High Density (Dis)Illusions: Examining the Market Actor Perspectives in Large Scale Mixed-use Urban Development in the Post Crisis Era

Large-scale urban development projects in the post Global Financial Crisis (GFC) era are often assessed with a substantial focus on financially driven decision making by property market actors, above other considerations. In this contemporary period of constant renovation of cities anchored in deindustrialization, this focus is quickly interpreted as commodification a result of financial globalization and common associates, without thorough consideration of post crisis development from the market actor perspective, and their relative relationship to urban planning actors. The following research study assess the transition of the identity of the South Axis (Zuidas) financial business district in Amsterdam to a mixed-use neighbourhood that accelerated after the GFC, and examines what catalysts were in place for a more ‘flexible’, yet large scale, mixed-use development project to emerge. This location is distinct for two key reasons: the first, that Amsterdam has concentrated a record share and volume of foreign commercial real estate investment in the post-GFC era, and secondly that plans for high density Class A office space have been quickly replaced by residential complexes of a similar variety, maintaining a degree of standardization. This can be used to highlight that during this same period the commercial real estate sector has shifted from mono-functional nodes and single asset classes, to mixed-use and multi-asset portfolios, demonstrating that property market actors are actually moving closer to urban planning paradigms. Further trends such as walk-ability and human-scale design are also attributes that are appearing in the world of commercial real estate, principles that have been long advocated by the world of urban planning. The following research paper sets a qualitative analysis using actor interviews and planning documents along an evolving backdrop to dissuade the archetypal pure financial motivations of actors involved in the business of city building.