Sloterplas: the postwar lake the centre forgot
A planned city's open-air museum, a dug lake with a beach, and the towers reflected across the water. Walked and written by the editor.

1. Burgemeester de Vlugtlaan metro
Start on the elevated platform with the whole grid laid out below — long blocks, open green, slab towers in rows. This is Van Eesteren's plan from above before you walk down into it. Then drop to the street and head for the water.

2. Van Eesteren Museum
A low pavilion on the lake's north shore explaining the man who drew all of this — the 1935 plan that separated living, working and green by design. Small, free-ish, and the key to reading everything else on the walk. Go in first.

3. Sloterplas north shore
The lake was dug, not found — sand for the new neighbourhoods came out, and the hole filled with water. Walk the north promenade with the towers stacking up across the surface. Wide, flat, and quietly grand.

4. Sloterstrand
A proper city beach on the northeast shore, sand and swimmers and a café behind. You don't have to get in the water — but on a warm afternoon you'll want to sit a while. The towers opposite do the work.

5. East-shore promenade
Follow the water south and west around the lake's edge, reeds on one side and the open plas on the other. This is the half of the shore with the long views back across to where you started. Take it slowly.

6. Meer en Vaart
Leave the lake where the park meets the shopping street and the tram is waiting. A flat, ordinary Nieuw-West corner — which is the point. The 17 runs you straight back to the centre the planners built all this to relieve.

Sloterplas: the postwar lake the centre forgot