Where in Zuidas
The RAI is back. For a long time, the coronavirus crisis has made all events impossible, except for testing and vaccinations by the GGD municipal health service. However, that activity has now been relocated to a tent on coach park P6. KunstRAI started on 8 September 2021 and on 26 October 2021, the country’s largest real estate trade show Provada will be held there. Finally, the place has come back to life and with it, the need to look ahead. Although a flourishing RAI may be good for the Amsterdam economy, it also brings with it noise, environmental issues and traffic problems. In order to do something about that, RAI has spent two years working on a Masterplan, with a view to making the complex and its environment future-proof. The area needs to become a place where ‘working, spending time, living, learning, innovating, doing business and living healthily go hand-in-hand’, wrote Everhardt in a letter dated 8 October 2021 to the City Council. ‘The Masterplan connects the location with the city while reducing nuisance and inconvenience in the neighbourhood.’
Underground logistics
Whereas the RAI was once on the edge of the city, the trade fair and events complex is now part of it. The only problem is that it is not designed for that. The Masterplan aims to change this: the RAI as an accessible and attractive area for all people of Amsterdam. For that to happen, the logistics first need to disappear underground. Currently – at least in ‘normal’ times – around 6,000 lorries enter the city every month to serve the RAI. The plan is to build a ‘logistics hub’ – in Muiden or Vinkeveen, for example – where goods can be bundled together and transferred to smaller, emission-free trucks. They will then transport goods to the RAI via a tunnel. This will remove a lot of the local disruption and no longer place a burden on the surrounding roads network.
Housing
This development will make it easier to give the RAI site a thorough upgrade. This will include the construction of housing. The extent to which public and social amenities could potentially contribute to a pleasant living environment will also be explored, together with the options for increasing the opportunities for all people of Amsterdam to make use of it. Plans to make the route between RAI station, the nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel and the RAI site more attractive by adding retail and hospitality outlets are also being considered. The Masterplan also includes an easy-to-navigate and safe cycle route from Beatrixpark that connects the RAI site to the Kop Zuidas neighbourhood, among others.
Added benefits
Everhardt writes that the City Executive takes a positive view with regard to the plans to develop ‘a flourishing RAI in a flourishing environment’. The City Council and RAI will work together on the further development of the Masterplan ‘in view of the added benefits in terms of area development, the housing issue, the quality of the area, mobility and the economy’.
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