When Amsterdam embraced the industrial revolution, hoards of workers moved into the city from the surrounding farms. As in many other cities, cheap poor- quality housing built for profit started to spring up. To its eternal credit, Holland introduced the Housing Act in 1901, imposing stringent requirements for workers' accomodation. Housing associations were given the responsibility for most building projects. In Amsterdam, Alderman Wibaut was keen to provide the workers with not just adequate housing, but something attractive and inspiring. The architect Michel de Klerk was asked to design a series of housing blocks to the west of the city in the Spaarndammerplantsoen.
De Klerk had already been involved in the first building of the Amsterdam School - the Scheepvaarthuis. This was a prestige project, financed by the wealthy shipping companies. De Klerk took the basic tenets seen in the Scheepvarthuis - imaginative brickwork, wrought-iron, expressionist sculpting of stone - and applied them to workers' apartment blocks.
Ordinary red brick, roof tiles, stone and glass are transformed into an exciting, charming, extremely liveable neighbourhood just through the force of imagination. Well done Michel de Klerk!
Unlike Berlage's somewhat austere brickwork, de Klerk produces something organic and playful - undulating facades, spiralling balconies, curving walkways and an amusing bulbous outgrowth known as 'the cigar'.
As with the Scheepvaarthuis, de Klerk employed the sculptor Hildo Krop to add some symbolic flourishes - storks carved into the brickwork of the post office, an archer symbolising the hunting of knowledge above the door of a school. De Klerk decided that there was no reason why windows had to be square - we see a fishtail window, arrow-shaped windows, all made from lots of tiny panes.
The area was split into apartment blocks governed by the various factions or 'pillars' of Dutch society. There were Catholic blocks, Protestant blocks and 'Socialist' blocks. De Klerk's development was for the Socialists. De Klerk thought that this group should have their own secular equivalent of a church spire, so he built 'de piek', a functionless tower of red tiles - just for the fun and because it looks impressive!
At the pointy end of the trianguar block (the prow of 'Het Schip') de Klek built a post office. This is preserved in its original form by Museum Het Schip. The original phone booth is still there - tiled in carrier-pigeon blue. This cubical allowed people to arrange to speak to friends and relatives in far-off places. It might have taken months to arrange, but at least contact was possible.
The Museum organises tours round the main block, plus the post office and the interior of one of the workers' appartments next to the piek. The appartment is simply, but attractively decorated with 1920's furniture. There is Vim in the kitchen and some very desirable Art Deco crockery on the sideboard.
Upstairs is an exhibition about the Amsterdam School and the social housing movement - both in English and Dutch with detailed hand-outs available in French, German, Spanish and Japanese. There are also display-cases showing the biological specimens that inspired de Klerk - the shells are particularly recognisable in his designs.
From 11.00 until 17.00 there is a tour every hour, Tuesday to SundayThe tour takes about 45 minutes and costs 7.50 euros. The Saturday tour at 11.00 is guaranteed to be in English, but the guides do try to cater for different languages. The tour ends at the Schip lunchroom just across the road from the Post Office. Pick a sunny day (the red brick looks much nicer against a blue sky), and walk to the Schip from Amsterdam Central Station in about 20 minutes. The best way to get there is to walk along the Haarlemmer Straat, which is one of the nicest shopping streets of Amsterdam - full of quirky shops.
For further details of the tour, go to the Museum Het Schip website:
http://www.hetschip.nl/en/activities/guided-tours
No comments:
Post a Comment