EnvironMETROmix

Abstract

This Master thesis deals with metro station environments in the district Amsterdam Zuid-Oost. The metro is one of the main public transport modes in the district, however these station environments are not well integrated in the neighbourhoods. Often these areas are neglected and seem forgotten, while travellers need to face these environments daily. On top of this the district does not have a very good image, this is due to both urban morphological and social issues. The district was designed according modernistic ideals, functions were separated which allows minimal interaction. Roads are elevated and have hierarchical network characteristics, causing even less interaction between urban elements and public space users. A lot of undefined public space is created due to elevated infrastructure, these dark and unpleasant environments are associated with illegal businesses. And these businesses do exists, because the district is dealing with a high rate of crime and drugs dealing. And at the same time the district has a lot of unemployed inhabitants. In this Master thesis I have tried to find design guidelines or design concepts which can be used to integrate a metro station with its surrounding neighbourhood in order to create a lively, attractive and useful metro station environment. The strategy follows: redevelopments around metro stations can function as hubs to structuralize the urban environment. This stimulates the urban coherence and interdependence of the district. Design recommendations for the district were taken from practical research and theoretical principles of Salingaros (2005), while on the neighbourhood scale guidelines were analysed of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) (Calthorpe, 1993) also case studies were done to find design references. Next key-projects were chosen to develop design proposals for and four design concepts were concluded: the pedestrian defined grid city, mix of functions, higher densities around station and smaller plot sizes which are the fundamentals of integrating a metro station with its surrounding neighbourhood.