Redefining the border between public and private in ambiguous modernist areas: The case of Amsterdam Nieuw West

Modernist areas represent the ambivalent idea to live in a green city, which can provide light and air of open landscapes, and on the same time host facilities of an urban environment. Modernist areas as the Western Garden Cities in Amsterdam are also ambiguous spaces, their form shaped mainly by flowing open space. The ambiguity of space is related to its organisation, if the territorial order is missing, urban space tends to become non-legible. Recent fieldwork in Amsterdam showed that more businesses than assumed are located in this large area, which was planned and is generally still thought of as widely separated in functions. The infiltration with new businesses took also place at locations that were not used by businesses before. The changing use of built material changes partially also the territorial depth. Businesses can currently be found in four different types of territorial depth regarding the distance from the public street to the individual user unit, creating sometimes even more overlap between public and private. The ambiguity of the large open green spaces is affected only little by the higher activation of the area.UrbanismArchitectur