Amsterdam's Oostelijk Havengebied or eastern docks area consists of a number of artificial archipelagos laid out around 1900. When the once-flourishing docks fell into disuse, it was decided to transform the area into a high-grade residential district. Begun in the 1970s, that transformation is now almost completed. Jo Coenen, Sjoerd Soeters and Adriaan Geuze were among those who made the varied assortment of masterplans for the different areas. Many big-name Dutch architects contributed to fleshing out these plans with housing. So the eastern docks area is not just a successful and highly sort-after residential district, it is as much a catalogue of 20 years of Dutch architecture and urbanism of the highest quality.
This book gives a complete overview in words and images of the planning and architecture of these eastern harbour docklands supplemented by themed essays by specialists.It also gives a broad overview of Dutch housing of the past few decades.