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Amsterdam: The City of the Future

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3D printed houses and bridges, clean air, sustainable office spaces and coffee delivered by drone at the tap of an app. If this sounds like sci-fi to you then you need to visit Amsterdam. It’s the city of the future, and this is all a reality there.

Amsterdam is in the midst of a population boom as it continues to position itself at the centre of the European knowledge economy. Tech start-ups are one of just many industries drawn to the city, driven by a quality of life that Silicon Valley as well as other European capitals cannot offer. Up to 150,000 inhabitants are expected to migrate to the city between now and 2040, but the city’s limited geography looks likely to hinder this growth without some key changes. 

 

The Amsterdam Smart City initiative is the solution to this problem; it is futureproofing the city, ready to accommodate the predicted growing population and in turn, transforming Amsterdam into one of the world’s most liveable places with innovative infrastructure and housing solutions.

Whilst other cities such as Singapore are developing in similar ways, Amsterdam is leagues ahead thanks to the legions of tech and creative heavyweights it attracts as residents. Symbiotically, it’s the perfect growth: Tech brains are producing the knowledge needed to create change, and the creative communities are introducing the structures needed to implement it.

A great example of this is the 3D Printed Canal House developed by DUS architects. Yes that’s right, over the next three years they are planning to 3D print an entire canal house out of bioplastics. The project’s implications have the potential to alleviate the world housing crisis.

Similarly, MX3D are developing the world’s first 3D printed bridge. Technology means they can ‘draw’ stainless steel structures in thin air and the robotic arm uses the structure it is building for support.

Design innovations such as  The Edge are also shaping the city’s skyline and making Amsterdam a model for a sustainable urban future. This office space is the most sustainable in the world, where workers can control heating and lighting with an app and rainwater is used to irrigate the gardens and flush its toilets.

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The Edge

And then there are the start-ups; designing apps to aid Amsterdam’s growth at dizzying speeds. Yeller, for example, helps visitors meet other visitors to share a cab. WeGo is a peer-to-peer car sharing platform where non-car owners can rent cars from car owners in their neighbourhood. And Mobypark is a sharing parking app platform that displays all available parking places in real time, meaning cars emit less exhaust fumes because they’re not roaming aimlessly.

But our personal favourite has to be The Coffee Copter; a helicopter drone that delivers coffee from the tap of an app, the brainchild of independent café, The Coffee Virus.

If this is the future, you can count us in...

 

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