Sloop : utopie en protest in Amsterdam van 1800 tot nu

Amsterdam has a long history of building, but also of demolishing. Countless versions of the capital have been erased by demolition over the years. Hanneke Ronnes and Wouter van Elburg investigated the many planned demolition projects in the city from 1800 to the present. Good reasons were always found to demolish houses, streets and entire residential areas: necessary breakthroughs for car traffic, clearing out slums, erasing 'ugly' architecture and even utopian ideas about creating an ideal metropolis. Economic arguments usually won in the end. In the nineteenth century, Amsterdammers began to worry about the disappearance of their city. Heritage conservationists, squatters and residents of threatened neighbourhoods were able to save some parts of the old city at the last minute. This book analyses the dynamics of utopia and protest, with Amsterdam as a model for the large-scale demolition that has affected every Dutch city.