Planning concepts for cities in transition: regionalization of urbanity in the Amsterdam structure plan

'Opting for urbanity' is the main thread running through the Amsterdam structure plan currently under preparation. But what is 'urbanity'? How is it emerging in a multi-centred region? What spatial planning implications does it entail? These questions were at the outset of a research study commissioned by the municipality of Amsterdam to the Amsterdam study centre for the Metropolitan Environment (AME) and summarized in this article. There are two main conclusions. The first is that traditional inside out development strategies--accommodating the expansion of a single core and its periphery--must be substituted by outside in development strategies, seeking to achieve a new synergy among different sub-centres and places at the urban-regional level. The second is that new sub-centres will have to be developed as real centres of urbanity instead of as mono-functional islands, as currently still the case. In order to implement these strategies the municipality needs to enter coalitions with a variety of public and private actors, spanning different spatial scales and policy sectors.