Nijmegen to let people choose the model of their home

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Nijmegen plans to let potential home buyers pick from 30 different models that have a DIY look to them. Buyers must meet a lot of financial conditions, as the Dutch have very strict rules related to housing.

“The scheme is modeled on the self-built success of another Dutch city, Almere, where hundreds of new homes have been built since 2006 by individuals given free reign to do with plots of land as they wish.” Wired magazine, who picked up the story, also picked the most extreme model that does look like a shack made of discarded Eur-pallets, giving way to snarky comments.

In 2008 we claimed that anything went in Almere when it came to architecture because it was a ‘planned city’ built on a polder, which means urban planners had a field day. And we also told you how cool housing can be in Nijmegen as well.

It is true that ‘affordable’ housing has a reputation for being of poor quality, something I can vouch for personally after being forced to move out of a flat with cement rot in Amsterdam and seeing an entire neighbourhood of badly built flats destroyed in Rotterdam.

Let’s see how this project in Nijmegen pans out.

(Links: www.ugenda.nl, www.wired.com. Photo of Nijmegen and the Waal river by Rein Ketelaars, some rights reserved)

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