Since commencing my role at Committee for Perth in 2024, the way I experience cities has fundamentally changed. It has rewired how I think, feel and travel. Last month, I went back to my home country – the Netherlands.
An innovative, vibrant and beautiful country with world-class infrastructure, well-designed urban cities and sustainability policies – no bias here! It is an abundant source of inspiration, and I wonder how we could take note of some of these things here in Perth?
The Letters of Utrecht
Firstly, as a tour guide touted, Dutch people are innovative, smart and creative (it’s hard to be impartial!) Take the city of Utrecht — home to Nijntje (that’s Miffy to you), where WiFi was co-invented, The Fish Doorbell (yes, really), the world’s largest bicycle parking facility (13,500 spaces), and the Letters of Utrecht.
Spotting letters carved into the pavement along the Oudegracht, what I initially mistook for a love of Scrabble turned out to be something far more meaningful: De Letters Van Utrecht – a never-ending poem carved into the city’s streets. Every Saturday between 2 and 3pm, a stonemason adds a new letter. The project was developed by the Million Generations Foundation, a Dutch think tank devoted to developing knowledge for the good of the future, in collaboration with a local poet’s guild. The poem advances by about seven metres each year; it takes roughly three years to complete a single sentence. Along the ‘future’ route, markers indicate where the poem will reach in decades and even centuries to come. It’s anticipated to be completed in 2350.
A city-wide project, with a future lens. How poetic!
Rotterdam, make it happen
Ask a Dutch person why you should visit Rotterdam, and they will likely say something among the lines of ‘because it’s different’. After the city was destroyed in WWII, the city reinvented itself, becoming Amsterdam’s modern, edgy, younger sibling. The Markthal, Cube Houses, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen and Fenix Museum of Migration (see pictures right) are all testaments to a city that embraced experimental modern architecture, full of diverse styles.
What piqued my interest most was the Maritime District, where water, history, and the modern city come together. Centred around the Maritime Museum – part of which is an open-air harbour where visitors can step aboard historic vessels, many of which are still fully operational – the district is also home to Harbour Wellness (think sauna, hot tubs, water sports, hotel), Vessell 11 (a gastro pub with live music), a water taxi service, the iconic Erasmus Bridge and more.
Back home, with planning underway to relocate Perth’s container port to Kwinana, Fremantle has an ambitious plan to transform the port into a harbour precinct. What better city to take inspiration from than one of Europe’s largest seaports? Imagine a bustling harbour, where visitors can explore and enjoy waterfront dining, learn about Maritime history and port culture and experience the vibrant atmosphere!
Last mile home
The Netherlands has an incredible track record. Pun intended, it has approximately 7,300km of rail network, the busiest in Europe by passenger density. Even the smallest stations we visited felt more complex and mature than Perth’s stations offer. A tiny, flat, densely populated country with multiple major urban nodes — these factors help explain why rail works so well there. But the lesson I most want to bring home is a simpler one: the last-mile solution of OV-fiets.
The OV-fiets (literally translates to Public Transport Bike) is the bike-sharing scheme operated by the NS (national railway operator). You rent a bike at a station, use it for your onward journey, and return it to any OV-fiets point across the network. Designed to improve last-mile connectivity for train users in the Netherlands, it addresses barriers such as distant train stops, costly taxis, and misaligned bus schedules, while encouraging increased ridership and expanding train station catchment areas. It’s available at 300 locations and runs on a subscription model. In 2023, it facilitated 5.9 million rides!
As someone who has missed one too many connecting buses, I would welcome the OV-fiets program in Perth, though I’ll admit our $2.80 Go Anywhere fare is something the Dutch might envy in return!
What’s your rating?
My favourite form of window shopping when travelling is peering into real estate agency windows… what if? As someone passionate about the environment and sustainability, it was encouraging to see every listing displaying an energy rating, front and centre. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are an EU directive that’s been around since 2003, which raises the question: why don’t we have them?
EPCs rate a building’s energy efficiency and carbon emissions on a scale from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient), and are required for any property being sold or rented. The logic is straightforward: upgrading a poor-performing property significantly reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned for heating, cooling, and power, thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions. My friends in Den Haag are planning to double-glaze their apartment not just for the comfort, but also knowing a better rating would increase their apartment value. That’s the genius of the system: sustainable upgrades become a win-win.
Bonus: Doha, Qatar
A stopover in Doha on the way home is a reliable remedy for jet lag — and this one came with an unexpected bonus. The Qatar National Museum is extraordinary. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the building draws its inspiration from the desert rose crystal, a geological formation unique to Qatar. Nouvel conceived the structure as an architectural embodiment of the desert itself, its silence, its vastness, its timelessness. The result is impressive, bold, and a striking cultural landmark that commands attention. Which begs the question: what if Perth had an icon like this?
Planning my next holiday!
Francien’s words should be taken as her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Committee for Perth.