The Promise of Public and Green Spaces: Path to Achieving Community Building and Individual Well-Being in NDSM-werf
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
It’s May 2021, another day starts to unwind and the basic pandemic routine begins.
Getting out of bed, taking a shower, making some breakfast, and getting ready to walk around the neighborhood.
Flowers try to make their way through the cracks in the sidewalk; fighting for their survival before the Gemeente comes and cuts them off in a few weeks. All that can be seen are buildings and all that can be heard is the sound of construction workers gathering in front of the water to start a new project.
The few trees that have been planted along the sidewalks try to show off by displaying their new leaves that grew to the sound of hammers banging and metals clanking.
Tall buildings that seem to pop up out of nowhere every month establish their intimidating presence and adorn the streets of the neighborhood in their own peculiar way.
Walks that should be filled with flowers and luscious green trees are filled with cement and skies that are blocked by the tall buildings. A new month begins and a new apartment complex begins to rise from the ground and prepares itself to host individuals in the upcoming months.
This is the ongoing reality in NDSM; a developing area in the northern part of Amsterdam.
An area that was previously known for being an enormous shipyard is slowly being turned into a living urban space.
Yet, public and green spaces can rarely be encountered while strolling down the endless pavement covering NDSM.
(Image taken from: the Gemeente website).
A few patches of grass and some picnic tables are seen in the Western part of the neighborhood and every now and then some of its inhabitants use them to pass the time.
People can be found working out in a parking lot because the area lacks green spaces for people to exercise. The possibility of having green areas where people can exercise not only would benefit the residents physically but also would help improve their mental health and overall well-being.
This zone in Amsterdam-Noord, which is becoming the home of thousands of individuals, sadly does not provide many spots to interact and get to know one another. Although NDSM is still under development, it doesn’t seem like this process includes plans for the near future that take into consideration the incorporation of several green spaces.
Without green and public areas where people can socialize with their fellow neighbors, it becomes almost impossible to build a strong and interconnected community. It might also contribute to people wanting to spend less time outside because there is not enough nature for them to immerse themselves in or places to simply spend a sunny afternoon.
The deprivation of these interactions with nature in urban spaces has led people to bring a piece of nature inside of their homes. Lots of people have started purchasing houseplants since the pandemic began and although everyone has different reasons to do so, the fact that this was one of the solutions we all came up with to deal with anxiety, loneliness, and overall discomfort, says a lot about the importance of these living beings within our lives.
It doesn’t matter if it was to have some company or to have a distraction, buying plants and caring for them has proved to be very good for our mental health.
However, in an area like NDSM where most of the living spaces are apartment complexes with no gardens, the space to keep plants is quite limited.
(Image taken from: the Gemeente website).
The Future of NDSM is looking quite… grey?
The picture above presents what NDSM is going to look like in the next couple of years and although, amazingly, this old shipyard will now be home to many individuals it looks as if there was barely any inclusion of public and green areas that the residents can potentially use.
It’s wonderful to think of new urban living spaces but are these habitable in the sense that they will be good for our mental health or will their influence on people’s mental health will be detrimental?
As humans, we have gone through different evolutionary processes. We have managed to adapt to extreme circumstances and we have made it this far!
Yet, there are two things we have not managed to do: separate ourselves from nature and live without a community. And why should we?
(Image taken from: Free From Harm Website)
Due to the fast growth of Capitalism’s impact on society and its huge role within our lives, we have all become a lot more individualistic. Worrying about the latest trends and distracting ourselves with technologies that make us consume content like zombies and therefore, creating a bigger division between ourselves and the community we live in.
We have been fooling ourselves for decades, thinking that technology can somehow replace nature and human interaction. Also, we have tricked ourselves by thinking of the human species as a separate entity that rules the rest of the natural world; instead of thinking of ourselves as another part of nature itself.
Somewhere along the way, we have pushed nature out of the picture by destroying it and replacing it with cities full of people, cars, and asphalt.
Consequently, we have forgotten how much we need nature for our survival.
It is not only the fact that we destroy nature to build new cities but also the crazy realization that even when a city is full of nature, we rarely stop and notice it. We have been blinded by the desire for capital and the promise of industrialization as a positive thing that will assure our collective survival.
But then, COVID-19 happened.
It came to change the dynamic of everything we knew. Suddenly we needed to cover our mouths and noses to go grocery shopping and we could wear pajama pants to our online work meetings. Things that would have seemed crazy to even think of two years ago.
We found ourselves stuck in our homes and suddenly we were confronted with a very different reality. A reality that forced many of us to re-think the ways in which we were living our lives.
Always rushing somewhere; too busy to appreciate the little plants on the side of the road or to watch the ducks and swans nesting near the riverbanks.
Suddenly we had to stop rushing places because there was nowhere we needed to be. We were forced to spend more time by ourselves and get to know who we are when there is no place to run to.
And who did most of us turn to in these incredibly weird times? Nature!
Nature embraced us and allowed us to reconnect with her slowly as we adapted to the new living circumstances all over the globe.
Pause, and smell the flowers
Living in Amsterdam is normally quite hectic; tourists, bikes, trams, buses, cars, and people rushing everywhere.
Corona came and put everything on pause and we were forced to find new daily activities. Instead of rushing to catch the metro, we were now cherishing every minute we could spend walking outside.
Most of us started going on walks, trying to escape the walls that became our living, studying, working, sleeping, eating, and pretty much everything space. After hours of sitting down and staring at different screens, going on walks to spend some time in the closest bit of nature we could find, seemed like the best way to distract ourselves and to look at the changing world.
The majority of us somewhat knew the importance of going on walks and taking a breath of fresh air while surrounded by trees and flowers, but with the pandemic, many of us truly realized how crucial it actually is.
The UK Mental Health Foundation has been conducting studies since the pandemic began and it concluded that there exists a great relation between good mental health and spending time in nature.
The research found that at least six in ten (59 percent) adults in the UK found going on walks a very successful stress-reliever.
50 percent of adults in the UK said that visiting green areas helped them deal with the stress induced by the pandemic.
Interestingly, the research also pointed towards the fact that people made an extra effort to contact their families and friends in order to cope with stress and their emotions.
This confirms what was mentioned earlier: we need nature and we need a strong community in order for our mental health to thrive.
Community Building
It has become evident that the urban planning of an area will have effects on the mental health of the individuals that will inhabit it.
So, if the Corona lockdown has taught us anything, it is that we need to start planning these living spaces around the people and the ecosystems of the area; taking into consideration public spaces and green areas as crucial parts of the community.
“Let’s put people in the middle and not design or architecture.”
-Dirk van der Ven
Chief Innovation Officer at The World of Walas, Dirk van der Ven, explains that it is important to take into consideration the functions that urban areas will have other than just living there. Meaning that public spaces in which the residents of a neighborhood can interact with one another and to actively participate in local economies will have a very positive influence on the development of a community.
“If you look at it also from an economic point of view, if your neighbors are your clients and you have a very long connection to them, that makes it only stronger and more resilient.” — Dirk van der Ven
Getting to know the people that live within your community is extremely beneficial since it adds a sense of security and belonging. If there is a strong sense of community, there are more chances that people will step in if they see an injustice taking place.
Neighbors that get to know each other, look after each other.
Jane Jacobs, an urbanist and activist known for taking a different approach to Urban Development and who constantly encouraged individuals to contribute to their communities from the bottom-up, knew this.
She developed the concept of “eyes on the street” as this idea that streets that have the space for groups of people to interact and hang out, will be safer. If people are encouraged to spend time outside in their neighborhoods through the implementation of public and green spaces, then the streets will be filled with lively encounters between people.
Jacobs advocated for communities being developed with the help of the people that are going to reside in the given area. She argued that if people had a role in what was going to be done to their neighborhood, there was a bigger chance that they would want to continue to take care of it.
Stichting NDSM, a foundation in charge of managing the cultural activities of the NDSM neighborhood has been implementing some bottom-up approaches that have affected the area in a very positive way. These include outside art installations, activities to pick up trash in the neighborhood, and the Werf-tuin (a community project that wishes to make NDSM greener).
For the second year in a row, they have made it possible for a number of residents in NDSM to reserve 1m2 garden containers and use them to plant different vegetables and flowers. This gives neighbors the chance to interact with one another, share some gardening tips or simply admire the growing pumpkins and sunflowers.
(Image taken from: Stichting NDSM Instagram).
Flowers and vegetables add colors and textures to the landscape and they give people a chance to go out of their homes and interact directly with nature. Not only do people take time from their schedules to care for their own gardens, but others who are out on walks can spend a few minutes appreciating the beautiful greenery that emerges from these garden containers.
While contributing to the strengthening of the local community, these gardens give the opportunity for different pollinators to also become residents of the area.
This can be seen as a possibility of improving the relationship between humans living in NDSM and the nature that also resides in the area.
Bottom-up approaches such as this one, emerge when local governments fail to invest in making the neighborhood greener.
“The implementation of green areas should be a must when designing new urban spaces” explains Dirk van der Ven. It guarantees that the people that will be living in the area have the chance to connect with nature and their neighbors.
“The kind of community where it’s not just people knowing each other, it’s also the economies involved, where the whole fabric of the neighborhood is so intertwined.” — Dirk van der Ven
Sustainable Urban Development
Building living spaces around the people means that social, economical, and sustainable factors need to be taken into consideration. Green spaces help people re-connect and interact with nature; which is a crucial factor within sustainable urban development. It aims to highlight the interconnectedness between historic, cultural and environmental resources within a location and the importance of protecting them.
Cities are becoming the most populated places in the world and with the number of people migrating to urban areas, there is a need to build them in ways that mitigate their effects on climate change; taking into consideration the SDG’s presented by the UN.
As an international community, it becomes very helpful to understand the difference that it makes when people’s needs are met from a place of understanding and not just for the sake of capital.
“We often look to create a house for someone to live in or an office where people work in, but how about the public space where people will meet and exchange? You know, that is so important.” — Dirk van der Ven
Considering urban areas as more than just living and working spaces, can help people co-exist with nature in different ways that can contribute to the mitigation of climate change and the implementation of greener practices in their day-to-day lives.
Urban Farming plays an important role within sustainable urban development as it tries to utilize any public or private space within a neighborhood to plant food for its residents. It emerges as an idea to deal with food security issues and to make sure that people in a city are able to easily access food and to know where the products they are consuming are coming from. However, urban farming can also potentially be an important ally to reduce the ecological footprint and create environmental and social awareness.
If people consume more local products, not only will they be helping the environment, but they will be a part of an incredible initiative for their community. Since both of these become interconnected, it might also help people become more conscious about their habits as consumers and the possible repercussions that careless practices surrounding food can have for the environment.
For example, in NDSM since the ground is quite polluted, the use of rooftops as possible locations for gardens can be a solution that takes into consideration the reality of the neighborhood.
Also, because most of the residences are apartment complexes, rooftop gardens could be a viable solution to increase the interaction between people and nature. This will help them get to know the individuals that they share a space with, but it will also contribute greatly to the reduction of the ecological footprint of the living complex.
Most of these sustainable practices, need efforts from different entities. Yet, the involvement of the residents of the area can be a decisive factor in a lot of the cases.
Just as there needs to be action from local governments and private developers, the individuals present in a community, also hold a lot of power.
They hold the power of organizing, the power of creating, and the power of caring for one another.