The New Amsterdam by Norman Miller

Everyone knows Amsterdam, right? Narrow gabled buildings looming over familiar canals lined with lovely little shops, cosy brown cafes, hookers in the windows, hookahs in the dope dens. But just a mile or so from Central Station, off the side of almost every tourist map a new Amsterdam is rising in the city’s former eastern docklands.

The best way to get there is to head for Java. This Java, though, is a narrow, mile long island sitting in the middle of Amsterdam’s river estuary, the IJ (pronounced "Ay"), a short ferry hop past Renzo Piano’s startling green metal NEMO science museum which stands like a proud border marker between the old and new Amsterdam.

For 20 years, Java and the adjacent mainland areas of Sporenburg and Borneo lay derelict, their old port buildings home only to the city’s hardier squatters until the late 90s. Now Java’s tiny criss-cross canals are lined with Amsterdam’s hippest houses, tall, thin temples to modernity, flaunting wavy projecting windows, green copper facades or classic combinations of steel and glass, while design flourishes adorn the apartment blocks along its central walkway, from brightly coloured Mondrian-style facades to poetry etched into walls like hip grafitti.

Halfway along the island, at Azartplein, the focus shifts from designer des res to designer goodies. Even the island’s name changes from Java to KNSM in honour of the shipping company whose docks stood here.

KNSM’s central street, KNSM-laan is Amsterdam’s self-styled “design boulevard”, its shops offering everything from pared-back modern Dutch furniture and 20th century Italian classics to fashion by new Dutch designers, including sexy, modern corsets!

Artists studios, meanwhile, cluster along Surinamekade on the northern quayside, taking inspiration from the view across the IJ to North Amsterdam, while the restaurants and cafes along Levantkade on KSNM’s south side are kept busy by the island’s creative set.

But in spite of all the design perhaps the most striking thing on Java/KNSM is something very simple - the sense of space compared to the old town, the open sky, long views and seemingly constant breeze off the IJ a breath of fresh air in every sense.

There’s also a refreshing dash of the old amid all the new. The island’s quaysides are lined with gnarled old boats, some turned into restaurants, others like the Azartplein’s “Ship of Fools” home to leftfield cabaret. Modern buildings, meanwhile, mix with the rejuvenated old like the dark, low-ceilinged basement club AMP, renowned for its Battle of the Band nights and a cranked up, dressed down cool grungy vibe, or the 1950s harbourmaster building halfway along KNSM-laan that houses a little museum of the harbour area’s history as well as a beautiful period ballroom upstairs.

While the pulse of regeneration beats most strongly on Java/KNSM, two of the docklands’ most impressive places lie across the water along the mainland quayside, both in wonderfully converted old buildings.

Carved out of an old pumping station, Panama is the docklands’ pleasure palace, home not only to Amsterdam’s only champagne bar but also a highly-rated brasserie, cabaret theatre and some of the city’s hippest club nights.

A little further back towards the old town, meanwhile, opposite Java’s western tip, Pakhuis is Amsterdam’s premier interior design showcase, its vast bulk still surrounded by cranes and construction sites as a mark of the creative energy at work here both inside and out.

Pakhuis’s cafe also has perhaps the best view in the city. Sitting high above the IJ overlooking the twisting metallic span of the Jan Schaefer bridge linking Java to the mainland, the rush comes not just from the caffeine but from feeling like you’re the master of some new Amsterdam universe.