The grand future

At the moment it looks as if Amsterdam is falling apart. Or is it being rebuild in a grand future?

The construction of a new metroline from Amsterdam North to Amsterdam South is – to say the least – problematic. At the moment the work is stopped, because the last two times they started working again the housing rather quickly sinking in the ground, causing the walls to crack. The picture is from NRC (http://www.nrc.nl) and shows the owner of a seventeenth century house.

During the time consuming Metro construction, Amsterdam has started the renovation of the Rijksmuseum. This started in 2002 (!) and is not even partly finished. As a matter of fact the construction process has been interupted for quit a time because of a quarrel with the construction company. Now optimists claim that the project can be finished before 2015. At the same time the Stedelijk Museum is being rebuilding since 2003 in a complex and timeconsuming process (expected opening 2009). To make the sequence complete the beautiful Maritime Museum is closed for two years because of renovation (http://www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl/english/news/renovation).

Interesting to see the different narratives that are going around: from ‘waiting for the big and grand future & sacrifices we have to make’ (the narritive advocated by the city mayor and the responsibles for the works of building), to ‘Amsterdam is falling apart’ and ‘Amsterdam is losing control’. Both represent a simple, singleminded view on reality. In fact we are looking at an interesting phase in the city histrory, and a very interesting area of both complex and chaotic environment.

I would really like to do a narrative project on this subject.