How did the landscape now known as Amsterdam look before there was an Amsterdam? Why is the Jordaan so different from the ring canals? Is Central Station in the right place? Why did Amsterdam's impressive planning machine grind to a halt around 1970, and what happened after that? Who owns Amsterdam, and, for that matter, how great is Amsterdam? These questions, and many more, are dealt with in this pertinent, richly illustrated book about a thousand years of Amsterdam's spatial history.
Author Fred Feddes threads together a chain of forty stories about the original landscape, its reclamation, the changing relation between water and land, and the still continuing history of the building and rebuilding of the city. Starting from the Dam, the book fans out through the city and surrounding region, and through time from the year 1000 to the present day, along the high points of history and down intriguing side paths, to end with a well-earned day out on the beach at IJburg.
A Millennium of Amsterdam is an indispensable and stimulating standard work on the fascinating spatial history of a marvellous city.
This publication was realized with the financial support of the Netherlands Architecture Fund.
