Voor de grote uitleg: stedelijke transformatie en huisbouw in Amsterdam, 1452-1578

This article investigates the urban transformation in Amsterdam in the sixteenth century. Building archaeological and dendrochronological surveys indicate that from about 1530 on, houses were renewed, while houses from before that year are virtually absent. The year 1530 may be linked to an imperial order of 1521, in which Charles V decreed that the existing wooden buildings in Amsterdam had to be demolished and had to be replaced by stone buildings. The municipality, which since 1524 had a building supervisor, with alignment officials who came under his leadership since 1528, started to keep a building administration and formulated a comprehensive building code in 1531. The growth of the population and the resulting pressure on public space, made the city government to create space for traffic and trade. This led to modifications of roads, embankments and building blocks and inflationary rising real estate prices. For a large group of citizens who could benefit from the increasing prosperity of that time, this economical high tide was an occasion to invest in real estate, which led to a sustainable renewal of the housing stock, of which some houses have survived until the present day.