Evert Verhagen is a Dutch urbanist with forty years of experience in urban regeneration across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. He approaches the city not as an architectural object but as a living ecosystem — one that grows, declines, and recovers according to processes that repeat themselves across continents and centuries.

His career began in the Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam’s ambitious but troubled modernist housing project, where he lived and worked as a young activist and later as a municipal professional. From 1990 to 2004 he led the transformation of the Westergasfabriek – a derelict industrial site in Amsterdam – into one of Europe’s most celebrated cultural parks. The project won the Golden Pyramid (2004), the Landscape Institute Award UK (2007), and the Europa Nostra Award (2010).

Since 2005 he has worked internationally as a consultant, advisor, and speaker. His projects have taken him to Moscow and St Petersburg, Nova Friburgo and Recife in Brazil, Casablanca, Taichung, Jakarta, Shanghai, Kharkiv, and many other cities. He was a member of the advisory team for Zaryadye Park in Moscow, which opened in 2017.

He is currently writing 4000 Cities, a book that asks why some cities flourish while others decline – and why the answer has less to do with famous urban interventions than with the deeper rhythms of urban life that play out in thousands of cities most books never mention.

Evert Verhagen is based in Amsterdam. He is available for lectures, masterclasses, and advisory work.