On May 31, Marieke van Doorninck, alderwoman for Urban Development and Sustainability, opened the Amstelstroom Bridge in Amsterdam for traffic. From that moment, the bridge functions as the entrance of the rapidly developing Amstelkwartier-area.

In her speech, she pointed out its essence; the bridge is being designed with a great variety of flora and fauna in mind. Slowing down here, while cycling over, walking past, or sailing underneath, will allow you to become aware of the many small openings for bees, bats, and birds, of the shelters and nest boxes in any material used.
Under water, the robust pillars accommodate shelters for fish and mussels; under the bridge, daylight as well as careful artificial light provide for comfortable passing. To complete the biodiversity cycle, the central axis of the bridge will soon be an elongated bed of carefully selected flowers and herbs – a blooming destination to butterflies and bees. These bees have their own so-called hotels in the richly detailed red brick walls, benches and pylons that evoke the Amsterdam School-tradition to be found throughout the whole Amstelkwartier area.

On behalf of the commissioning Municipality of Amsterdam, Marieke van Doorninck mentioned the team of Mobilis (construction), Smartland (ecology) and VenhoevenCS (architecture) successfully intertwining their professions to provide ample space in and on this bridge for a wide range of living beings to co-exist. To the invitees at the opening ceremony – on the bridge, on the quay and on the water – it became clear that it comes down to the finest details when integrating infrastructure and urban nature.

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