From 1978 an aim of the Amsterdam urban planning department was to design The Compact City. Buildings became higher and closer to each other, even where this had initially been thought undesirable. This 'compaction' and the quality of the housing was meant to call a halt to the depopulation of the city. After violent opposition to the construction of office blocks in the Nieuwmarkt, an inner city district, dwellings were put op there above the newly constructed metro line. The Pentagon, designed by Theo Bosch, was completed in 1983. Providing 87 family apartments and seven single units, it was one of the largest building projects in the neighbourhood. Its name derives from its five-angles ground plan, which provide a great variety of housing shapes.