“Greening” the City. Temporary urban action.

As part of the “Design as Activator” initiative organised by Platform Openbare Ruimte, Amsterdam-based architecture practice, .NL Architects has designed a temporary mini-golf course in one of those nondescript city places: a vacant lot used for parking at night.



The design team from .NL Architects who have been involved in reclaiming empty urban spaces for years, explain their project for a vacant lot in the port zone of Amsterdam as being like a “Green Grafitti”, architectural operation with the purpose of revitalising unused spaces.



With a tied-up budget of only 2,500 euro for to design and build the proposal, they have managed to give a new meaning to what at first sight looked like just one more of the city's many nondescript places: a parking lot near the port. Still, this large lot was only partially unused – deserted during the day, it filled up with cars of customers at a nearby trendy night spot at night.





Considering the target and the budget, NL Architects decided to create nine green lawn islands scattered over the plot. These islands, or rather putting greens, contain the holes for this “oh-so-green” sport: golf. An extremely striking visual impact and an important urban planning message.



With this project, not only does the team at .NL Architects prove that you don’t need a lot to breath life back into marginal zones, even just temporary works can inject meaning to these places that tend to get lost in the urban fabric. So their purpose is to breathe new life into these vacant lots while waiting for building projects that can show off their community importance to everyone.

Project: .NL Architects http://www.nlarchitects.nl
Location: Amsterdam
Year: 2013
Photography: Courtesy of .NL Architects
Link: Interview http://www.floornature.com/architects/interviews/kamiel-klaasse-nl-architects-7703/