IJburg is going to be a new Amsterdam district, consisting of six artificial islands. They lie in the IJ, the former harbour mouth, east of the island Zeeburg, and close to the Eastern Docklands. The water is wide enough there to develop 18.000 dwellings and not very deep, which made it easily possible to win land. You could make islands by the so called pancake method. And then we have, within a few years, a new district with 45.000 inhabitans.

At this moment IJburg has 10.000 inhabitants. One of the highlights is the small Steigereiland, in English Pier-island. The urban design scheme is based on the ‘collage city concept’. The island consists of 8 neighborhoods, each of which has its own individual character. This island is really the ‘maternity’ of modern architecture. Here we find among other things free lots with surprising and colorful architecture and a water neighborhood with floating dwellings and pile dwellings.

For the big Haveneiland (Harbour Island) the urban designers chose - after numerous pre-designs - for a almost completely objective, neutral rectangular grid. The grid ‘creates the conditions for the balance between order and chaos’, they said. But don’t think there is no excitement on the Haveneiland. Inside the blocks of the grid a maximum of variety is to be seen.