How can you keep the high ambitions for an urban plan until it is realized?

This question was the central topic of an atelier organized by Utrecht Province on improving nature inclusive building and climate adaptation in March 2025. The case discussed upon initiative of Bunnik Municipality was their urban extension plan ‘Kersenweide‘ with 1.200 houses (Masterplan by Loos Van Vliet).

This green field extension is part of a 60% (!) growth of this city within the coming years. As an expert I was happy to contribute next to Jip Lauwe Kooijmans and Bart Cardinaal, and wonderfully hosted by our colleague Marieke de Keijzer.

Within the 2025 executive training program ‘Nieuw Zaanstad’ of Zaanstad Municipality I was honoured to host the first Master Class with supervisor and urbanist Roy Bijhouwer of Quadrat, Rotterdam. On 25th of February 2025 the premiere of a set of three sessions took place as a lunch lecture in the town hall.

Speaking about the the ‘morphology’ and the landscape elments that informed the villages of Wormerveer and others in Zaanstad Noord, Roy introduced the live audience (and those who will watch the recording online at a later stage) to the beauty, the history and the drama of the particular Dutch peat landscape in this area along the river Zaan below sea level.

New year – #NewZaanstad: The executive Program for the Knowledge of Space, successfully run for the past four years with hundreds of participants, has been upgraded! With its new name ‘#NewZaanstad there is new content, too: #NewZaanstad will be part of the implementation of both, the Spatial and the Social Vision of the municipality towards 2040 and beyond. We focus on learning how to practically integrate these visions in the daily work in this rapidly growing city. While we continue to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and sharing knowledge across departments, there is more: The program is now also open for strategic partners who want to co-create the future of Zaanstad with us. This week #NewZaanstad was launched at the festive New Year’s reception. It includes master classes, workshops, excursions, trainings and much more. We start off with a session by Tim ‘S Jongers on ‘explaining poverty to people with money’ at Zaantheater. This year’s wonderful editorial team includes Koert-Jan Van Hees, Rianne Kleine Koerkamp, Lennart Graaff next to Lisa Schouten, Meike Westers and Hilde Bloemers. The original Program for the Knowledge of Space was set up together with Marc den Hertog, Frits Palmboom, Bregt Balk and others in 2021 when I joined Gemeente Zaanstad. Looking for forward to great learnings and collaborations in 2025!

This is a truly Happy New Year! ‘Making Space’, the vision for the urban development of Gemeente Zaanstad until 2040 and beyond has been officially agreed upon by the Municipal Council in the end of 2024.
‘Making Space’ is a spatial vision for the future that is firmly rooted in 5 basic principles that ensure spatial quality and address the contemporary urgencies and transitions a growing city faces.
This is the first time that Zaanstad, famous for its many windmills of Zaanse Schans and the cradle of the European industry made an integral vision for the entire municipality. Today the 170.000 inhabitant city is rapidly growing to 200.000+ in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam. The vision is part of the portfolio of elderman René Tuijn, who, next to our team, proudly wore the t-shirt I let made (and is shown above) in the council gathering. It shows the map of the vision and its essence: The 5 principles. The vision was commissioned by director Lennart Graaff.
It was a great ride to co-author, inspire and take care for the continuity of this poject together with Anne Langenesch and the team of professionals finishing this job included Joyce Goudschaal MCD, Lisan Adolf, Marian van den Brink, Mirjam Hoetjes-Witjes, Tijs Rothweiler and many others. The beautiful maps based upon my workshop atelier results and a draft by Urban Synergy were made by Lisa Schouten, Jasmijn Hofman and Esra Esen. The friendly impressions of the key projects were made from my rough sketches by blau.

Within the Program for the Knowledge of Space (iKPR) at Zaanstad Municipality we organized a privilege walk with the audience: one step ahead for benefitial socio-economic factors, and one step back for disadvantages.
It was confronting to see for the particpants, that some of them were in a very privileged position, while at the same time everybody realized that little factors or unforeseen incidents can increase insecurity easily for everybody.

The ‘walk’ was part of a film viewing addressing the lack of housing and economic homelessness, a rapdily growing phenomenom in the Netherlands. The documentary shown was the new feature film ‘Scheef’ (‘crooked’) by Falkyfilm, Annemarije Rus and Tanja Warning.

Aligned with the public participation period for inhabitants, entrepreneurs and partners the Zaanstad Future Vision ‘Making Space for Tomorrow’ (Ruimte Maken voor Morgen) was set up in the public ground floor foyer of the city hall and can now be viewed in one of the public lounges there.

The construction billboard can be easily moved to various locations, and shows the main map as well as the sketches of the 14 key projects to be realized on the way to 2040 and beyond. A QR code links to online content and larger maps.

‘Making Space’ is a spatial vision for the future that is firmly rooted in 5 basic principles that ensure spatial quality and address the contemporary urgencies and transitions a growing city faces. Picture by colleague Anne Langenesch.

From 16th of May 2024 onwards the preliminary vision upon the built environment (Ruimte Maken voor Morgen: Ontwerp Omgevingsvisie 2040 en verder) voor Zaanstad Municipality has been published for feedback by inhabitants and professionals.

This is the first time that Zaanstad, famous for its many windmills and the cradle of the European industry made an integral vision for the entire municipality. Today the 170.000 inhabitant city is rapidly growing to 200.000+ in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The Vision includes 5 essential principles to ensure a suistainable future and 14 key projects that pave the way.

It was great to co-author, inspire and take care for the continuity of this poject together with Anne Langenesch. The team of professionals who delivered this spatial vision for 2040 and beyond include Joyce Goudschaal, Lisan Adolf, Marian van den Brink, Mirjam Witjes-Hoetjes, Tijs Rothweiler and many others. The beautiful maps based upon our sketches and a draft by Urban Synergy were made by Lisa Schouten, Jasmijn Hofman and Esra Esen. The beautiful and friendly impressions of the key projects were made from my rough sketches by blau.

In December 2023 the 3rd season of the executive Program for the Knowledge of Space 2024 was finalized. Mathias was again part of the team of colleagues who aim to improve the awareness, competences en strategic knowledge in spatial and urban development for Zaanstad Municipality and her partners by these monthly educational in-house events. The team consists of Marc den Hertog, Yorick Waardenburg, Tijs Rothweiler, Meike Westers, Hilde Bloemers and Lisa Schouten.

In December 2023 Mathias published an article on the website of the Dutch National Association of Landscape Architects NVTL, member of IFLA Europe. The text addressed the advantages of spatial planning based upon the very long term. The main idea of this approach is to look ahead for the very long term of hundred years. Design and policy decisions are subsequently based on that perspective by deducting decisions for today from the expected or desired scenario’s for the future. Within his teaching he learned that this approach gave both trust and empowerment to the students, and resulted in unexpected and innovative design solutions; in his role as strategic advisor for Zaanstad Municipality he had previously commissioned a research with a comparable approach in order to determine if urban development should take place in an area currently used for agriculture.

The article was published on the homepage of the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam within a few days, too.

On November 14 Mathias was invited to present the status quo on the Urban Development Plan for Zaanstad Municipality for 2040 and beyond at the Duyvis company, part of Pepsico. Since decades the company runs a factory along river Zaan in Zaanstad and is a well-known food brand in the Netherlands.