30 minute read
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
from ODE Magazine 4 ENG
by bpd-nl
Oosterdok’s swing bridge
“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.
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.”
‘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 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
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 27 each other. That’s the idea behind ‘A voice for the eel’.” 27
ODE to the neighbours
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.”
For more information and photos:
www.stadsherstel.nl/oudnico 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.
No, they never want to leave. Jan: “When we first moved here, there were about 60 people living on De Ruijterkade. The place was a lot livelier in those days. The caretakers of all the shipyard offices and their families lived here, for instance. They’ve moved on or have been bought out. It’s nearly all offices now. We’re like the last of the Mohicans here on the quay, but we don’t mind. I’m not leaving until they carry me out in a wooden box!”
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.
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 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!”
makes people happy
