ABSTRACT

The Zuidas (‘South Axis’) in Amsterdam is the biggest and one of the most ambitious and complex contemporary urban projects in the Netherlands. Throughout its relatively short history, the goal of the project has evolved from the realisation of a new office location for the Amsterdam region to the creation of an internationally competitive location with an important urban aspect that includes housing and facilities as well. The strategic location of the Zuidas, namely a greenfield site on both sides of Amsterdam’s southern ring road and close to the international airport, is crucial to its development. The project can be linked to many strategic questions on urban development and governance processes that go beyond this specific episode of urban transformation (Salet and Majoor 2005). In this chapter we analyse the project from an institutional perspective and place its complex practices of decision-making in a context of institutional innovation.