Here’s what Australia can learn from European cities when it comes to urban living, sustainability and housing accessibility. 

I’m based in Melbourne but recently took a trip to Amsterdam, supposedly to have a holiday but in reality to have an eye-opening experience about how people live in other parts of the world.

In Melbourne, we may feel as though we are on the right track, with trams criss-crossing the city and a variety of housing options. However, after visiting Amsterdam, I was struck by how different life can be.

Here’s what inspired me the most about this city.

Everyone cycles. Everywhere.

Australia is slowly coming onboard with electric bikes as a lifestyle accessory and while every capital city has its dedicated (and fearless) lycra-clad warriors, the message comes through loud and clear: the road is for Cars, with a capital C. 

The advantages of a bike friendly urban centre are fewer cars and healthier people. Insurance costs are reduced. Parking is less of a hassle and there is less pollution. So why does Australia remain so unfriendly to two-wheeled vehicles?

The introduction of bike-share and eScooter share schemes seems to be embedding itself but legislation and urban planning needs to catch up to allow these progressive modes of transport to shine the way they do in Europe. 

Low-rise buildings feature (and are multi-functional)

The absence of high-rise buildings is surprising in a city like Amsterdam, where most buildings max out at five storeys high. What’s interesting is the way apartment blocks take all of life into account, for example by including a convenience store, childcare centre or library. 

For most Australians, getting a litre of milk means a walk or drive to the nearest service station; especially in the suburbs. The same goes for childcare: almost every parent has to travel to multiple destinations in the mornings. How much stress and pressure on roads could we reduce with more lifestyle-focused design? 

Green space 

Public spaces don’t feel like an afterthought in Amsterdam. As Environmental Scientist Dillon Asher explained in his 2019 article, after the second World War, the incorporation of green spaces was applied to make public park spaces more accessible. Around this time, over 800 small neighbourhood parks were added throughout the city.

You can take a look at MDRVD’s inspiring Valley project to be inspired by what’s possible in terms of green integration with stunning architectural design. The building’s layout is tailored to a mixture of residents, workers, and visitors: on top of the three-storey underground car park, offices occupy the lower seven floors, with apartments located on the eighth floor and up. Much of the ‘green clad’ building is open to the public: from the publicly accessible footpath zig-zagging up to the central valley from the street level.

Having greenery integrated makes living in an apartment rather than a standalone house far more acceptable. 

People are treated like humans

Victoria’s current housing availability crisis is highlighted when you visit a highly populated place in Europe. 

A little investigation showed me how social housing buildings have the same quality construction and design as any other home, to the point where they are often sold to investors when social residents are relocated to a newer building somewhere nearby. 

As I discovered after reading one report, the vast majority of social rented housing in The Netherlands is not owned by the state or local government, but by independent not-for-profit housing associations (HAs), from which sales cannot be enforced.

And here’s an interesting concept for those of us in the property industry: in The Netherlands, dwellings receive points on the basis of several factors like square metres, (central) heating, insulation, quality of kitchen and bathroom, garden or terrace, etc. On the basis of this national point system, maximum rents are set. These regulations apply to all social- and private-rented dwellings with a rent up to the individual rent subsidy limit (< 585 euro per month in 2003/2004). 

Since the same system operates everywhere in The Netherlands, rents for comparable dwellings differ little from each other in different parts of the country. 

There is so much to learn when it comes to the way European cities maximise space, facilitate more user-friendly urban living, and focus on technology as well as the circular economy. With urban planners in Australia having very little training in the area of aesthetics and finding themselves constantly up against complex legislation, it would do us good to look north for inspiration and smarter thinking.