Knowledge Mile Amsterdam

Stretching over more than three kilometres, Weesperstraat and Wibautstraat house a considerable number of smaller businesses, as well as large (inter)national corporations and a number of influential health, education, cultural and political institutions. Perhaps it is the very multitude of organizations that have up to recently prevented serious attempts to start an area-based collective. There were a number of resident organizations that lobbied for a cleaner and greener street, but businesses operated relatively solitary.Yet, despite these adverse circumstances, an active and growing collective has emerged that aims to transform and reframe, rebrand and rename Wibautstraat and Weesperstraat. The initiative to develop the KM was taken in 2015, by the dean of the faculty of Digital Media & Creative Industry, one of the faculties that is located at the central Amstel Campus. The faculty had received extra funding from a national programme to set up a “centre of expertise”. Following discussions how to connect the universities’ activities to urban challenges – in line with the AUAS strategy – the idea was born to develop deeper and more long-term relations with actors in the direct vicinity of the campus. The vision behind this was twofold: first, to turn the area into a living lab, enabling AUAS students, teachers and researchers to engage with actors in the area for research or education projects, and second, to collectively develop the area into a more attractive street.