters were against the construction, an insufficient number of votes was cast and construction could therefore be started.