As the Dutch polder city of Almere marks its 50th anniversary this summer, urban planning history meets hard geological reality. Co-designer Brans Stassen has sparked intense debate by admitting that building a major urban center below sea level was a fundamental mistake, predicting that nature will eventually reclaim the land.
The Bottom Line
- The Anniversary Milestone: Almere is celebrating its 50th anniversary by bringing together eight original pioneers to reflect on the city’s inception and future.
- The Geological Warning: Co-designer Brans Stassen has openly criticized the city’s location below sea level, warning that continuous pumping will eventually fail and nature will take over.
- Mixed Pioneer Legacy: While some early residents like Yuri Dijkstra and Dr. Nico van Duijn celebrate local innovations like busbanen, others point out costly infrastructure burdens like aging bridges.
The Blueprint Under Fire at Fifty
Cities are rarely granted the luxury of self-reflection before their golden jubilees, but Almere is breaking the mold. Marking its milestone year, the largest city in Flevoland gathered eight of its earliest figures inside a classroom at De Meergronden—the oldest secondary school in the area—to look back at the grand design. Yet instead of uniform civic pride, the retrospective yielded striking admissions from the very people who drew the lines.
Brans Stassen, a stedenbouwkundige (urban designer) who helped lay out the city’s foundational grids, pulled no punches when assessing the geography. “There is one thing very wrong with Almere. It is below sea level. We never should have done that,” Stassen stated. He added, “We are completely crazy that we did that. We are now pumping the polder empty all the time, but a moment will come when that stops. Then nature will win and the city will flood.”
Stassen noted that during the very earliest planning phases, a proposal floated the idea of building a floating city. While that concept seemed impossible at the time, building deep beneath sea level has proven to be a precarious gamble. “I think it’s very special what it has become and I live here with great pleasure, but pride is not the right word,” he admitted.
Infrastructure Realities and Pioneer Perspectives
While the urban planners grapple with existential geography, other members of the original eight-person cohort are weighing in on the daily mechanics of living in a 50-year-old polder city. For Nico van Duijn, Almere’s first huisarts (general practitioner), certain design choices proved to be stroke-of-genius innovations, while others turned into financial headaches.
Van Duijn praised the city’s dedicated busbanen (bus lanes) and the separated traffic system as ideal urban planning solutions. Here is the kicker: that forward-thinking transit design came with a hefty maintenance blind spot. “They shouldn’t have made bridges everywhere,” Van Duijn noted, pointing out that the ubiquitous crossings cost fortunes and are now aging simultaneously, requiring massive capital replacements without adequate financial reserves having been saved.
Contrasting that cautious view is Yuri Dijkstra, son of an early tobacconist. Dijkstra embraced the family legacy by taking over his father’s shop, which still operates in a modern incarnation. “I am certainly proud when I cycle through the city,” Dijkstra said. “When I have customers on the floor and talk about Almere, I really feel pride.”
| Pioneer Name | Original Role | Core Perspective on Almere at 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Brans Stassen | Urban Designer | Critical of building below sea level; warns nature will eventually reclaim the polder. |
| Nico van Duijn | First General Practitioner | Praises separate traffic systems and bus lanes, but criticizes the expensive bridge infrastructure. |
| Yuri Dijkstra | Son of Early Tobacconist | Maintains strong civic pride while running the generational local storefront. |
| Hanni van Maarschalkerwaart | Project Bureau Spokesperson | Participating in the 50th-anniversary historical retrospectives at De Meergronden. |
Looking Toward a Sub-Sea Future
The retrospective discussions, unfolding throughout the week at De Meergronden alongside other early figures including Hanni van Maarschalkerwaart, cultural official James Purvis, early resident Aukje van den Bos, and pioneering photographers Bob and Michelle Friedländer, force a broader cultural reckoning.
What are your thoughts on designing cities in reclaimed land and flood zones? Drop your take in the comments below.
