ODE Magazine 4 ENG

Small island, great place

ODE (OosterDoksEiland) is one of the most beautiful places in Amsterdam, located between the historic city centre and the IJ. The City Campus and Ode Apartments, a development by BPD | Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling, form the final piece of the (renewed) South IJ banks of Amsterdam.

The breath-taking views over the historic city centre and the IJ, the modern architecture, the rich mix of metropolitan facilities, excellent accessibility and parking options create a unique setting. Read more about this project and the inspiring surroundings in the 4th edition of ODE Magazine.

The final piece of the ODE puzzle

Could we help Booking.com find new accommodation? The City of Amsterdam approached us with this question in mid-2015. This request turned out to be for a building – or rather “urban campus” – of around 100,000 m2 GFA.

Quite an ambitious idea. But the timing of this somewhat unusual request couldn’t have been better. At BPD | Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling, we were looking how best to use the last two lots of the ODE project, which had ground to a halt for some time in the wake of the credit crisis. Now, seven years down the line, there’s an extraordinary building on this spot – one we’re immensely proud of.

One of the most successful companies in the Amsterdam region – and one of Europe’s leading tech companies – was looking for new accommodation. After an extensive tour of the city with the municipal authorities, Booking.com’s eye fell on Oosterdokseiland. BPD wanted to place greater emphasis on housing at the location. And that turned out to go perfectly with Booking.com’s ambitions. Now there’s a complete “City Campus” with 63,500 m2 of fitted office space, 41 apartments, 1,500 m2 of commercial facilities, 300 parking spaces, 2,500 bicycle parking spaces and a new ground level with 2 squares and 20 trees.

We’re proud of this outcome. Not least because of the extraordinary process that preceded it. When we first sat down with Booking.com, there was no design and no detailed schedule of requirements. What’s more, we needed a completely new zoning plan and Booking.com wanted the fitted building to be ready within a few years. So as not to lose any time, processes were arranged in parallel from the outset rather than chronologically. In other words, this entailed a coordinated environmental permit application and zoning plan amendment at the same time. From a blank sheet of paper, we arrived at a client-approved Definitive Design and admissible building application, together with a draft zoning plan, within nine months – including communication with the local community and participation.

It’s fair to say we’ve faced a record number of challenges in recent years. Like Booking.com’s fitting-out package; in addition to three fully equipped restaurants (the largest of which seats no less than 850 diners), we created 24 breakout rooms and fitted the building with 290 different types of floor finish. But we also designed a completely new ground level, including the supervision of all the utility companies and developing a new type of tree bunker to stimulate optimal tree growth.

In fact, we’ve created a new part of the city. A fitting finale to the South IJ banks project, with social and mid-price housing, cultural and commercial facilities, a hotel and a school. A complete area development with all the trimmings, which we worked on heart and soul with a great team of driven professionals. The result is an area and building that Booking.com, the residents, other users and the City of Amsterdam can be proud of and that people from within and beyond the city love to (re)visit. That’s why we do it, rooted in our social conviction that everyone is entitled to a nice home and a healthy workplace in a pleasant living environment. And we will continue to do that as BPD, so that great living and working remains possible for generations to come.

General manager

BPD Bouwfonds Property Development

‘We want it to feel like coming home’

Everything in the design of Booking.com’s City Campus aims to make the company’s employees feel at home, so they can be themselves even if they’re sometimes far from home and family.

That feeling of coming home is evoked in numerous ways. For example, with the elaborate food concept in the three restaurants. “We take full account of the cultural backgrounds of all our employees. Everyone has their own eating habits. So you can eat vegan food with us, halal, curries and lots of fresh vegetables. We work mostly with seasonal products and 80% of the meals are vegetarian. It’s healthy food, so low in sugar and fat, and deep-frying is banned. You won’t find any croquettes in our restaurants.”

Feeling at home, wellbeing, feeling free to be yourself, these are the common threads in all the facilities you will soon find at the City Campus. For instance, there will be a beautifully decorated prayer room and a nursery for breastfeeding women. “It won’t just be a bench in a corner somewhere, but an attractive room with a fridge, a small kitchen and a nice chair with pleasant lighting. There will also be game areas where you can get into gaming or play table tennis. And you’ll be able to relax at the tea bar, with a herb wall where we grow our own tea herbs such as mint.”

Friends & Family Day

Booking.com’s employees come from all over, many having left their home country and family behind to work elsewhere in the world. “This cultural diversity is the hallmark of our company. When I walk around the office I hear languages from all corners of the globe. But there’s also diversity in terms of sex and gender. Everyone can be themselves with us.”

The Booking.com family feeling is what unites everyone. “We have loads of Facebook groups you can join – even as a new employee. Like

a Facebook expat group if people have any questions and where employees can help one another. During the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook groups helped maintain the family feeling among employees, despite the fact that almost everyone was working from home.”

Zijlstra recalls that before corona, Booking. com’s Friends & Family Day was very popular. “Employees could bring their friends and family to the office for a day. We organised workshops and social drinks and employees could get to know each other’s families better. I hope we can organise that again at the City Campus. Just like our monthly get-togethers, the Freaky Fridays. They also contributed to the family feeling.”

High sustainability requirements

“Sufficient daylight, healthy air, a pleasant temperature – it’s crucial for the wellbeing of the employees that these aspects are optimally arranged,” says Rouven Nieuwenburg, installation consultant at Royal HaskoningDHV, which is advising Booking.com on the layout of the Campus. “We’re working on a healthy and sustainable building. That means bringing lots of healthy and conditioned outdoor air into the Campus every day to minimise the employees’ CO2 production. The temperature – not too hot, not too cold – is controlled by radiation from the open climate ceilings. This provides a high level of comfort.” >>

Light, air and temperature, individual employees can regulate this as they see fit, for example before travelling to the office in the morning. “You can do so with your mobile phone, which is connected via an app to Smart Building sensors that set the climate to suit you.”

“Yes, the central workspaces of the City Campus are spacious, expansive and imposing, yet you don’t want to be able to hear your colleagues’ conversation word for word three tables away,” adds Jeroen Samsom, project manager City Campus for Royal HaskoningDHV. “We therefore pay a lot of attention to good acoustics. For example, by installing acoustic walls that absorb sound.”

“Sufficient daylight, good acoustics, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, as well as encouraging employees to take the stairs or travel to the office by bicycle or public transport. These are all high sustainability requirements set by Booking.com for the City Campus,” Samsom explains. “They contribute to employee health and wellbeing.”

A cascade of greenery

“The same applies to the many green spaces that will soon be part of the City Campus. Employees entering the City Campus are led up to the first floor by a cascade of greenery,” says Tessa Duste, cofounder of Moss, which provided the green design for Booking.com. The employees themselves wanted lots of greenery in the campus. “Booking. com’s research shows that they feel happier with plenty of greenery around them. This tallies with other research findings too, which show that greenery in office environments leads to greater wellbeing, creativity and productivity.”

The greenery in the City Campus will soon connect the respective departments, from the sea of plants at the entrance to tall trees in the atrium and green alcoves where employees can retreat for discussions. “And we hope there will be green walks where you can take a stroll along all the greenery – alone or with a colleague. And that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by flowers you hadn’t noticed before. Being inspired like this will also contribute towards employee wellbeing.”

‘Greenery in office environments leads to greater wellbeing, creativity and productivity’.

BEN VAN BERKEL, ARCHITECT/FOUNDER UNSTUDIO

I am extremely proud to see the Booking,com building reach the point that the employees can soon move in and experience all of the ideas that we put into the design. It was especially rewarding to work on a project like this for such a spectacular location in our home town and to have been able to closely witness it taking shape over the last few years.

The design is closely related to this very dense, central part of the city. The architecture combines the robust qualities and the industrial history of the harbour, while the glazed detailing of the facade reduces the overall immensness of the building and gently reflects the glistening of the water and sky. From the inside, the sweeping views over Amsterdam and ‘t IJ offer an almost cinematic experience.

The whole design process itself was also a unique experience for us. Booking.com was keen for their headquarters to be a reflection of their leading position in the tech world and therefore considered the building to be an important tool in attracting top young talent from the industry. This goal served as our starting

point during the research phase, when we joined the Booking.com team on visits to other sucessful tech company buildings, including a Google campus. However, none of the existing buildings were really interesting enough for Booking.com to serve as inspiration. For us, this meant investing a lot of time to create a completely new, out-ofthe-box and unique concept.

Rather than designing a typical 20-storey office building, where you are met by an impressive lobby and then led directly to the elevators, we opted to follow the model of a state-of-the-art university campus. The focus here was on serving the needs and behaviour of Booking.com employees, from the moment they walk in, to the end of their working day and all the activities in between.

As a result, the design developed to resemble the experience of a walk through a large park with different routes and points of interest. It had to be a place where people could walk, talk and meet each other, as it was very important that the building facilitate and encourage learning and the exchange of ideas. The connection between the different floors of the building had to be made as open and easy as possible, with sufficient ventilation and daylight, so that people would be encouraged to move around. Sustainability and a clear link to the city and its residents were also essential focus areas.

We have previously designed buildings based on these principles. However, the Booking.com HQ gave us the perfect opportunity to fine-tune these ideas and execute them on a large and challenging scale and we are very proud of the result.

‘The whole design process was a unique experience for us’

‘We’re committed to sustainability’

“Travel can be a powerful force for good – bringing enhanced cultural understanding, socio-economic opportunities for communities and attention to natural resources and our environment.” Danielle D’Silva is convinced that people learn from their travels. It gives them a broader perspective of the world around them. “However, we must also recognise that travel can have unintended consequences on people and the planet.”

Hence Booking.com’s strong commitment to sustainable travel. “Our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, and to that end, we want to make it easier for our travelers to do so in a more sustainable

way.” Booking.com’s research confirms that 71% of travelers say they want to travel more sustainably in the coming 12 months, a 10% increase compared to last year. One of the ways in which Booking.com does this is with their Travel Sustainable badge which recognises properties for their sustainability efforts across five key impact areas.

“We want to encourage our properties to progress on their own sustainability journey, so it’s vital that we set a good example.” D’Silva explains. “We can’t ask our partners to consider their footprint, whether it’s reducing waste or running on renewable energy for instance, while not doing these things ourselves.”

Future-proof

Booking.com is setting a good example in its design of the building. “The Campus reflects our values and commitments as a company. The building itself is BREEAM Excellent and has wonderful features from a sustainability perspective that will make it a highly efficient building. Even more importantly, our aim is to stimulate more sustainable behaviour from the people who are going to work there. For example, we have considered how best to reduce our waste through both the food offering, as well as its packaging. We have increased the share of plantbased food we plan to serve, minimizing higher-impact meal options.”

Kern, senior project manager of real estate company CBRE BV “CBRE has been involved in developing the Campus since 2017. CBRE is helping Booking.com design and arrive at the best fit-out (i.e. the interior of the Campus). We provide full project, process, procurement and cost management services for Booking.com. And CBRE’s design team was invited to design parts of the building. We manage the planning, cost management, procurement, process and execution of all 18 fit-out procurement packages. Additionally, we are of course involved in the mutual coordination between the respective parties, including BPD | Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling. Royal HaskoningDHV has been involved in the project since 2016 and supports us and Booking.com with knowledge and expertise about the Casco+ building and the associated technical requirements. In this manner, we manage the complete scope for Booking.com.”

“It’s a unique project and every day is different. Our team learns new things every day; we grow with the building, so to speak. I joined the project in mid-2017 with an inventory of the facility processes. My job later expanded to include managing the interior architects and process management for the various designs in the Campus. In 2019, we started converting the designs into 18 procurement packages, which we brought to market in cooperation with BPD. We’re currently preparing for the actual design of the fit-outs. As such, our team’s focus shifts every six months.”

Booking Campus team

“We sometimes don’t realise how amazing it is to be building the Campus together. But we’re doing something wonderful as a team, which generates an enormous amount of energy. I really enjoy our team’s collective passion.”

“Good mutual cooperation is very important. We’ve established this with Booking.com, Royal HaskoningDHV and CBRE. Three different organisations, with different DNA, but collectively, we’re the Booking Campus team. We’re one team, that’s how we feel. It’s important to keep investing in partnerships. For instance, we’ve worked hard to work well with all the architects. Almost all of the procurement processes have been completed, and sometimes we have to go back to the architects because their products are no longer available or have been taken out of circulation. We then look for suitable alternatives together. Because we cooperate so well, we always come up with a good solution.”

The Campus will also be an office with plenty of greenery. “Bringing more plants and even trees into the building is important in our sustainability philosophy. Plants have a positive impact on air purification and oxygen levels in the building, in addition to promoting enhanced employee wellbeing. People feel more comfortable in a working environment where there is an abundance of greenery.”

The sustainability of the Campus is also reflected in the building’s flexible layout. “We want a futureproof building. Not only should it meet today’s standards, but those of tomorrow too. We don’t want to renovate the structure every year,

because the arrangement of the building no longer fits the needs of our people. We’ve approached the design in a way that is built for ongoing adaptation, which is super important as the role of the workplace continues to evolve. ”

Encourage and inspire The fact that the Campus is located in the centre of Amsterdam also helps the company to continue to promote sustainable commuting behaviour.

“We want our employees to go to work by bicycle or public transport, which is already currently the case. That becomes even easier with the Campus, since we’ll be just a stone’s throw from Central Station. In fact, the Campus

offers a bicycle shed with over two thousand spaces, with parking for cars very limited.”

“Being more mindful about our impact on the planet and ensuring the Campus reflects our company’s commitments on this front is something our people are passionate about at Booking.com,” D’Silva highlights. “When they spend time in our buildings, we want to make it a seamless and inspiring experience, with sustainability at the core. The aim is to make it easy for them to keep up with the more responsible habits that are already a part of their routine at home and maybe even prompt them to pick up some new ones.”

Pauline

“The new Booking.com Campus will be among the most sustainable buildings in Amsterdam, supporting our commitment to operate our business sustainably,” says Danielle D’Silva, Booking.com’s Head of Sustainability. “The credentials of this building along with how it has been designed to encourage more sustainable behavior by employees is one of the key drivers to achieve our goals on this front.”

“The City Campus is the grand finale in Oosterdokseiland’s development. It marks the completion of a special area development with an urban programme,” says Jeroen Galle, serving on behalf of BPD as principal for the City Campus for Booking.com.

What he likes best about the City Campus? “That you stay in touch with the city from every floor you’re on. You smell the city, you hear the city, you hear the people out on the quayside. It’s fantastic! Urban life for me is when someone rings your doorbell and you toss down your keys from three floors up so they can let themselves in. You can do that in most of Amsterdam’s neighbourhoods, and that’ll soon be possible with this building.”

This is because the City Campus will “only” be 47 metres tall. “With a 23-storey residential tower, that’s not possible – you’re detached from the city. Not here. We also maintained the dimensions of the old CS postal building, not a centimetre taller. It’s a huge building, but still on a human scale. Where people live as well as work,

where everyone can grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, or just sit on the stairs to enjoy the city.”

“Booking.com’s City Campus is the final piece of the Oosterdokseiland puzzle. A building that will soon house around five thousand employees, from all corners of the globe. Completion of this building marks the grand finale of a complete area development, consisting of several multifunctional buildings with a special urban programme,” Galle says. With all its related functions including housing, shops, offices, catering and metropolitan facilities such as the Public Library and the Conservatory.

“The urban programme for Oosterdokseiland was to create an island where people can meet, where

buildings and public space interact, and where you can also spend time without having to go inside somewhere. And all in a beautiful place with the most amazing panoramic view across the old city. I know of few walking boulevards like the one around Oosterdok, where you have such a beautiful view of the historic city centre and can experience the water so closely. We’ve created a new piece of the city.”

Part of the city

“Development of the City Campus is special,” Galle looks back. “We were just emerging from a financial crisis, the building site had been idle for several years, and then Booking.com knocked on the door. They were looking for a lively city campus, an inspiring workplace where their employees could interact, and Booking.com wanted its campus to be part of the city. Not a building with a fence around it. And there isn’t going to be one.

The employees will soon be able to use the facilities on the Campus, as well as those in the neighbourhood. The city is at your feet.” The employees also wanted contact with the city. “It’s no coincidence that many large Dutch tech companies (including TomTom and Booking.com) are located on Oosterdokseiland. That’s because today’s international IT talent says: ‘I’m not going to the Zuidas in a three-piece suit, I’m going to the office on my bicycle, in the centre of Amsterdam.’ Companies respond to their employees’ wishes in this regard.”

What’s more, although Booking.com is an international company, its roots are in Amsterdam. “Booking therefore wants its employees, who come from all over the world, to identify with this building and feel at home in it. This philosophy ties in perfectly with our own philosophy about Oosterdokseiland. It’s wonderful that everything has come together like this.” >>

‘Everyone likes the island – Amsterdam’s residents embraced it almost immediately’

Customised service

The builders, from contractors to structural engineers, and from installers to façade builders, have gone to great lengths from the start to manage the technical challenges posed by the building. Galle knows the City Campus is a complex building. “This is partly due to its structural design. While the building is largely on the ground, it is also partly suspended above it. Especially the cantilever and the forces you have to absorb constructing it make the building technically complex. But maximising the façade area to let in as much daylight as possible isn’t easy either. And the building boasts numerous highlights. It features two large atriums, a state-of-the-art smart technical installation, dwellings with 180-degree views of the city, an underground programme with technology, a huge bicycle shed and parking spaces, and fully furnished and finished office space for Booking.com including a beautiful roof garden.”

Construction of the City Campus is also complex because of all the different parties working on site – contractors, subcontractors, structural engineers and installers. “They regularly consult with one another to solve problems in the best possible way. Sometimes the contractor asks: ‘Has the architect detailed this drawing adequately,’ while the architect says: ‘No, that’s the structural engineer or contractor’s job.’”

Finding solutions

“Conversations like this take place on most construction projects,” Galle continues. “My role as principal is to get the parties together, and to arrive at the best compromise in case of a disagreement. Look, everyone plays their role, the architect designs beautiful architecture and the builders translate it into a striking yet feasible building. You utilise each other’s expertise. You can’t build a building like this on your own, you have to work together. It’s important to take each other’s interests into account, and that sometimes takes time. As a cycling enthusiast I know that besides talent and enjoyment, you need patience and stamina to reach the finish line. This applies to the City Campus as well.”

Galle knows that no matter how much the City Campus demands of all the parties involved, everyone feels proud to have contributed in the end. “And I’m happy about that of course. That’s the common thread that runs through Oosterdokseiland as a whole. It didn’t build itself, but people are enthusiastic about the end result. Everyone likes the island – Amsterdam’s residents embraced it almost immediately. I’m sure this will be the case with the City Campus as well.”

‘It’s a huge building, but still on a human scale’

Oosterdok’s swing bridge

Once again, you can head all the way around Oosterdok across the Oosterdoks swing bridge. The bridge has reopened to cyclists and pedestrians and the result is clear. On a beautiful evening, walkers, tourists and Amsterdam locals alike, stroll in groups across the bridge, stopping every now and then to enjoy the view of the Oosterdok’s waters. As stated on the City of Amsterdam’s information board halfway across, the bridge was originally taken into use in 2005, but even by the late 19th century, a swing bridge connected Oosterdokseiland to the Dijksgracht. “A swing bridge doesn’t open vertically to let boats pass through, like a drawbridge, but turns ninety degrees over a rotating block.”

“The new landing of the bridge, necessitated by redevelopment of Oosterdokseiland, was a tough job,” Rensen says. For instance, the concrete abutment had to be anchored into the deck of the new car park. “We had to ensure sufficient stability. At the same time, the anchoring could not be adjusted too rigidly. The abutment

must be able to move somewhat freely, in order to respond well to changing weather conditions.”

Formidable feat

What made the operation technically challenging is that the bridge is linked to both the adjacent railway bridge as well as the inner ring road carrying tram and car traffic. “Essentially three adjacent bridges. Aspects like lighting and shipping safety therefore have to be coordinated. Not to mention the IJ tunnel that runs under the water here. So everything converges. To get all these aspects to fit together properly was a formidable civil engineering feat. But we succeeded.”

The ground level on Oosterdokseiland also had to be ready before the bridge could open. “We first laid cables and pipes for sewerage and rainwater drainage. Then all the containers and construction site offices were moved to the middle area so that the quay could be opened for cyclists and walkers heading towards the Oosterdoks swing bridge. This meant we had to reduce

the size of the construction site. We then finished the quay walls with basalt blocks and natural stone and were able to lay the paving.”

New ramp

What remains on the programme is the construction of a new ramp for cyclists and walkers heading towards the Oosterdoks swing bridge. “The temporary ramp will be replaced by a permanent 30 to 35-metre-long ramp – combined with stairs – designed by the City of Amsterdam. This will enable cyclists, walkers and disabled people to comfortably cross the bridge in a gradual manner. They won’t have to get over a steep climb.”

Redesigning the ground level, new ramp and Oosterdoks swing bridge; it’s a complex operation on a surface area the size of a postage stamp and located in the heart of the city centre. Rensen: “And the result is incredible. Dijksgracht and Oosterdokseiland are finally connected again.”

“The time came in early June 2022. After more than two years of waiting, the Oosterdok’s swing bridge reopened for cyclists and pedestrians. It was a complex operation, but the result is impressive,” says Dylan Rensen, project manager at BPD.

‘We want to give something back to the city’

The City Campus is for Booking.com and its employees from the first floor

up, but the plinth on the ground floor – also owned by Booking.com – will be a public facility for the entire city. “This is such a beautiful place; we don’t want to keep it all for ourselves.”

“1,500 square metres, that’s the total plinth area of Booking.com’s City Campus. Yes that’s huge,” says Marnix Mali, Director Real Estate and Workspace Services at Booking. com. “And it’s not only big, but also a spectacular open area. The plinth under the apartment building next to Booking.com, for example, is a six-metre-high glass box. Very transparent and spacious, a feast to walk around in.”

Although owned by Booking.com, the zoning plan for the plinth specifies that the ground floor area is for catering, leisure and shopping establishments. “It will be a public facility. The City wanted this and we agree wholeheartedly. It’s such a beautiful place, we’re happy to share it with the rest of the city.”

Talks on what the plinth will house are in full swing. “It’s still too early to tell, we can only announce that later, but it will be completely different from the catering and shopping facilities on the rest of Oosterdokseiland. What’s more – and we think this is very important –we’d like to give something back to Amsterdam. Booking.com owes so much to the city. Amsterdam has

helped us grow from a start-up to an international player and our mostly international employees feel at home here. So this is a great opportunity to thank Amsterdam for that. In our opinion, the best way to do so is by assuming corporate social responsibility. For instance, by helping people with poor prospects in the job market. We’re thinking about making space in the plinth for facilities that support this target group.”

Springboard to the Oosterdok

Whatever the plinth comes to offer, it will be a place visitors want to (re) visit. “We want you to experience something you won’t easily forget. And something you will talk about later with your friends or family. That also suits the location. The plinth is like a strategic springboard to the entire Oosterdok. Walk over one

Impression

bridge and you’re off to MediaMatic, Hanneke’s Boom, The Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ the Maritime museum and the grounds of the Marineterrein. Over the other bridge to the NEMO Science Museum. On our other side you find the Conservatory and Public Library, and then you walk straight into the city centre. This is such a beautiful place, we don’t want to keep it all for ourselves.” Impression

Buying tickets at the NACO house

For seventeen years, it’s been waiting in a shipyard in Zaandam, but at the end of last year the NACO house returned to Amsterdam on De Ruijterkade behind Central Station (CS). It’s quite possible that the NACO house will regain its former function as a shipping office.

It was a spectacle on Monday morning 13 December 2021, in the middle of the lockdown. Fortunately the wind was mild. Suspended by steel cables from a tall yellow crane and accompanied by several tugs, the NACO house sailed back across Zaan and IJ, to its final berth on De Ruijterkade behind CS.

“The return trip took slightly longer than planned,” laughs Stadsherstel’s project manager Gijs Hoen, who carries responsibility for supervising the restoration and future use of the NACO house. “Since 1919, when the house was first built, it had been located behind CS, on what was then known as Pier 5, just west of its current berth. It had to move in 2004 because of CS’ reconstruction. That’s when it was taken into storage for several years at a shipyard in Zaandam. Everyone thought it would only take a few years before it could return. But it ended up taking 17 years.”

The new site of the NACO house –already a national monument for years – is next to the new ferry connection to IJplein and a stone’s throw from the gay monument. “A beautiful spot, really an eye-catcher, on the cycle route from east to west, and from north to the centre,” says Hoen, while standing on De Ruijterkade, admiring the NACO house. Construction workers are

building its new concrete foundations, and a little further away they’re putting the finishing touches to the new ferry connection to North.

Buffalo horns

Yes, the NACO house, built by Amsterdam architect Guillaume la Croix, is an incredible building. Combining architectural influences from the Amsterdam School and traditional architecture from the Dutch East Indies, the former Dutch colony.

“See those curling wooden corner ornaments? They were most likely inspired by the horns of a water buffalo, a symbol of greatness and strength for some people in the Dutch East Indies. Similar horns can also be found in other traditional wooden houses of the time. The number of buffalo horns reflects the family’s standing. The more horns, the higher their status.”

The Shipping Offices of Reederij Koppe, that’s what the NACO house was originally called. You could buy tickets there for the ferry service to Marken, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, right across the Zuiderzee. “We can scarcely imagine this today, but Amsterdam’s residents mostly travelled by boat until the 1950s. Every day, 39 local ferry services carrying passengers and cargo left from 15 jetties in the IJ. The local ferries were vital to public transport. While you could buy one-way tickets from the boat conductor, day returns and coupon books could only be purchased from the offices at the jetties. The NACO house was one such office.”

Peasant boats

That all changed with the arrival of bus, lorry and tram transport. “There was a decline in the number of scheduled ferry services. People began condescendingly referring to the ferries as peasant boats. And activities on the Ruijterkade slowed considerably, especially from the 1960s.”

The Noordhollandsche Auto Car Onderneming (NACO), the house’s founder, eventually took over the last scheduled services until the doors closed for good in 2004. But things won’t stay that way, if Stadsherstel gets its way. “We hope it will regain its original purpose as a shipping office. We’re discussing this with the National Maritime Museum (Scheepvaartmuseum) and other cultural institutions in the Plantage neighbourhood, such as Artis, the Hermitage and the Jewish Quarter – the envisaged tenants of the NACO house.”

Of course, it would be perfect if the NACO house could be used as a boarding point for passengers to visit the cultural institutions in the Plantage neighbourhood and Oosterdok by boat. “We hope this plan goes ahead, although we don’t know whether it will be possible to moor boats directly next to the NACO house. This would certainly match its original function. You could then buy a ticket for a scheduled

service like before, only this time to the centre of Amsterdam. And who knows, travellers might combine that with a visit to an exhibition. The National Maritime Museum is interested in turning the NACO house into a museum annex. With a permanent exhibition on its history, for instance. While still under discussion, this would be a wonderful role.”

Connected to the water

It’s not ready yet. Once construction is finished, Stadsherstel will be able to start the final restoration phase. “It’s currently suspended from a steel strut construction, but once the concrete foundations are ready, that framework can be removed. The house will then stand on its own. Because the house is elevated, you will be able to enjoy the view through to the IJ. This open character reflects the destinations of the ferries; take the wooden houses in Marken. The great thing is that it keeps you connected to the water.”

Now, in 2022, Stadsherstel continues to work on its further restoration. It’s fantastic that the NACO house will finally regain a function that does justice to the past. A cultural ferry service (an eco-neutral round-trip connection) will be established, taking visitors to the city’s cultural gems. And all thanks to Stadsherstel!

www.stadsherstel.nl/naco-huisje

Photography: Stadsherstel, Jan Reinier van der Vliet

Photography: Stadsherstel, Jan Reinier van der Vliet

THE UNDERWATER WORLD OF THE OOSTERDOK

What do eels want?

They’ve been part of the Netherlands’ heritage for centuries, but we know very little about them and they’re not doing well: eels. So, landscape architect Thijs de Zeeuw thinks it’s high time we spoke to them. After all, we can only cater to their wishes if we’re prepared to listen to what they have to say. De Zeeuw dreams of an underwater park in the Oosterdok basin, a place where humans, eels and other aquatic life can get to know each other.

Yes, he’s already met an eel, during his first dive in the Sloterplas. “It was a night dive, so all you can see is what you catch in the light of your torch. But there he was, lying on the bottom of the lake, as if he was waiting for us.”

Landscape architect Thijs de Zeeuw is explaining all this on the quayside behind Arcam (the Architecture Centre of Amsterdam), as he casts his sonar ball towards one of six steel cages that he lowered into the waters of the Oosterdok basin in autumn 2021. “We hoped that the cages would lure some aquatic life. There are plants growing inside them, which obviously attracts wildlife looking for shelter, hopefully including eels. And it works - look.” De Zeeuw demonstrates the app which reads the signals from the sonar. “See? It’s showing fish icons, probably because there are fish swimming around in the cages.”

So why is he so keen to meet eels?

“The Dutch have been living side-byside with eels for thousands of years. Smoked eel, ‘eel pulling’… it’s been part of Dutch tradition for centuries, just like clogs, windmills and herring. At the same time, we know very little about the life of eels. We know that they mate at enormous depths in seawater, but nobody has ever seen how they do it. We also know that their spawning area is in the Sargasso Sea, off the coast of Mexico, 6,000 kilometres away. The young elvers then swim their way to Dutch fresh waters, over the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean. They cover thousands of kilometres, it’s incredible. How on earth do they do that?”

A voice for the eel

The eel is close to becoming an endangered species. “In Asia, eels are now worth more than silver, ivory and caviar. So they desperately need

our help.” According to De Zeeuw, this means listening to what they have to say, asking them what they want. But how do you go about this? “By meeting them. That’s why I’m learning to dive, despite not being a natural swimmer. I’ve met three eels now, in the Ouderkerkerplas and the Sloterplas. No, not in the Oosterdok basin yet; the water here is too murky. This doesn’t bother the eels, they rely on their sense of touch and hearing more than sight. Eels can’t see very well actually. But they’re definitely here. The Oosterdok basin is a hinge between the North Sea and the hinterland, as it were. It’s brackish water, half-seawater, half fresh water, exactly what eels like best.”

What do eels want? This is one of the questions being asked in the ‘A voice for the eel’ research project being run by the Embassy of the North Sea, which aims to raise Dutch awareness of the

life of a creature that is on the one hand so familiar, but on the other hand so mysterious. “The Embassy of the North Sea is an organisation that wants to give all kinds of organisms in and around the North Sea a voice; plants, animals, microbes and people. This includes eels. We live side-by-side, but because we barely listen to each other, we know very little about each other. This autumn, OBA, the public library on Oosterdokseiland, is hosting an exhibition called ‘A voice for the eel’. A great opportunity to listen to what they have to say.”

Chinese mitten crab Creating places where people, plants and animals can meet, and where they all feel at home. This is the key message in De Zeeuw’s work as a landscape architect. With this firmly in the back of his mind, he has designed enclosures for Artis Zoo, such as the latest enclosure for the Asian elephant.

His greatest wish for the underwater park he hopes to design in the Oosterdok basin, right behind Arcam, is that we can meet the plants and animals that live there on an equal footing. “At the moment, I’m making a scale model of it for an exhibition in Arcam next summer.” He laughs. “I’m used to making models, but this one’s a bit of a challenge. It has to be completely waterproof, no leaks whatsoever.”

What will the park look like? “It has to be a park that attracts people, plants and animals. A communal outdoor space, which appeals to humans, but also to eels, Chinese mitten crabs, round gobies… all kinds of aquatic life. Who knows? Maybe we can construct a sunken path through the water, like the elephant enclosure in Artis.

But then again, you could make a glass floor or be creative with light. There are so many ways to bring humans and animals closer together.”

One city for people and animals

De Zeeuw wants his underwater park to make people more aware of just how much life there is under the water. “It’s not something we often think about. Looking down from above, like here on the quayside, we just see the black, reflective surface of the water. We have no idea of what’s going on below. And yet it’s bursting with life down there. Amsterdam isn’t just a city where people live, it’s also a habitat for eels, coots, rose-ringed parakeets. All these animals have made this their home. And what could be better than sharing the city, meeting each other, enjoying each other’s company, getting to know each other. That’s the idea behind ‘A voice for the eel’.”

‘Creating a place where people, plants and animals can meet’

‘It’s bursting with life under the reflective surface of the water!’

ODE to the neighbours

Arcam Amsterdam

Apart from the striking City Campus, there are other striking manifestations on the Oosterdok. For example, diagonally across the way. A futuristic building on Prins Hendrikkade designed by René van Zuuk and home to Arcam, Amsterdam’s leading architectural centre for 20 years. Arcam organises a wide range of activities in the field of architecture and (urban) development, including exhibitions, debates, lectures, architectural walks and bicycle tours. The “Fluid Matter – Designing with water in Amsterdam” interactive exhibition ran until recently. It examines how Amsterdam’s water system works and the impact of climate change; the effects of the choices we have on our living environment and liveability in the city.

Through the glass façade of the office area, Arcam’s employees have been able to follow developments on Oosterdokseiland for years and have also seen Booking.com’s new headquarters take shape. It’s particularly nice to note that Arcam recently launched its architecture guide featuring the 25 greenest buildings in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. The sustainable City Campus on Oosterdokseiland is listed among them. Together with other cultural institutions and companies, Arcam forms part of the “blue Museum Square of Amsterdam” – referring to the Oosterdok. These institutions all work together on the Oosterdok’s cultural programme and organise open days several times a year (including Neighbourhood Day and Expedition Oosterdok).

Prins Hendrikkade 60, www.arcam.nl

The building housing Arcam is compact and sculptural with three levels connected by atriums. The Prins Hendrikkade level houses an exhibition space and information point. The lowest level on the waterfront is used for small discussions, bigger meetings and to welcome school classes. Timeline Amsterdam 2000-2030 has also been housed there since 2020. The office has its workplaces on the top floor. The building is clad in coated aluminium folded around the building across the roof to the ground. The sculptural shape of the entrance on the city side is noteworthy. On the waterfront, the full width and height of the façade consists of glass.

Arcam’s work is supported by subsidy providers, sponsors, funds, partners and private individuals. BPD | Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling is one of Arcam’s sponsors and it enjoys a supportive and substantive working relationship with this leading network organisation.

Vishandel Tel

Early in the morning, as Amsterdam slowly awakens, there’s already plenty of activity on Kloveniersburgwal. Here, in the centre of Amsterdam’s Chinatown, you’ll find Vishandel Tel, the fishmonger. The “smallest fish shop selling the biggest selection” as they describe themselves. Tel has its own fleet of fishing cutters and fish shop (Tel Ocean Delight) in Suriname and imports from many countries such as India, Bangladesh and Iceland. The company also has a fish market and catering wholesaler at the fish auction in IJmuiden. From there, Tel supplies fresh and frozen fish from all corners of the world to many hotels and restaurants on a daily basis. In Amsterdam, the fish is delivered to the catering establishments by special cargo bike.

At the fish shop on the Kloveniersburgwal, you can almost imagine you’re standing on the market of an international fishing port. Early every morning, fresh fish arrives here from IJmuiden and work starts in earnest at 6 am to prepare the shelves. The first customers enter the shop at 8 am. The clientele forms a nice reflection of Amsterdam’s residents; from Chinese to Portuguese, Italian to Vietnamese and Spanish to Dutch. Tel unifies people of all nationalities and cultures. Why? Because everyone’s welcome and there’s something delicious for everyone. How about a tender Red Snapper, caught by its own boat in Suriname, from the oven or under the grill. Or the less well-known fish Kandratiki, also from Suriname. The Dutch brill is always delicious: stewed, done in the oven, grilled or fried. Of course, Tel also offers preparation advice and delicious recipes!

Kloveniersburgwal 11-13, www.vishandeltel.nl

Couscous with mackerel & apple

Bron: www.vishandeltel.nl

Main course serving four people

Preparation time: <30 min

A surprisingly fresh and spicy dish: this couscous with mackerel dish is delicious – served hot or cold. The turmeric gives it a nice yellow colour and the chilli flakes add spice. If you like, add some grated carrot for more vegetables.

Preparation

1. Bring 500 ml of water to the boil with the vegetable stock cube and turmeric.

2. Turn off the heat and add the couscous. Stir through with a fork and leave to stand with the lid on.

3. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the mackerel fillets until almost cooked on the skin side in about 5 to 8 minutes. Flip and cut the fillets into pieces.

4. Mix the apple, lemon, chilli flakes and rocket lettuce (keep a handful for garnish) through the couscous and season with salt and pepper.

5. Then carefully spoon in the mackerel pieces and serve with extra rocket lettuce.

Tip

Also delicious with smoked mackerel.

A small oasis in the centre of the city offering boundless opportunities.

Informal and “messy”, as hotel manager Christian Koch describes it, but with impeccable service and customer orientation. “But you won’t see staff in uniform at our place. It’s a place where you can feel free, at home and welcome and anything goes; as long as you’re nice to us and the people around us.”

Pension Homeland

Since 2015, Pension Homeland has been operating on the grounds of the Marineterrein where the former “officers’ mess” of the Royal Navy serves as the restaurant. Homeland’s concept in the spacious 1960s building on Kattenburgerstraat is modern and versatile, complete with a bar, café, restaurant, room rental and traditional delicatessen. The hotel’s 31 rooms reference “ship’s cabins” and feature unique murals of well-known ports. The shop, Kombuis, has its own chef and offers a range of delicacies – from homemade charcuterie and patisserie, to its own beer. On the shop premises, directly behind the restaurant’s kitchen, the brewery started with

two in-house fermentation tanks in 2016. More space was soon needed and the brewing kettles were moved to bigger premises 100 metres away on the grounds of the Marineterrein. Homeland Brewery is now a “mature’’ and modern brewery with over 15 special beers bearing names like Zeebonk, Ketelbinkie, Klapgijp and Scheepsbok.

Chaos as a strength

In addition to the concept and atmosphere, Homeland’s location makes it a unique “secret” in Amsterdam. When you enter the grounds from Kattenburgerstraat through the large gate, you find yourself in another world. A park setting with monumental trees, lots of greenery and water as well as the modern industrial heritage of the museum grounds.

“Homeland is a good counterpart to mass culture and everything to do with catering in Amsterdam,” says Koch. “Our business culture is messy, but with impeccable service. It’s sometimes chaotic here, but that’s also our strength.”

From a living room where people work during the day, a place for small intimate dinners and birthdays, billiards, live music or a farewell venue for a funeral. Sometimes there’s a pizza oven in front of the door, or a mobile sauna.

The options are limitless at Homeland. And in between, take a nice fresh dip in the water from the terrace! Kattenburgerstraat 5 (building 006) www.pensionhomeland.com

From fire station to apartment complex

It’s the most characteristic building on De Ruijterkade; the former fire station known as Oud-Nico. But it was very nearly demolished. Luckily, former firefighters (also residents) Jan Wolf and Piet van Dongen, and a band of other local residents, were able to prevent this from happening.

They risked their lives saving people and animals from blazing fires, they searched debris for victims, and rescued a driver when their car drove into the water. All in a day’s work for former-firefighters Jan Wolf and Piet van Dongen. The huge fire in the Polen Hotel in the middle of Amsterdam, the Bijlmer aviation disaster, the firework inferno in the Roxy disco; they were part of the rescue services working on all of them. “We’ve seen so much tragedy,” says Piet. “Things that stay with you, things you’ll never forget.”

Having said that, Jan and Piet, both now retired, would do it all again if given the choice. Jan: “It’s rewarding work because you’re rescuing people from danger. It’s a feeling you can’t compare with anything else.” Piet: “It creates a strong mutual bond. When you go through so much together, the team becomes very close. I’m still in touch with a group of my former colleagues. Of course, we rake up all the old stories when we meet up. It’s our joint past, it’s only natural.”

We’re in the living room of the house shared by Jan and his wife Wil, with a panoramic view of the IJ. Paul Morel from Stadsherstel heritage conservation organisation has just joined us. Jan and Wil have lived in the former Oud-Nico fire station on De Ruijterkade since 1973. The fire station was designed by architect Springer in 1890 as a veritable city fortress. It replaced the Nico fire station in the weigh house on Nieuwmarkt. The Oud-Nico fire station closed when the new IJtunnel fire station opened in the early 1970s.

Part of the building was converted into rented apartments and firefighters were given priority as potential tenants. Jan: “People said we needed our brains testing for wanting to live here. There were no shops and no schools, but we loved it.” Wil adds: “Just look outside. How could you tire of looking at the water in the IJ?”

Pick-up place

In 1985, Piet moved in next door to Jan and Wil. Piet: “Jan and I worked in different fire stations. Jan worked here in Oud-Nico, and I worked at Dirk, the fire station on the Hobbemakade. But we’d met. We sometimes did shifts in other fire stations so most of the firefighters got to know each other.”

They’ve enjoyed living here for years. Jan and Wil have been here for almost 50 years, and Piet and his wife for over 35. A lot has changed since they moved in. Wil: “The IJ was full of ships in the early 1970s. There were lots of boatyards where the ships went for repairs. Lying in bed in the mornings, you could hear the sounds of the boatyards, metal on metal, the voices of the workers, I loved it.” Piet: “Whenever we visit people, I always think ‘I’m glad I don’t live here’, with people across the road looking in. All we can see is the IJ.”

But that’s not the only thing that’s changed. In the 1980s, De Ruijterkade transformed from a harbour quay into a pick-up place for prostitutes, and soon became a public nuisance for

residents. Oud-Nico changed too. The old sleeping quarters for firefighters and the carriage house for the horses were converted into business premises and studios. Gone was the huge red bell in the central hall, used for sounding the alarm whenever there was a fire.

You can still find vestiges of the old fire station, says Paul Morel from Stadsherstel, which took over the building from the City of Amsterdam in the 1990s. “Oud-Nico still has the same robust appearance as when it was built, with a wonderful eye for detail. All of the granite floors are still there, and the staircase is in an authentic condition.

Oud-Nico is the most characteristic building on De Ruijterkade.”

‘Oud-Nico is the most characteristic building on De Ruijterkade’

‘Look outside. How could you tire of looking at the water in the IJ?’

‘We did everything within our power to stop the demolition. How could you even think of demolishing such a beautiful building?’

Last of the Mohicans It’s a wonder that the building is still there. Among the plans for the redevelopment of the southern banks of the IJ was a municipal plan to demolish Oud-Nico. It was heavily resisted by the residents, with Jan Wolf and Piet van Dongen at the helm. Jan: “We did everything within our power to stop the demolition. How could you even think of demolishing such a beautiful building, a former fire station at that? And of course, we didn’t want to leave.”

The residents held open days to show other Amsterdam locals just how fabulous the building is. They organised photo exhibitions with photos from the City Archives, and in his studio in the attic, Jan painted banners protesting against the demolition. They hung on the roof of Oud-Nico for months, in clear view of passing train passengers.

It was a success. The City of Amsterdam dropped their demolition plans and Oud-Nico was made a listed building instead. Stadsherstel became the new owner. Jan, Wil, Piet and the other residents could stay. And the photos, images and old newspaper cuttings in the stairwell, carefully preserved by Jan and Piet, keep alive the memory of a building that once served as a fire station.

While we’re on the subject, she’s got a message for the new Booking.com employees, who will soon be moving into the new City Campus: come across after work and lend a hand in De Ruijtergaard. “There’s plenty to do. Prune the fruit trees, pick herbs, weave wicker baskets, take care of the worm hotels... What could be better than that? Staring at a screen all day gives you square eyes, so after work, come to De Ruijtergaard for a literal and metaphorical breath of fresh air. What’s not to like?”

Mariken de Goede has a vision: she can see the tech kids from Booking. com spending a couple of hours a week getting their hands dirty in the soil of De Ruijtergaard. “It fits in perfectly with our aim of helping people to connect. De Ruijterkade is teeming with trendy new businesses. People arrive at work at the very last minute, and then dash back home in the evening. It would be great if they could press pause here every now and then, slow down and enjoy the plants, take some time to relax.” That’s the power of green she explains, it brings people together. “All the research shows that green makes people happy. We saw it during the COVID-19 pandemic. People from De Pijp neighbourhood came here to walk and enjoy nature. Some of the ramblers

The strip of land between the railway line and De Ruijterkade, which used to be wild and overgrown, is now a green oasis. Everyone is welcome to come and help in De Ruijtergaard, says founder Mariken de Goede.

makes people happy

even stopped to ask if they could join in. They still drop in every now and then to weave some wicker.”

Exhibition Fence

In 2018, De Goede’s pitch won a call from the City of Amsterdam to breathe new life into an overgrown strip of land along the railway line. Her ambition to create a food forest was met with great enthusiasm. There’s now a permanent group of volunteers working to maintain the Ruijtergaard Park, as this green plot is officially known. Slavica Nicolova is one of them. “We want to set a good example about creating more green spaces in our cities. The way to convince people of how nice and important this is, is to show them: let them see, feel, smell it for themselves. That’s what we’re doing here.”

Over the past six months,

De Ruijtergaard has also gained an exhibition space: the Exhibition Fence. De Goede: “The municipality erected a fence in front of a badly damaged section of the quay wall. We weren’t happy at first, but now we use the fence for special exhibitions. We organised a photo exhibition, for example, by attaching wooden crates to the fence and displaying photos of the former Oud-Nico fire station on De Ruijterkade in them. The former firefighter Jan Wolf [see the article about Oud Nico, ed.] donated photos from his own collection. The exhibition was very successful and attracted loads of visitors. So now we’re planning more exhibitions, including one next spring about water and biodiversity.”

A Green Carpet

De Ruijtergaard is just of the ‘groves’ run by the Amstelgaard Foundation, of which De Goede is a co-founder. “We launched the Foundation in December 2018, and it’s thriving. We’ve already got food forest troughs at Museumhaven, Westerpark, and in De Pijp and OudWest neighbourhoods. Our groves are spreading across the city like ripples on water. Residents are embracing and maintaining them. You’ll soon be able to take a grove tour of Amsterdam. A green carpet instead of a red carpet. Nice idea!”

For more information and photos: www.stadsherstel.nl/oudnico 39

Photography: Mariken de Goede

Learn, discover and innovate

More and more cultural institutions and businesses are opening their doors in the Oosterdok. They’ve pooled their resources in the Expeditie Oosterdok Foundation, an organisation that aims to draw attention to the beauty and power of the Oosterdok in Amsterdam and beyond.

“This is the blue Museumplein.” An apt description of the Oosterdok spoken by Michael Huijser, director of the National Maritime Museum. The comparison is appropriate, both in terms of size and degree of cultural diversity.

The National Maritime Museum, NEMO, Arcam, OBA, Conservatorium, Marineterrein, MediaMatic and Museumhaven, are all on or around the water of the Oosterdok. Not to mention all the shops, hospitality and businesses on Oosterdokseiland, both cultural and commercial, which attract around two million visitors per year.

In order to pool their resources, around twenty of these cultural institutions and companies have joined forces to form the Expeditie Oosterdok Foundation, of which Huijser is the chair. “Our joint aim is to draw attention to the power of the Oosterdok among people from Amsterdam, people outside Amsterdam and a wider international public.”

The best way of doing this is by working together, sharing experiences and making joint plans. “This generates an incredible amount of energy, which is exactly what Expeditie Oosterdok was set up to do.” And it leads to unique initiatives, such as the plans for a culture ferry, a boat that takes visitors on a trip past all the cultural institutions in and around the Oosterdok. And the Dutch Water Weeks, events held on the water of the Oosterdok, from exhibition sports to sailing schools for young Amsterdammers. “What could be nicer than letting children from the NieuwWest neighbourhood learn to sail here? It’s definitely in line with the ambitions of all the cultural institutions and businesses in the Oosterdok: to learn, discover and innovate. We are all doing our bit for a better city.”

Water connects worlds

1.

MUSEUM

’T KROMHOUT The droning engines of the Kromhout shipyard recall the history of the Amsterdam shipbuilding industry. 2. ARCAM (

CHITECTURE CENTRE OF AMSTERDAM) The architecture and urban development of Amsterdam are explored in detail in this sculptural building.

3. MUSEUMHAVEN

Twenty-two floating monuments reflect the objects that used sail on the Dutch inland waterways.

Dutch Water Weeks Maritime, innovative and international. These are the three key words that sum up the identity of the Oosterdok, explains Huijser. “We’re building on the age-old legacy of the area. The ships built here in the 17th century conquered the world’s oceans. Something that started locally went on to grow international wings. And this is still the way. Booking.com and TomTom, also affiliated to Expeditie Oosterdok, started life as Dutch companies and are now major international market players. This is the vibe we want Expeditie Oosterdok to project. Not in the old-fashioned way by offering museums with fences around them, but by breathing new life into old elan. We want to translate the power of yesteryear into the power of today.”

The collaboration within Expeditie Oosterdok enables institutions to get initiatives off the ground, which would have been impossible alone. “The BIMHUIS and its partners in New York want to organise an international jazz festival in two years. Hosting a festival like this would be far too big a project for BIMHUIS on its own, but together we can say: great, go for it! Part of the festival can be hosted in NEMO, part in the National Maritime Museum, part in the Conservatorium. We help and reinforce each other. Hence our motto: water connects worlds. The possibilities are endless.”

www.expeditieoosterdok.nl

‘Houseboat occupants thrive on the fringes of society’

The inhabitants of the houseboats on the five piers at the bottom of Prins Hendrikkade are actually the oldest residents of the Oosterdok. Over the years, they have seen the Oosterdok change beyond recognition. And meanwhile, they have a continual fight to retain their moorings on their hands.

Eric and Karin are joined by Sander Rutten, who works on the project team for Oosterdokseiland, lives on a houseboat on the Levantkade in the Oosterdok area, and happens to chair the Amsterdam Houseboat Association. He can identify with their sense of freedom and he recognises the image of houseboat occupants. “It’s one of the things that our association is working on: trying to improve people’s preconceptions about people who choose to live on houseboats.”

Swimming races in Oosterdok

What do they think of Oosterdokseiland? Karin: “The skyline is higher than I’d have liked. But I understand that people need houses. I’m glad we’ve got a library. I do wonder what it will be like living on the other side. We’re a small, close community

over here. I don’t think it’ll be like that on the over there, it looks too big and large-scale.”

swimming races in the Oosterdok. I’d like to see these initiatives restart.” “I think that Booking.com would go for that,” replies Sander. “I’ll certainly go and ask them.”

So, their main hopes are for more community spirit and a cleaner Oosterdok area. Karin: “You should see what some of the visitors leave behind on the piers and quayside; gross! It’s because there aren’t any waste bins on the lower quayside. Correction: there are two – I put them there myself.”

There are things she’d like to change.

“The Double Tree organises regular clean-up days. We all go round the Oosterdok clearing the rubbish from the quayside. Before the pandemic, Double Tree also organised local drinks get-togethers so the residents could all meet up. And we used to organise

Eric: “If the City of Amsterdam wants to promote trips around Oosterdok, they should start by providing proper waste bins. And make sure that the quay gardens are presentable. Karin’s is one of the prettiest in the whole of the Oosterdok. She’s setting a great example if you ask me.”

“When I first lived here, this was a place where prostitutes brought their clients.” Karin van Nes, houseboat occupant on the Oosterdok since 1986, has no trouble remembering the early years.

“The street prostitutes came straight here from Amsterdam Centraal Station, looking for a quiet spot to do business.”

“And we had loads of junkies. You sometimes had to chuck them off the pier, quite literally, otherwise they wouldn’t leave,” remembers Eric van den Broek, who’s lived here since 1993. “The methadone bus used to come every week. A bit further along, on the bridge, the junkies could swap their old needles for clean ones. There was a lot of stealing too. I was always pulling suitcases that had been emptied of their contents from the bushes. The piers were the city’s cesspit in those days.” Karin agrees: “I never really felt safe until I got a dog.”

But despite this, they never considered leaving. Karin: “Houseboat occupants thrive on the fringes of society; we can handle it when things get a bit rough. Live and let live is our motto. It gives us the sense of freedom that we crave. As if you could just cast off the ropes and sail out to sea. Not that you’d ever do it of course, but it’s nice to know that you could.”

Eric and Karin still share that sense of freedom. They’ve seen the Oosterdok change beyond recognition over the years. Karin: “In the early days, you could see for miles. It was just sky, and there was nothing on the opposite bank, apart from the Post CS building, the post office where our letter boxes were. I walked across every day to pick up my post.”

That all changed with the plans for developing Oosterdokseiland. Eric: “We didn’t catch on to the plans until quite late. Maybe because in those days, we were constantly fighting for survival and trying to second guess the municipality. First, they had plans for a harbour for the round-trip boats, then the floating Chinese restaurant was going to be moved to our side. We heard so many plans, but the underlying message was always the same: you’ve got to leave.”

Unsavoury people

To this day, they’re still proud that it never came to that. Karin: “We fought tooth and nail for our right to stay. But on the other hand, we were always willing to think along with the authorities. I think that’s what did it, really. The officials liked us. They hadn’t expected to, because the people working at the town hall had preconceived ideas about people who live on houseboats. They thought we were all antisocial, slightly unsavoury people. It never occurred to many of the local council workers that we are just nice, ordinary citizens.”

Eric: “People still prejudge houseboat occupants. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard: could you just move your boat on a bit? As if we could! You’d have to disconnect and reconnect all the pipes and wiring.” Karin: “And you become attached to your mooring, the quay, the garden on the quay, your neighbours.

You wouldn’t ask people living on land to move their house along a bit, would you?”

Post CS

Left to right: Karin van Nes, Sander Rutten and Eric van den Broek.

‘Much more fun than a straightforward building project’

Züblin is the coordinating building contractor for the construction of the City Campus. According to project managers Frank de Roo and Edwin Zevenhoven, this entails monitoring the entire building project, keeping to a strict timeline and, most importantly, forging and maintaining close ties with all the parties on the building site.

Yes, challenging is the best word to describe it, say Frank de Roo and Edwin Zevenhoven, two of the three project managers at Züblin. De Roo: “Even after three-and-a-half years, we still say to each other: what’s this corner? It looks different from how I’d imagined it.”

Zevenhoven agrees: “A works manager once said to me: Edwin, you only really know the lay-out of a building if you can sit on your sofa in the evening and walk through it with your eyes closed. I wouldn’t do that here; you’d risk a nasty fall for a start! Nothing in this building is the same.”

Just to be clear, the men love their work on the building site. De Roo: “This is a once in a lifetime experience. The fact that you have to stay on your toes,

think about how to solve all kinds of problems as they come up: that’s what makes it so interesting. It’s much more fun than a straightforward building project. What’s more, you can see the building grow, which is really inspiring.”

There was no shortage of pieces to this jigsaw. The first puzzle they faced was how to keep the carpark open during the building phase. De Roo: “Closing it was out of the question. There’s nowhere else for residents and other users of the island to park. So we managed to keep it open by building a crash deck next to the railway line. This is a special construction that allows you to drive safely underneath, and prevents objects that may accidentally fall from a crane from landing on the carpark.”

The construction also forms part of the gigantic steel structure that supports the overhang from the fourth floor upwards. De Roo: “This structure weighs a total of 290 tons. The steel box girder and cross girders that form the connection with the rest of the building weigh tens of tons per girder. There was no way we could get that the site in one piece, so we had to transport it in sections.”

Transport by water

One of the conditions set by the City of Amsterdam was that road transport through the city should be kept to a minimum. So most of the material was transported by water. De Roo: “First of all, we moved almost of the earth from the construction pit, 50,000 m3

As the coordinating building contractor, Züblin is responsible for the planning side of the City Campus. De Roo: “We monitor the progress of the building work, and manage the subcontractors and other building companies. Organising all of this is ‘a hell of a job’. We had to take four parties into account when planning the structural stage: the form setters and cement casters, the steel fixers, the steel construction and ICO for the pipes and wiring. During the fitting out stage, we’re monitoring the schedules for 25 parties on the building site. We do this by planning subschedules per zone, per day, so that we know exactly who is working where and what’s on the programme for each day.”

by ship to the Afrikahaven. The elements for the steel structure were transported to the site by ship, as were the pile foundations, the prefab parts of the stairs, some of the standard reinforcement and the composite decking. That went pretty well, but it’s an expensive mode of transport, because you have to organise an extra step. A lot of the material first has to be transported by road to the hub, the intermediate link, in the Afrikahaven. It’s then taken to the building site by ship. A first-degree logistic challenge, but we managed.” Once delivered, the steel elements were assembled on the steel table structure on the fourth floor.

Zevenhoven: “They were welded onto each other – months of work – to form one loadbearing entity. It was a mammoth task, because the pieces of steel we were assembling weighed 20–30 tons each and had a tolerance of under two millimetres. Talk about a slim margin!”

‘Feet on the table’ sessions

This will only work if relations are good. De Roo: “You have to keep close working ties because otherwise things can get out of hand. The stakes are far too high to risk that. So, we organise regular informal ‘feet on the table’ sessions to discuss any problems we anticipate, and work out solutions together. This allows you to prepare for them, so they don’t come out of the blue.”

These sessions are vital with large-scale building projects like the City Campus, says De Roo, otherwise things can escalate. “The discussions must be informal and open, no minutes, no formalities. Just words. And if anything needs to be agreed more formally, we do this later in a building meeting. The main message is: keep talking to each other. There’s no point digging your heels in.”

The ‘feet on the table’ sessions were good for the relationship between the architect and the building contractor. Zevenhoven: “We clashed quite a lot in the beginning. We kept telling Van Berkel: “Your drawings just aren’t feasible. We want to build the most beautiful building in Amsterdam for you, but you have to make it possible for us to do that.” After lots of discussions, we finally got our ducks in a row and we’ve been on good terms ever since.”

De Roo: “It’s our job as coordinating building contractors to make sure that matters like this aren’t swept under the table. The design for the City Campus is stunning, the overhang is pure genius, but we have to work out how to make it technically possible on the building site. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the overhang, the sloping tree columns or the loadbearing steel structure; there’s always an area of tension between the architectural design and technical implementation on every building project. You usually work it out in the end, but only if you keep talking to each other. Otherwise you can forget it.”

A façade that reflects water, sky and clouds may sound fabulous, but it’s a technical nightmare, say Joost Schins and Hans Jansen from Scheldebouw, the façade builders for the City Campus on Oosterdokseiland.

Façades on the City Campus will feature the image of a ripple in the water, representing a reflection of the water in the Oosterdok. It’s a great architectural idea, but how do you put it into practice? Creating a geometric replica of this image was quite a challenge, explains Hans Jansen, lead concept designer at Scheldebouw, the company responsible for the conceptual design of the façade elements. “The architect decided on what are known as ‘donkey’s ears’, triangular panels, each at different angles. They give the impression of shards of glass reflecting the ripples of the water in the façade.”

You can see how the ripple effect is going to work. The façade elements were mounted onto the steel and concrete structure of the City Campus in next to no time. “These elements cover around two-thirds of the total surface area of the façades, some 10,000 m2,” explains Joost Schins, project manager at Scheldebouw. “These are prefabricated elements that are stored in the Scheldebouw warehouse in Middelburg. We built the façade elements there under optimum conditions. Yes, it went well. We were able to assemble them at full speed, thanks to the way the architect, the building contractor and the structural engineer were able to work together.”

The visual mock-up, or the testing of a full-scale test rig in the Scheldebouw design lab, was a tense moment in the development of the façade elements, Jansen remembers. “We were able to test a full-scale model of our design: the choice of glass, the coating, the detail on the profiles. We all held our breath: would it create the impression that we’d imagined? Largely speaking, it did. After the test, we tweaked some of the details, but it basically gave us the starting signal: this is it, this is our façade.”

Fits like a glove

The façade, the coating on the plinth and the glass roof construction on the two atria; this is all Scheldebouw’s work. It was a fabulous job, but the architect really tested us to the limits, laughs Schins.

“The glass shell has to fit like a glove. Try doing that, with such a complex steel and concrete structure that’s still moving and has a huge overhang.”

It certainly wasn’t straightforward, adds Jansen. “The building itself is a structural challenge. It’s not a square box, and it has huge eaves. What’s more, the façade only has a maximum deviance tolerance of two millimetres. The margin was negligible.”

But we managed, says Schins. “We even had a smooth transition from design to implementation, which is always a tense aspect of our work as façade builders. We’re designers, and then at some point, we have to transform into a production company. And we do all of this to tight deadlines. This area of tension is palpable in every building project, but even more so with the City Campus.” Yes, they’re proud to have played a part in building the City Campus. Jansen: “This is an absolute gem of a modern façade. I’m already looking forward the 2025 James Bond film, when Bond is seen speeding through the Amsterdam canals. This building will definitely feature in the shot.”

Tailor-made guidance, whereby the buyer’s wishes are paramount. This best describes the role of Aalberts Bouw in the entire process from the purchase to the fitting out of 41 luxury apartments built by ODE Apartments, explains Elroy Schallenberg, project leader at Aalberts.

According to Elroy Schallenberg, it’s the job of the buyers’ support team at Aalberts to guide buyers carefully through the entire process, from the purchase to the fitting out of 41 luxury properties built by Ode Apartments.

It is up to them to transform all the buyers’ wishes into the ultimate living environment. The fitting out phase of these apartments, with living space varying from 66 m2 tot 302 m2 started in early 2022.

According to the timeline, the properties will be delivered from late 2022 onwards. “The apartments were delivered by the construction team working under Züblin in shell form.

We’re responsible for fitting them out so that that they will be the classiest apartments in the whole of Amsterdam, with a panoramic view of the historic city centre.”

Everything revolves around the wishes of the buyers. “Our guidance is tailormade. If buyers want to organise things for themselves, we play a different role than when someone says: I’m retired, this is where I’m going to live, I want to go through the process step by step, but I need some support.

The first thing to find out is: which layout do you want, where do you want to sleep, where will the living room

be? Once these questions have been answered, we can start thinking about the sanitary facilities, the type of doors and door handles, and the lighting plan. We continue to guide our buyers until they are given handed the keys.”

“Our purchase support team works in a showroom in Amsterdam, where they help buyers to make all the decisions regarding lay-out, sanitary facilities, tiles and kitchens. We want people to have that wow feeling, the idea that they are buying something very special. If we can do this, we’ve done well. After that, we pass the buyers onto our showroom advisors to make the remaining agreements.”

Moving train

“This project is a challenge because we’re jumping onto a moving train with parties who’ve already been working on the building site for some time,” Schallenberg continues. “It’s important that we can slot in with the ideas that have already been put forward by the architect and the BPD sales team. We also work closely with ICO, who take care of the technical installations for the domotics, the smart technology that’s going into all 41 apartments. We must make sure that the processes are properly aligned, so that the buyers get the full benefit of the expertise at ICO. We can only do this if we work together. Without collaboration, we could never give buyers the guidance and support they deserve to create their ideal home.”

‘We’re providing the finishing touches to the most beautiful apartments in Amsterdam’

‘We want people to have that wow feeling’

Small island, great place