Deconstructing Nieuwmarkt,
Amsterdam Centrum
In the 1970s, the Municipality of Amsterdam displaced residents and demolished houses along a 500 meter stretch within the Nieuwmarkt neighborhood for the construction of a new metro line. Gemeente Amsterdam, Department of Spatial Planning, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, 1977
Activities
06.2025
Workshop: Sensorial mapping methods
Workshop: Radical observation, Siebbeleshof
09.2025
In 1953 the Municipality of Amsterdam issued the Wederopbouwplan voor de Nieuwmarktbuurt (Nieuwmarkt Reconstruction Plan), a planning document which marks a critical moment in Amsterdam’s postwar urban policy, when modernist planning principles were projected onto the historic city center. Conceived under infrastructural development, the plan proposed large-scale clearance of the Nieuwmarktbuurt, which was characterized by aging, overcrowded and unhygienic housing stock. The design emphasized broad traffic arteries, integration of underground metro infrastructure, and the replacement of premodern housing with modern apartment blocks. In this way, the plan positioned the inner city as a mess to be rationalized and modernized, aligning with the national reconstruction ethos of “licht, lucht en ruimte” (light, air, and space) [1].
1
Havinga, L., Colenbrander, B., & Schellen, H. (2020). Heritage attributes of post-war housing in Amsterdam. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 9(1), 1–19.
Soils throughout Amsterdam Centrum are sealed; the area has some of the least access to green space in the Netherlands. European Environment Agency, 2011
Due to years of contestation and direct confrontation, only part of the plan was eventually implemented. Large-scale demolitions in the 1970s displaced many residents, tearing a physical and metaphorical gash over more than 500 meters through the neighborhood. In the intervening years, this demolition zone became the site of squatting and informal gardening. Archival images show farm animals, herb beds, and protest graffiti in spaces where buildings once stood, underscoring the role of grassroots practices in reimagining and reappropriating the neighborhood’s space. This space was gradually filled up with new housing, chiefly designed by principal planners and architects Aldo van Eyck and Theo Bosch, at the expense of these burgeoning ecological commons.
A poignant reflection of this moment is recorded in a 1983 article of the neighborhood newspaper Op Nieuw. “Groen in de buurt, een noodzakelijke luxe” [Green in the neighborhood, a necessary luxury] frames greenery as both vital and dispensable: necessary for a healthy city, but secondary to housing.
Today the struggle for more green space in Nieuwmarkt continues. While the neighborhood has little formalized green space, marginal and informal spaces—potted plants, facade gardens, community gardens—are prolific.
However, these projects are constrained on multiple fronts. Soils across Amsterdam are degraded, exploited, paved over, and contaminated with heavy metals and persistent “forever” chemicals [2, 3], which pose a direct risk to human health. Much of the belowground is managed as a sandy substrate for dense networks of cable and pipe infrastructure which suppresses complex soil ecologies, as well as the placement and type of plantings above ground. The enclosure of the commons thus extends not only horizontally, but vertically as well [4].
2
Creamer, R. E., Barel, J. M., Bongiorno, G., & Zwetsloot, M. J. (2022). The life of soils: Integrating the who and how of multifunctionality. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 166, 108561.
3
Gemeente Amsterdam. (2023). Uitvoeringsagenda Voedselstrategie 2023–2026. Ruimte & Duurzaamheid.
4
Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the web of life: Ecology and the accumulation of capital. Verso.
Publications
P.001
Article: Unearthing the disaggregated socio-ecological reproduction of urbanized soils in Paris and Amsterdam
Report: Emergent soil care infrastructures in Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam Centrum
P.003
P.002
Pamphlet: How to care for degraded, contaminated city soils
Many of the community gardens in Amsterdam make use of compost tumblers, some of which are supplied by the local foundation Afval naar Oogst. Snow & Lai, 2025
This is not unique: Globally, over a third of Earth's soil is degraded due to ongoing urbanization processes [5, 6, 7, 8]. Soils are a key but often overlooked component of the urban ecosystem [9], as they store more carbon worldwide than is contained in all plant biomass above ground [10]. Healthy soils prevent erosion and mitigate drought and flood due to their ability to absorb and store high quantities of water [11]. Soils require continued care that does not fit neatly into linear or efficient timelines of techno-managerial regimes [12].
Soil care includes remediating degraded and contaminated soils, which multiple sites across Nieuwmarkt must navigate. Through extensive conversations with soil scientists from Wageningen University and lessons from Amsterdam’s experimental composting and gardening initiatives, we came to understand that in-situ remediation practices can be linked with community-based organic waste management.
Composting of organic waste can effectively immobilize a range of heavy metals through a process called phytostabilization, which binds the heavy metals to increased organic matter, reducing overall bioavailability for plants and other organisms. This in-situ method is in contrast to standard remediation methods of excavating contaminated soils, which has the potential to aerosolize heavy metal particles within the soil, increasing the risk of human exposure, and displaces this contamination onto other human and extra-human communities elsewhere.
5
Watts, J. (2017). Third of Earth’s soil is acutely degraded due to agriculture. The Guardian.
6
Ontl, T. A. & Schulte, L. A. (2012). Soil Carbon Storage. Nature Education Knowledge, 3(10), 35.
7
European Commission. (2020). A European Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth.
8
Ferreira, C. S. S., Walsh, R. P. D., & Ferreira, A. J. D. (2018). Degradation in urban areas. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 5, 19–25.
9
Ojo, A., Aliku, O., Aladele, S., Oshunsanya, S., Olubiyi, M., Olosunde, A., Ayantayo-Ojo, V., & Alowonle, A. (2022). Impacts of land-use types on soil physical quality: A case study of the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Nigeria. Environmental Challenges, 7, 100510.
10
Terrer, C., Phillips, R.P., Hungate, B.A. et al. (2021). A trade-off between plant and soil carbon storage under elevated CO2. Nature, 591, 599–603.
11
Bünemann, E. K., Bongiorno, G., Bai, Z., Creamer, R. E., De Deyn, G., de Goede, R., Fleskens, L., Geissen, V., Kuyper, T. W., Mäder, P., Pulleman, M., Sukkel, W., van Groenigen, J. W., & Brussaard, L. (2018). Soil Quality – A Critical Review. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 120, 105-125.
12
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). "Soil Times: The Pace of Ecological Care" in More-than-Human (2021), Jaque, A., Otero Verzier, M., Pietroiusti, L. (eds).
Results of a mapping workshop at the Siebbeleshof in Nieuwmarkt in September, 2025; A potential vision of a de-paved street transformed into a food forest and productive meadow. Snow & Lai, 2025
Soil care also includes recognizing and reorganizing the social reproductive labor maintaining the city’s soils. As the municipality seeks to regenerate its soils, reintroduce more complex ecosystems, increase biodiversity and encourage climate adaptation strategies like blue-green infrastructure [13], communities working within neighborhood gardens and marginalized green spaces are essential collaborators. In Amsterdam’s dense core, the struggle over soil thus becomes inseparable from broader questions of utility governance, ecological justice, and the future of public space.
Recognizing soil's significance requires a paradigm shift in urban spatial planning and design. A soil-positive form of urbanization, what some have called a ‘multispecies’ [14] or ‘agroecological’ urbanism [15], would not only lead to healthier soil (communities), but would also increase the soil's sponge capacity, assist efforts to reduce emissions, improve the resilience of cities to climate change and adaptation, help restore biodiversity and provide much more open green space.
It is against this backdrop that Het Bodemzorgnetwerk has been initiated. Bringing together local communities, researchers, and institutions including the communities of Nieuwmarkt, Gemeente Amsterdam, Wageningen University, and the AMS Institute, the project seeks to foster collaborative soil care practices around Nieuwmarkt. Through workshops, events, and collective research, the network will explore strategies for restoring soil health and increasing surface permeability within the dense fabric of the inner city, with emphasis on shared stewardship rather than top-down imposition.
This is an ongoing investigation. A full report will be published upon the project’s completion.
13
Gemeente Amsterdam. (2023). Uitvoeringsagenda Voedselstrategie 2023–2026. Ruimte & Duurzaamheid.
14
Solomon, D., & Nevejan, C. (2019). "Soil in the city: The socio-environmental substrate." In A.-M. Bonnett, E. Terrenato, & R. D. van der Borgh (Eds.), Field to palette: Dialogues on soil and art in the anthropocene (pp. 449–459). CRC Press.
15
Tornaghi, C., & Dehaene, M. (Eds.). (2021). Resourcing an agroecological urbanism: Political, transformational and territorial dimensions (1st ed.). Routledge.