Model/City: Architectural Models and the Aesthetics of Playfulness

Between wooden blocks and miniature trees, open spaces and shared pathways, the architectural model of Sloterdijk (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) constructs a vision of green and collective living, which contrasts the lived reality of a neighborhood undergoing a rapid transformation from a largely industrial area to a ‘desirable’ urban neighborhood marked by luxury residential buildings. Architectural models are situated at a point of in-between, simultaneously charged with planning, representing, legitimizing, and – maybe most importantly – imagining an urban future. This article takes this special issue’s call to ‘deconstruct gentrification’ literally by focusing on the material construction of better green urban futures through architectural models. Simultaneously referencing and abstracting the (proposed) construction sites, I argue that recent architectural models for three (re)developments in Amsterdam – Sloterdijk, Zuidas, and Bajeskwartier – draw on an aesthetic of playfulness to counter criticism raised against the gentrifying effects of ‘sustainable’ urban planning.