Theme Park City: Zaandam

Zaandam is in fact a city within another city, namely Zaanstad. Zaanstad is a city adjacent to the northwest of AmsterdamFrom 2003 onwards the city centre of Zaandam, is being rebuilt. This project is called Inverdan and has been designed by architect Sjoerd Soeters. The goals of the project are to strengthen the social and economic structure of Zaandam, to spatially improve the city centre and to reinforce the identity of the municipality. As expected, given the historical and contemporary industries, Zaandam has always been a city for the lower and middle class. However a new urban class, that has increasingly emerged in the last few decades, seems to have easier access as well as a bigger strive to live in the city.This cognitive-cultural class thus generally prefers to live a metropolitan life in one of the world’s bigger cities. They appreciate authenticity as an important value in their lifestyle. It is therefore unlikely that a city like Zaandam will appeal to these people very much …READ MORE