Almere

Almere is an exception in the Dutch welstand (aesthetic) landscape. Since 2014 the city has been declared largely welstand-free for standard residential neighbourhoods. This means that modifications to your own home, dormer windows, extensions, façade changes, and small outbuildings do not require aesthetic advice, provided they fall within the building envelope of the zoning plan. The practical consequence is that, for standard renovations, Almere offers a fast and predictable permit process. Welstand regimes are only active in four defined zones. The Stadshart regime covers the centre, which was designed by OMA in 2003 with explicit architectural ambition. Here welstand expects pronounced modern-urban expression and rejects traditional roof shapes or classical façades that disrupt the urban character. The Pampuskwartier regime along the IJmeer requires high-quality waterfront architecture with attention to water-urban composition. The Floriade-site regime, which emerged from Floriade 2022, calls for sustainability expression through green roofs, integration of urban agriculture, and biobased materials. The Almere Hout-Noord regime concerns a district yet to be developed, where specific plot specifications (kavelpaspoorten) apply. Outside these regimes, welstand is tacit, which makes Almere as accessible for renovations as rural municipalities.

Almere has no historic monuments because the city was only founded in 1976 on the reclaimed Southern Flevopolder. It is therefore the youngest large city in the Netherlands and even holds the youngest city-status sticker within the Association of Netherlands Municipalities. However, since 2018 a number of icons of Almere's urban design have been brought under municipal heritage policy. The De Fantasie extension from the 1980s, with its postmodernist colourful architecture by Wim Quist, is a municipal monument. The Cinema Apocalyse hall and the original Stadshart modular homes are gradually receiving separate protected status. For the OMA Stadshart, a process has been under way since 2023 to protect the realised architecture as modernist heritage. Outside these ensembles, Almere is monument-free. Old polder farmhouses around the city edges of Almere Buiten and Almere Hout may, however, be municipal monuments due to their agricultural-historical value, despite the relatively young agricultural building period (1968 to 1976).

Almere pursues a differentiated high-rise policy tailored to each area. The Stadshart permits towers up to 130 metres, exemplified by the city hall complex and the high-rise cluster at the Stationsplein. The Pampuskwartier allows residential construction up to 60 metres with an explicit waterfront orientation. For standard residential neighbourhoods in Almere Stad, Almere Buiten, Almere Poort, and Almere Hout, 25 metres is the maximum, with exceptions up to 35 metres around public transport hubs. The Floriade site has specific height rules aimed at a sustainable urban composition, where high-rise up to 80 metres is possible within defined zones. For extensions to existing homes, roof additions of up to 1 storey are permit-free provided they fall within the building envelope, which is more generous in Almere than in older cities due to the planned parcelling layout. Polder farmhouses on the city edges have separate height rules that respect the agricultural scale.

Since its founding, Almere has worked with integrated urban-planning zoning plans that set out the plot specifications (kavelpaspoorten) for each district. The Almere Stad-Centrum zoning plan (2010) uses the OMA city-centre urban design plan as the basis for assessing all developments in the centre. The Almere Poort-Pampuskwartier zoning plan (2014) permits live-work functions along the IJmeer with an explicit waterfront layout. The Floriade site zoning plan (2018, revised 2022) enables sustainable urban development with a focus on green infrastructure, biobased construction, and the integration of urban agriculture. For Almere Hout-Noord, a draft zoning plan has been in development since 2021 that will enable a new district of 35,000 homes. The umbrella zoning plan for parking in Almere (2019) requires an average of 1.3 parking spaces per new residential unit, a high standard given the polder-oriented infrastructure and lower bicycle modal share than in older inner cities. For live-work conversions in the Polderwijk and De Vaart industrial areas, there are specific conversion zoning plans. We always verify via ruimtelijkeplannen.nl and consult with the urban planner of the district concerned.