What is Governed in Cities

WHat Is Governed in Cities (WHIG) was a three-year research project examining the relationships between contemporary investment flows into the housing markets of major European cities and the arrangements and public policy instruments that are designed to govern them. Research took place in Amsterdam, London and Paris.

Major cities have faced unprecedented development pressures over recent decades as their populations and economies have expanded, and their built environments have become highy attractive locations for global investment. These pressures have been particularly acute in the production and consumption of housing, much of which is becoming increasngly inaccessible and less affordable for citizens and communities, particularly for young people and those on lower incomes.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam faces a housing crisis in terms of quantity and affordability. With its 863,000 inhabitants, Amsterdam is not only the largest city of the Netherlands but has one of the fastest population growth rates among other Dutch cities.

The Amsterdam Metropoitan Area is currently home to a population of 2.46 million. Projections forecast that Amsterdam will hit the one million mark by 2034. The municpailty of Amsterdam estimates that an expected 11,000 new inhabitants each year require the construction of 5,000 new homes annually to meet demand.

Simultaneously, house prices have skyrocketed. Prices of Amsterdam’s existing owner-occupied housing have risen almost 50% since 2010, there is a perpetual lack of affordable housing in middle-income groups, and average waiting times for social housing have reached 15 years. Housing dominated the 2018 local elections and resulted in plans to build 70,000 homes by 2040, with 52,500 to be completed by 2025.

This massive undertaking takes place in an increasingly complex governance context: changes at the national level strengthen the position of private-sectors actors in urban development, new actors emerge on residential investment landscapes, and the traditional planning approach in which the Municipality of Amsterdam is in charge, is increasingly challenged.

Project & research

Commissioned by lead partner the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL, and working with Sciences Po and the University of Amsterdam, I designed, built and maintained WHIG’s website. The site’s aim was to provide information about the project, its partners, team and funders, and to provide a place to communicate and discuss findings to a wider audience. The website was online from 2019 to 2023.