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