IMPROVISED HOMES IN AMSTERDAM INDUSTRIAL SQUATS

© DAVID CARR-SMITH 2005 : all images & text are copyrighted - please accredit text quotes - image reproduction must be negotiated via dave@artinst.entadsl.com

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BOOK: DAVID CARR-SMITH - IMPROVISED ARCHITECTURE IN AMSTERDAM INDUSTRIAL SQUATS & COLLECTIVES

"GRAIN-SILO" SQUAT 1989 to 1998

NORTH & SOUTH DRYING-TOWERS - p2(of 5) :

the NORTH DRYING-TOWER ( the "IRON-TOWER")

< SILO - INTRO <
< DRYING-TOWERS - p1: N & S TOWERS INTRO / N TOWER & APTS <
DRYING-TOWERS - p2: N TOWER & APTS - cont
> DRYING-TOWERS - p3: N TOWER & APTS - cont >
> DRYING-TOWERS - p4: N TOWER & APTS - cont >
> DRYING-TOWERS - p5: S TOWER & APTS >

CLIMBING THE TOWER ... cont ...

The tower’s five upper levels (L4-8): two 2-floor apts with a kitchen between them, have the presence of ’domain’. The tower’s stair, as it passes Brian’s apt, serves also as his 'private' stair between his floors; it then becomes irregular and to continue upwards one must cross occupied spaces - a sense of privacy pervades, and since one sees whole floors the tower seems bigger, like a house pushed up a ladder.

N-TOWER (L4) LANDING VIEW TO HOIST & BRIAN'S APT WALL

(pic 6-94 / toW)

Landing L4 is narrowed by the sound and draught- excluding curtained wall of Brian's lower apt level which (unlike Horst's on L2) extends to the stair's inner edge, forcing one to pass around on the rather narrow junk-encumbered side to reach the next flight and Brian's entry-door [pic: off rt].

BRIAN APT (APRIL 1990--) (L4 / L5)

[N.B.: Quotes are Brian’s]

Brian arrived in February 1990 looking for a living-space. Accepted at the April meeting he was invited to choose: either an extra-small ground-floor chamber or two machine-filled levels (L4/5) at the centre of the North Tower.

For more than twelve months he dismantled, torched and ground-away the top two-thirds (approximately 6.5m) of the massive 3-level dryer installation - a pair of enormous steel boxes packed with “cheese-graters” (triangular tubes with pitched-roof tops and gratings beneath emitting hot or cold air into the down-flowing grain), plus their heavy heat-exchangers, impeller motors, and ducting - its removal left fringing steel floors surrounding huge gaps.

He slept first in Mark’s apt, then on L6 (the future Kitchen) and finally in autumn ‘90 in his own proto-apt: on a small wood floor on the metal platform at the NE end - next to the big hole. In December he fell through and broke four ribs on machine-remains below. By June ‘91 he had removed the mass of metal scrap, laid complete floors and walled-out the stair - except for “details” the apt was finished.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) SIT-SPACE & ENTRY
(pic 6-94 / to EEN )
The lower more ‘public’ floor: a sitting-place at the Ij-end of the room, lit by windows Brian had fitted into bricked-up steel-frames. Outside - a strange contrast to the interior domestic use (yet emphasising the structurality of furniture!) - are huge gesticulating tubes of an engineer’s broken work (a suction derrick) - mocked within by the delicate and precise yet amateurish central-heating tubing (ironically also useless: burned-out in its first fortnight).

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L)
(pic 6-94 / to EEN)

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L)
(pic 6-94 / to SE)
Brian left a gap between the apt’s two levels: “I wanted one space not two”; the net is recreational “for lazy summers”, sometimes there is only a connecting rope - the size of the dryer that once passed down through the space is indicated by the wooden ceiling plus this hole.
The silver tray hung by springs in a table-frame and the upright-mounted sheet are music instruments (electronically wired and stroked or beaten).

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L)
(pic 9-94 / to S)
Looking east towards the entry - the wall encasing the stairs is largely formed from doors brought from “Boelgakov”, the 17^th century warehouse-squat at Princengracht 491: Brian’s previous home.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L)
(pic 6-94 / to SSE)
This huge red 17th C loading-door brought from Boelgakov's facade still serves as both wall and ingress for bulky items raised up the tower's hoist-hole.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L)
(pic 9-94 / to SSW)

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - THE N WALL & NW CORNER
(pic 6-94 / to WWN )
This lower floor is multi-functional, much of it workshop. We look west from its sitting-place to the room’s rear where the ‘doll’s-house’ steel stove stands on stiff legs against the scarlet wall. The kitsch chandelier is street-found, the three-legged steel table was made to weld on; the black drum (table) is a very strong ‘circus’ model; wall-mounted to the right of the work-bench are two ‘buckets’ from a vertical conveyor. The oddly domestic windows were in situ.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - N WALL WORK-BENCH
(pic 6-94 / to N )

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - N WALL WORK-BENCH DETAIL
(pic 6-94 / to N)
Between the windows, at the work-bench’s centre: an accumulation over time of different degrees and types of order and purpose - focused by its largest element: the central junction of the wall-bracing frame of this flimsy brick and thin-steel tower. The machine-part with the metal horn (of dried flowers) may be a Silo factory hooter.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - WOOD-BURNING STOVE (2nd VER 1991 - length approx 1.65m / height to chimney damper wheel approx 2.3m )
(pic 6-94 / to WWN)
The apt’s first stove was a simple steel box and used excessive wood. Before the ‘91 winter Brian rebuilt it in this complex form...intended to supply a central-heating system (installed by winter ‘92).
The stove’s dolls house charm belies its weight & complexity! - it’s a “heroic” product of the task of clearing the “Iron Tower” of its core of steel and machines. The stove’s ‘roof’ is a valved nozzle torched by Brian from the tower’s huge L6/7 delivery-hopper - inverted and secured only by its weight this caps a complex box cut from bucket- conveyor ducting, welded to a massive steel found-table.

Lit at the door-side, the fire’s heat is drawn around the far end of a centre division and returns to the front through a zigzag of baffles, then up and to the back again across a shallow (10cm) steel ‘loft’ in which lies a snake-like tube (the heated portion of a long circuit serving two rads), finally it exits up a hole into the chimney-roof where a wheel- controlled damper regulates the flow. The red ‘over-pressure tank’, water-pump and pipes were street-found. The system succeeded in warming the big room, but alas only for two weeks: unnoticed corrosion on the water ‘snake-tube’ burned through (flooding the stove) - welded-in it defeated Brian’s energy to mend and he abandoned water heating.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - WOOD-BURNING STOVE (3rd VER 1995)
(pic 11-97 / to W)
In ‘95 the monsterous 2nd version stove was replaced with a non-water-heating 'conventional' stove: a version of the Silo’s most efficient recent type: Koik’s multi-tier model.

CLIMBING THE TOWER ... cont ...

On its narrow bridge between stair and hoist-shaft (here 18½m deep) a black door opens into Brian’s upper and more private room ...


N-TOWER (L5) STAIR FROM L5 LANDING (pic 9-94 / to N) Looking down from L5 landing at the 'serrated-slide' / 'shin-grater' that connects the two levels of Brian’s apt. The threshold of his more domestic upper story entry is the narrow bridge between stair and hoist-shaft.	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 9-94 / to WWN) At the room’s curtained corner the tower’s stair turns to a new direction, up carpet-padded treads to the marvellous L6 Kitchen.	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 9-94 / to E) ... in process

N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to W) E-end of apt from entry-door. The bed is on the metal frame of an L2 sieving machine. The ceiling is carpeted against heat-loss and dust that falls through the Kitchen’s floor above.	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to NW) Bed & wash-basin (plumbed in .... do	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to NW) ....do

N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 9-94 / to NE) mosquito-curtained ....do	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to W) ...do	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to WWS) ....do

N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to NE) The room's W end is a sound-studio	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to W) ... in process	N-TOWER (L5) BRIAN APT (2nd L) (pic 6-94 / to NNW) A bench at the sound-studio end of the room: instruments may be played with various tools such as the paint-brush and hammer. Objects placed unconsciously in positions of use, have a precision of position and relation that via ’intentional-design’ is equalled only by ’discoveries’.

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N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) SIT-SPACE & ENTRY (pic 6-94 / to EEN ) The lower more ‘public’ floor: a sitting-place at the Ij-end of the room, lit by windows Brian had fitted into bricked-up steel-frames. Outside - a strange contrast to the interior domestic use (yet emphasising the structurality of furniture!) - are huge gesticulating tubes of an engineer’s broken work (a suction derrick) - mocked within by the delicate and precise yet amateurish central-heating tubing (ironically also useless: burned-out in its first fortnight).	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) (pic 6-94 / to EEN)	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) (pic 6-94 / to SE) Brian left a gap between the apt’s two levels: “I wanted one space not two”; the net is recreational “for lazy summers”, sometimes there is only a connecting rope - the size of the dryer that once passed down through the space is indicated by the wooden ceiling plus this hole. The silver tray hung by springs in a table-frame and the upright-mounted sheet are music instruments (electronically wired and stroked or beaten).

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) (pic 9-94 / to S) Looking east towards the entry - the wall encasing the stairs is largely formed from doors brought from “Boelgakov”, the 17^th century warehouse-squat at Princengracht 491: Brian’s previous home.	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) (pic 6-94 / to SSE) This huge red 17th C loading-door brought from Boelgakov's facade still serves as both wall and ingress for bulky items raised up the tower's hoist-hole.	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) (pic 9-94 / to SSW)

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - THE N WALL & NW CORNER (pic 6-94 / to WWN ) This lower floor is multi-functional, much of it workshop. We look west from its sitting-place to the room’s rear where the ‘doll’s-house’ steel stove stands on stiff legs against the scarlet wall. The kitsch chandelier is street-found, the three-legged steel table was made to weld on; the black drum (table) is a very strong ‘circus’ model; wall-mounted to the right of the work-bench are two ‘buckets’ from a vertical conveyor. The oddly domestic windows were in situ.	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - N WALL WORK-BENCH (pic 6-94 / to N )	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - N WALL WORK-BENCH DETAIL (pic 6-94 / to N) Between the windows, at the work-bench’s centre: an accumulation over time of different degrees and types of order and purpose - focused by its largest element: the central junction of the wall-bracing frame of this flimsy brick and thin-steel tower. The machine-part with the metal horn (of dried flowers) may be a Silo factory hooter.

N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - WOOD-BURNING STOVE (2nd VER 1991 - length approx 1.65m / height to chimney damper wheel approx 2.3m ) (pic 6-94 / to WWN) The apt’s first stove was a simple steel box and used excessive wood. Before the ‘91 winter Brian rebuilt it in this complex form...intended to supply a central-heating system (installed by winter ‘92). The stove’s dolls house charm belies its weight & complexity! - it’s a “heroic” product of the task of clearing the “Iron Tower” of its core of steel and machines. The stove’s ‘roof’ is a valved nozzle torched by Brian from the tower’s huge L6/7 delivery-hopper - inverted and secured only by its weight this caps a complex box cut from bucket- conveyor ducting, welded to a massive steel found-table. Lit at the door-side, the fire’s heat is drawn around the far end of a centre division and returns to the front through a zigzag of baffles, then up and to the back again across a shallow (10cm) steel ‘loft’ in which lies a snake-like tube (the heated portion of a long circuit serving two rads), finally it exits up a hole into the chimney-roof where a wheel- controlled damper regulates the flow. The red ‘over-pressure tank’, water-pump and pipes were street-found. The system succeeded in warming the big room, but alas only for two weeks: unnoticed corrosion on the water ‘snake-tube’ burned through (flooding the stove) - welded-in it defeated Brian’s energy to mend and he abandoned water heating.	N-TOWER (L4) BRIAN APT (1st L) - WOOD-BURNING STOVE (3rd VER 1995) (pic 11-97 / to W) In ‘95 the monsterous 2nd version stove was replaced with a non-water-heating 'conventional' stove: a version of the Silo’s most efficient recent type: Koik’s multi-tier model.