From nomadic labour to online services and from street food kitchens to pop-up shops, informality is on the rise as never before. Its transformative power can be seen in the new ways we produce, consume and live, with commerce playing a crucial role in these changes. The resulting tension between the formal and the informal is nowhere more evident than in the struggles over contested marketplaces.

This book provides a deeper understanding of the formal-informal linkages that have given shape ...

A multitude of port cities dots Europe’s coastline, all serving the purpose of facilitating maritime transportation. Over millennia, public and private leaders have built harbours, urban spaces and infrastructures in diverse territories to serve hinterlands, including landlocked capital cities and metropolitan areas. As nodes on the edge of water and land, port city territories embody knowledge on maritime flows and water conditions. At a time of climate change, they can be paradigms and st...

Amsterdam's Oostelijk Havengebied or eastern docks area consists of a number of artificial archipelagos laid out around 1900. When the once-flourishing docks fell into disuse, it was decided to transform the area into a high-grade residential district. Begun in the 1970s, that transformation is now almost completed.Jo Coenen, Sjoerd Soeters and Adriaan Geuze were among those who made the varied assortment of masterplans for the different areas. Many big-name Dutch architects contributed to fl...

This collection book presents 106 late-medieval and Renaissance highlights. In this era the cultural centres of Europe were booming. The book introduces the wonderful collection of the Rijksmuseum in 106 illustrated entries and an essay focusing on the artist's world. Book design: Irma Boom.

This book delves into the practice of Office Winhov, the acclaimed Amsterdam-based architecture firm, whose buildings elegantly blend the past with the present. Architecture Repurposed showcases Office Winhov’s adaptive reuse approach, combining contemporary transformations with respect for architectural heritage.

At a time when sustainability is paramount and our cities yearn for historical and cultural nuance, it is essential that existing buildings are transformed with care. Office Winho...

Dutch Waterworks Worldwide documents the story of architecture and landscape photographer Luuk Kramer’s journey documenting waterworks built by Dutch engineers around the world, from the sixteenth century to the present day, from polders in Poland to dikes and dams in Japan, from canals in Brazil to a small lock in Surinam.

The Dutch brought knowledge gleaned from centuries of experiences with living in a delta, including land reclamation efforts, droughts and catastrophic floods. They wer...

This special issue brings together the work of the EU COST Writing Urban Places network. Using narrative approaches to analysis and design, the network highlights the specificity of local urban cultures in contemporary European cities. Drawing on research from a range of disciplines (architecture, urban studies, literary theory, sociology, media studies), the issue explores spatial approaches that promote responsible, site-specific and socially inclusive design strategies for European cities....