Almere Pampus
Wetland nature meets new town. Almere Pampus is an urban development at the crossroads of a pan-European nature connection. Surrounded by water and with nature right up to the front door, six special residential environments and a rich public space are created on a cape on the Markermeer lake.
With the development of Almere Pampus, the Municipality of Almere has the ambition to realise between 25,000 and 35,000 housing units. Commissioned by the Municipality of Almere and The Central Government Real Estate Agency, Team Pampus (a collaboration of Polyfern, Bright and BURA) conducted a design study for a master plan for the new district. With principles for residential environments, urban planning, public space and nature.
The essence of the plan lies in reviving the original wetland nature on the former bottom of the Zuiderzee. By focusing on robust green structures, existing natural areas can be connected both through the district and outside the dikes. This will make Almere Pampus an important ecological stepping stone on a local, regional and international level.
Nature is at every resident’s fingertips. Based on the 3-30-300 rule, a finely branched network of green-blue structures and public spaces has been designed. From an urban waterfront, neighborhood parks, sports facilities and urban meadows, to green squares, neighborhood gardens, experimental plots and private gardens.
This framework of landscape, nature and public space forms the “contramal” for the urban design. Different residential environments occur within it. From an urban waterfront on the cape of the IJmeer (Pampus Waterfront and Central), to living in the edge of the forest and near nature (Pampus Forest and Eco), to a mixed living/working area (Pampus Campus), to living in the wetlands (Pampus Delta).
The basis for the plan are the conditions of water and soil guiding, from which the area is divided into zones suitable for building and zones that can be given a nature or water function. This creates a whimsical pattern of green-blue wetlands that contrast with the characteristic rigid polder grid. Special existing polder elements, such as the dike, waterfront, polder forests and road patterns, are included as heritage features in the master plan. Archaeological research and soil surveys provided direct input into the plan development during the process.
(No rights can be derived from the images)
Year: 2024
Type: design research for a master plan, urban planning, public space, landscape
Client: municipality of Almere and Rijksvastgoedbedrijf
Status: design research
Size: approx. 1400 hectares area
