Nomades in the Netherlands - Amsterdam West

The Confucius neighborhood, lies at the west side of the A10 highway is currently under a full speed spatial and demographical transformation: the first blocks have been demolished and others are already emptied. The original population has been displaced to other part of the city. The Confucius neighborhood was built in the early 50s in Geuzenveld-Slotermeer, one of the 4 city district of the Western Garden Cities. The neighborhood has a notable green character and an open urban scheme. At the north edge, the Burgemeester Röellstraat connects the area to the centre of Amsterdam and, in the east edge the Slotermeerlaan functions for the north -south traffic to Osdorp. On the southern side, a waterline divides the Confucius neighborhood from the Sloterpark, a large green area with sport facilities.

The neighborhood is a composition of 4 quadrants, divided by two main roads. The two northern quadrants consist mainly of 5-storey-high apartment blocks, while the two southern parts consist of low rise dwellings and duplexes. The Confucius square, at the centre of the neighborhood was once swarming with people due to many small businesses and shops that manifested the community life on ground floor of the buildings.

In the last decades, the original population of the Confucius neighborhood has aged or moved away. Big dealers took over the square and the place of small businesses brought with it different social interaction in the public area.  As consequence, a large amount of cheap housing in the less desirable apartment blocks became available for people with a weaker purchasing power on the housing market. The combination of  availability of cheap housing with a process of massive forced gentrification hat took place at the time in down town Amsterdam brought a demographic transformation to Amsterdam West. The steady migration movement of lower income groups brought a substantial change in the population composition of the neighborhood during the last 20 years.