A City transforms..

By 2032 the Dutch government finally acknowledged that rising sea levels were having a devastating effect on the tourism trade as Amsterdam lost its famous canal landscape. This in turn had an effect on employment and the demographic of the city.

This challenge to the traditional identity of the city and its inhabitants had a deleterious effect on the populations confidence and the city went into a long term decline. Fearing a terminal decline, the city turned to its financial sector for answers. The brooch containing fur and precious jewels became an emblem of ostentatious wealth.

By 2050 the financial sector of the city had reinvented Amsterdam as a major investment centre and the cities financial situation had improved enough to invest in innovative social projects. The projects were designed to utilise the traditional Dutch attributes of self reliance, intelligence and long term social thinking and were a success. As the financial might of the city faded in the storms surrounding the collapse of the world financial markets in 2048, these social projects, rooted in the circular economy, alternative land uses, innovative market mechanisms and renewed political activism created the conditions for a new influx of visitors willing to learn from this self-sufficient, civic minded population and contributed to the new feeling of confidence and resilience in the country.