The Dutch metropolis

What makes a big city a metropolis: a fantastic location, metros gliding back and forth, an inspiring history, a concentration of corporate head offices, a varied and colourful population, exciting nightlife? One of the principle traits of a metropolis is that it attracts hosts of visitors: business visitors, foreign and domestic tourists, conference participants, refugees, expats, and residents of the region who come to shop, catch a film, eat out, or all of those together. In our urbanized delta, over the last decade it is primarily logistical interaction which has received the lion's share of investment: harbours, stations, airports and auctions. However, for the quality of a metropolis it is at least as important to invest in facilities for urban human interaction: in campuses, business centres, museums, convention centres, metropolitan parks, cultural clusters, seaside resorts, entertainment districts and shopping areas - places where people can encounter one another. In recent years the TU Delft, the City of Amsterdam and the Delta Metropolis Association, together with diverse partners, have investigated this phenomenon. The Dutch Metropolis is a report of this research. Recent theoretical developments regarding the shaping of a metropolis are sketched, ongoing projects in and around the large Dutch cities are analysed and compared with international examples, and new perspectives are explored.