When one thinks about the identity of IJmuiden many people will tell you about the industry and the dull postwar neighborhoods. But what makes IJmuiden unique? What in IJmuiden is nowhere else to be found? The harbour! Currently it is used by the North Sea trawler fishery. But in the vision, in 20 years time most fishing will become large scale industrial fishing and therefore, most of the fish will arrive frozen in big transport ships. On the other hand small scale ‘sustainable biological’ fishing will grow. An increasing part of the consumers want to know where their foods comes from. Therefore, an increasing part of the building stock will never be used again for the current function or needs transforamtion. Allready a large part of the building stock is for rent.

The current model of blueprint planning and the modernistic paradigma of seperation of functions seems to become outdated. Old warehouses are empty for long times, without a chance of finding a new user in the fishery industry. On the other hand, it has become extremely difficult to find teanants for the newly build commercial units, developed by a project developer within the plans of the municipality. The inflexible attitude in the bestemmingsplan makes the developsment proces extremely slow, and the monofunctionality makes it vulnurable for future changes in the economy. For a sustainable future, a change in the program has to be made. Mono-functionality and blueprint planning are therefore rejected! Flexibility is key!Use this box for more text