Assessment of multifunctional land use- an empirical analysis of the Amsterdam ‘Zuid WTC’ area

Multifunctional land use projects aim to concentrate and combine several socio-economic functions in one and the same area so as to save scarce space and to exploit synergies. The need for efficient urban land use has generated much interest in this (re)new(ed) form of urban architecture. However, despite its positive aspects, the realisation of multifunctional land use is often not easy. Issues of social (un)desirability of the project, spatial quality, as well as cost considerations, such as the distribution of the financial burden across different stakeholders, can be an important obstacle during the decision-making process. By means of a questionnaire among employees located at the multifunctional ‘Zuid WTC’ area in Amsterdam, we try to obtain more information about the benefits that different stakeholders attach to multifunctional land use projects, enabling us to assess issues such as willingness to pay of employees, preferences for specific infrastructure facilities, and the overall social (un)desirability of a multifunctional land use project. In this paper we present empirical evidence concerning the assessment of multifunctional land use by employees in the ‘Zuid WTC’ area, based on questions about preferences for the design of such an area and the value that employees attribute to it.