Designers reveal ‘second gate’ for Amsterdam
Plans to create a €400 million (£314m, $489m) metropolitan theme park on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, are being developed by a caucus of leading design firms.
The project – Park 21 – would be a 1,000-hectare (3,000 acre) cultural, recreational urban parkland, with landscaped and leisure elements. Facilities such as shops, restaurants, hotels and attractions are central to the proposal, which would offer a ‘cluster concept’ where visitors pick and choose activities.
Plans have been commissioned by the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer – 20 minutes from downtown Amsterdam and five minutes from Schiphol Airport. “Downtown Amsterdam is overcrowded,” Hans van Driem, development consultant for the project, told CLADmag: “The city has seen a 14 per cent increase in international visitors since 2013, from 6.35 million to 7.23 million in 2014. The Park 21 scheme will give it more capacity.”
The concept is being developed by Toronto-based planning and design firm Forrec, along with consultancy practice Leisure Development Partners (LDP) and M2 Leisure.
Steve Rhys, vice president of Forrec said: “There’s a phenomenon we’re seeing in entertainment where the conventional single-gated attractions – where you park your car, walk through the retail village and spend your whole day inside a gated facility – are making way for many-gated cluster-concepts.
“Park 21 will be a cultural, recreational, family destination – a deconstructed theme park – where you enter through public, no-charge gates and choose what you want to do and how long you want to stay,” added Rhys.
The project is currently at the funding and feasibility stage, with opening planned for April 2020. @forrecdesigns


Juneteenth Museum by Bjarke Ingels Group has been designed to inspire spiritual uplift

BIG and HOK's timber concept wins Zurich Airport competition

Christoph Ingenhoven reveals Lanserhof Sylt, featuring the largest thatched roof in Europe

BIG's designs Prague concert hall to be vibrant centre of life

Mather & Co-designed Gretna Green Experience opens to the public

Project to save last major bellfoundry which cast bells for St Paul's and Washington National Cathedral

Perkins & Will reveals designs for net-zero sports and cultural centre in Toronto

World’s first living waterslides announced for Therme Manchester

Heatherwick reveals Volcano-inspired opera house designs for Hainan

Natural history museum planned for Abu Dhabi

Controversial London music venue, MSG Sphere, gets full planning permission

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Glasgow's iconic Burrell Collection reopens after five-year, £68.5m revamp

SB Architects delivers Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Costa Rica with tree-house spa and private residences

Ole Scheeren designs vertical jungle resort complex in China

Designer Brian d’Souza launches Swell to create evocative soundscapes for physical environments

Basalt Architects create geothermal Forest Lagoon in the wilds of Iceland

Hot Pickle design £73m Guinness visitor attraction for Diageo in London

Amsterdam's new digital art centre Fabrique des Lumières will use tech to bring art alive

Pharrell Williams to launch tropical Bahamian beach resort

Banyan Tree curating solar-powered wellness retreat on private Mozambican island

Dubai Expo hits 10 million visits

Foster + Partners designs Dorchester Collection's first hotel in Middle East

Neil Jacobs reveals Six Senses Places concept for major cities

Orient Express returns to Italy after 46 years with six trains designed by Dimorestudio and new Rome hotel

400-year-old mineral spring will power Preidlhof’s €2m medicinal bath experience

Universal Beijing Resort reveals expansion plans for second phase

Pop-up stadium built with shipping containers opens ahead of 2022 World Cup

Playfulness will inspire Serenbe’s new wellness community, Spela
From parks designed to mitigate the effects of flooding to warming huts for one of the world’s coldest cities, these projects have been designed for increasingly extreme climates