5 QUESTIONS FOR
What is the Holland Financial Centre, exactly?
‘A public-private collaboration that aims to strengthen the Netherlands as a financial centre. We have several spheres of activity, including research & education and
enterprise & innovation. The Netherlands is the sixteenth largest economy in the world and the eighth largest world player in terms of the financial sector – pretty big, in other words. The advantage of the present crisis is that everyone’s ready for strategic reorientation.’
Why did the HFC move from the Beursplein to the Zuidas?
‘We started up a centre for beginning entrepreneurs. They are pioneers who start with nothing or foreign entrepreneurs who settle in Europe or the Netherlands for the first time. We needed space for that, and we wanted to do it in the financial heart of Amsterdam. We also wanted to be close to our sister organization, the Duisenberg Institute. That’s also coming to Symphony soon.’
What’s it like to work in the Zuidas?
‘Grandiose. You really go to work with a smile on your face, among other things because it’s so easy to get there. The light is amazing – we have windows from floor to ceiling, and the view is phenomenal. We are on the top floor of Symphony and can see from Rotterdam to IJmuiden and from Utrecht to Almere and we can see the city as well.’
What do you need in the short term in order to function optimally in the Zuidas?
‘We would love to see a Dutch Design Centre come here – that’s a broader concept than a museum, a place where design would be made, exhibited and sold. Such a centre would also offer room to studios and businesses operating in the area of Dutch design. It’s extremely important for the Zuidas to keep developing, even in crisis times, and we feel that a real crowd puller is essential. Amsterdam doesn’t have such a Dutch Design Centre yet. What’s more, contemporary applied art fits very well in the urban environment of the Zuidas.’
How do you see the Zuidas in 2040?
‘By then, Amsterdam will have several centres, just like Paris and London. The canal belt will be the Altstadt, the Zuidas a new centre. But without art and culture, there’s no way it could be that. There definitely is room in the Zuidas for a crowd puller. The inner city is already too small for the hordes of tourists that come here. If the tourist sector wants to keep growing, you need to have crowd pullers spread throughout the entire city.’
