Amsterdam in Motion: Compelling time travel of Amsterdam from 1275 to the present day

What if you didn't read the history of Amsterdam in a book, but experienced it as a blistering show? That's exactly what Amsterdam in Motion. Starting in October 2025, this new public experience immerses visitors in a visual journey through time - from the medieval fishing village to the metropolis of today and the future. With the backdrop: the largest multimedia city model in the world.

A visit to Amsterdam at Motion in Westerpark begins on the first floor of Purification Hall East. Here is a startling, multimedia maquette. The largest multimedia model of a city in the world even, with 30,500 manually attached buildings on an area of 200 square meters and at a scale of 1:1300. An immersive show with sound, voice-over and projections on maquette and walls places the visitor in the heart of the city. From the Vondelpark to the harbor, you imagine yourself on the spot. In a time travel of fifteen minutes, the audience experiences the story of Amsterdam, from the village of 1275 to the city of today and the expectations of tomorrow.

One floor up, visitors explore the metropolitan challenges of today and tomorrow through an exhibition of interactive installations. This presentation encourages the public to participate in thinking about themes such as housing, recreation, fashion, Ajax, innovations, migration, protests, biodiversity and ecology. They show how government, scientists and companies deal with problems such as climate change and housing shortage. But also, for example, how a coot builds a sustainable nest from McDonalds packaging, mouth caps and sunglasses. Or how the canals receive countless bicycles every year. And that they sometimes lie there so long that they grow full of mussels.

"Amsterdam in Motion is a lasting gift to the city and future generations of Amsterdammers." - Duncan Stutterheim, initiator.

The show, developed by creative studio Monks in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum, is a 15-minute spectacle with projections, soundscapes and voice-overs gliding across the model of the city. The experience is designed as a poetic choreography of light, sound and space. After the show, visitors are free to walk around the maquette to admire all the details up close.

But it doesn't stop there. In the interactive exhibition that follows, visitors explore current themes such as migration, housing, protest culture, sustainable innovation and the changing urban culture. Through installations and playful forms of work, visitors are challenged to think about the role they themselves play in the city of tomorrow.

"Amsterdam in Motion will be the most spectacular model of a city the world has ever seen." - Victor Knaap, CEO of Monks

The location is as iconic as it is innovative: the Zuiveringshal Oost on the Westergasterrein - between Fabrique des Lumières, De Krakeling and Het Ketelhuis - will be home to this new cultural hotspot.