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

"TETTERODE" SQUAT 1981-/COLLECTIVE 1986 to-- - p3(of 13)

RESIDENTIAL DOMAINS - INTRO / - DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS

< TETTERODE - p1: INTRODUCTION <
< TETTERODE - p2: PUBLIC-USE & WORK-SPACES <

TETTERODE - p3: DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: MERKELBACH & HARTCAMP

> TETTERODE - p4: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS >

> TETTERODE - p5: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS >

> TETTERODE - p5-1: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS >

> TETTERODE - p6: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS >

> TETTERODE - p7: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS >

> TETTERODE - p7-1: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS >

> TETTERODE - p8: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS >

> TETTERODE - p8-1: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS >

> TETTERODE - p8-2: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS >

> TETTERODE - p9: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT BUILDINGS >

> TETTERODE - p10: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS >

> TETTERODE - p11: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS >

> TETTERODE - p12: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS >

> TETTERODE - p13: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS >

RESIDENTIAL DOMAINS

The next sections show residential domains, domestic enclaves, living-spaces in Tetterode's two main blocks: the east side Dacostakade buildings and the west side Bilderdijk buildings.

There are three main residential buildings, each containing a stack of domestic 'enclave' floors. Firstly the huge Dacostakade [dc] block which consists of two joined buildings named after their designers: the Merkelbach [mb] and Hartcamp [hc]. Secondly the Bilderdijkstraat 'Old' building [bd] named after its fronting street. In addition there is a small Bilderdijk extension: the Bilderdijk 'North' building [bdN], which houses a single quasi-domestic enclave.

These are shown in the following order:

p 3 - 13: RESIDENTIAL DOMAINS:
    p 3: DA COSTAKADE: two joined buildings: 'Merkelbach' and 'Hartcamp':
        p 4 - 6: Merkelbach
        p 7 - 8-2: Hartcamp
    p 9: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT: two joined buildings: 'Old' and 'North':
        p 10 - 12: Bilderdijk Old building
        p 13: Bilderdijk North building

The following abbreviations are used throughout the text:

BUILDING/FLOOR LOCATION CODES (NB: these differ somewhat from those used by the Tetterode Vereniging):
Main building blocks:
dc = Dacostakade block - two buildings: mb = Dacostakade's Merkelbach building / hc = Dacostakade's Hartcamp building
bd = Bilderdijkstraat's two buildings: bd = the Bilderdijk old building / bdN = Bilderdijk's small north-extension building
Floor Levels:
are numbered from the ground up: L0, L1, L2, etc; from the ground down: L0-1, , .
Additional codes:
e = entresol ( an intermediate-floor, a ‘½’ as it were), S = south / N = north (eg: 'bd-L1/eS' & 'bd-L1/eN' = the Bilderdijk building's south & north Entresols) // lm = "Lettermagazijn" (eg: 'bd-L1/elm' - an intermediate-floor enclave on the bd building's E side).

INTRODUCTION ... in process
[Written 2010]

I began recording Tetterode's living-spaces in 1990, most were made in 93/94. Fourteen years later in 2008 I made a new set of recordings in all but two of Tetterode's enclaves and of many living-spaces, some not previously visited. Significent design-developments are almost always driven by home elaborating individuals, thus the 1990s and the 2008 enclave and apt recordings are shown separately but 'in parallel' to facilitate comparisons.

Many of the inhabitants of this arena of free choice continue to modify and even completely renew their homes. These changes are both endemic to this place and especially stimulated by the multiplication/growth of famlies and the opportunity of vacated apts.

In the mid 1990s the most common type of live-work unit (the 'basic' small apt or apt/studio) on Tetterode's factory-height floors (which average around 4m) was a one window-bay wide simple cuboid cement-block walled space usually differentiated only with a half-height mezzanine-platform (usually for sleeping) at its inner entry-end, reached via more or less substantial steps. Many of Hartcamp's and Bilderdijk's L2 and L3 apts and apt/studios were///are? of this type; constiuting one such unit or two joined via a door (the second often a studio). Merkelbach was different - its huge live-work and apt spaces seem to retain a memory of its seemingly ad hoc differentiation of its initially vast pre-divided non-domestic studios.

By 2008 more of Hartcamp's and Bilderdijk's single-bay units have joined (like touching water-drops) or, extended their domestic space by minimising severe dividing walls and extending and complexifying mezzanines - opening larger continuities and/or remodelling former cramped and abstract-divided spaces into connected sequences. Thus, in their new amplitude they resemble Merkelbach's large apts, but, their sudden enlargement - results of whole-enclave re-arranging, rather than Merkelbach's ad hoc practicality-driven differentiations - has provoked more 'all-at-once' design-decisions: homes that have an air of 'architecture', of designed 'cages', of listing rather than growing of needs.

-----------------------
TEMP-SAVE:
NEW TXT [NB: some repeats in TET 7-1]
[Written -2008-]Since the mid 1990s much has changed at all scales; in some enclaves there have been large changes to the disposition of living-spaces and consequently within the replanned apts, and of course within the apts there have also been myriad smaller changesTET 7-1. In this arena of free choice many of its inhabitants continue to modify and even completely renew their homes. These changes are both endemic to this place and especially stimulated by the multiplication///growth of famlies and the opportunity of vacated apts.

In the mid 90s the most common type of live-work unit (the 'basic' small apt or apt/studio) on Tetterode's factory-height floors (which average around 4m) was a one-window-bay wide simple cuboid cement-block walled space usually differentiated only with a half-height mezzanine-platform (usually for sleeping) at its inner entry-end, reached via more or less substantial steps. Many of Hartcamp's and Bilderdijk's L2 and L3 apts and apt/studios were///are? of this type, occupying one such unit, or two joined via a door. Merkelbach is different - its huge sprawling live-work and apt spaces retain a memory of a seemingly ad hoc differentiation of//from its initially vast non-domestic studios.

By 2008 more of Hartcamp's and Bilderdijk's single-bay units had joined (like touching water-drops) or, extended their domestic space by opening up//minimising severe dividing walls and extending and complexifying mezzanines - opening larger continuities and/or remodelling former cramped//abstract-divided spaces into connected sequences. Thus, in their new amplitude they resemble Merkelbach's large apts, but, their sudden enlargement - results of whole-enclave re-arranging, rather than Merkelbach's ad hoc practicality-driven differentiations - has provoked more 'all-at-once' design-decisions: homes that have an air of 'architecture', of designed 'cages', of listing rather than growing of needs.
-----------------------------

This tour of residential Tetterode begins in the Dacostakade block with an account of its buildings and their vertical routes. On subsequent pages we enter the domestic enclaves and many of their dwelllings - starting in Merkelbach, then Hartcamp, then the Bilderdijk block - ascending the floors from level 1.

THE DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS [dc: mb/hc] ... in process

[Written mid 1990s]

INTRODUCTION

The large eastern block [dc] facing the Dacostakade canal consists of two joined buildings: the 1912 Hartkamp [hc] and the 1949 Merkelbach [mb]. The two buildings have 8 levels in common. Below ground [L0-1] are rented basement work-spaces, mainly on the Merkelbach side. Ground level [L0] is workshops in Merkelbach, the Dijk Theatre and small businesses in Hartkamp. L1 (known as the "Entresol" because of its relative shallowness) is businesses in Merkelbach, apts in Hartkamp. Above L1 both buildings have five apt floors [L2 to L6]. L5 is the last lift-stop and from there one climbs the stair to the last apt level [L6]: the mb/hc ‘penthouse’. Above this rises only a small glass 'look-out' pavilion [L7] with a stair to its roof terrace and radio tower [L8].

This whole Dacostakade side of Tetterode developed largely as one in its pre- and early-domestic phases: starting as flimsily divided artists studios, changing in the late 1980s to a live-in situation: a mix of apt and studio space divided by solid walls. Since then the buildings have diverged (curiously in tune with their architectural character). The Merkelbach [mb], a building that gives the impression of single-minded dedication to work, is still artist/studio dominated, whereas the older Hartcamp building [hc], that dallies with ‘domestic’ styles, is now socially mixed and (like the Bilderdijk [bd] block) has devolved into socially different floors, more densely occupied than Merkelbach’s, with smaller and more intricate spaces. Its less industrial character has allowed the sense of domesticity to accumulate, while the monolithic character of Merkelbach has not been contradicted.


DACOSTAKADE BUILDING: DACOSTAKADE (EAST) FACADE (pic 4-5-2008 / to WWS) We are looking across the Dacostakade canal at the east facade of the [dc] block. 1912 Hartcamp [hc] shows its 'domestic' face (presumably supposed to 'complement' Dacostakade's 19thC housing blocks) while 1949 Merkelbach [mb] flaunts an easthetic of economy that renders 'factory' as elegant a function as any other (a value endorsed by the grandeur it affords its presently infesting apartments).	DACOSTAKADE BUILDING: INNER (WEST) FACADE (pic 8-93 / to E) We are are looking across at the inner facade of the Dacostakade [dc] block from the Bilderdijk [bd] block's roof. At their N and S ends workshops link the two blocks, south of the connecting bridges they share Tetterode's enclosed courtyard. The Dacostakade block's north half, the 'Merkelbach' building [mb] and its south half, the 'Hartkamp' building [hc], share a central stair/lift from which the two bridges cross to Bilderdijk. Workshops obscure Merkelbach's ground level L0; just above their roof are the thin windows of the uniquely shallow floor L1, the so called "entresol" - in Merkelbach it is occupied by workshops and businesses, in Hartcamp by apts. Above it are L2/3/4/5: four levels of apts, studio-apts, or studios - arranged on each side (and in Merkelbach across the ends) of central passages branching from the centre stair. Over all is L6: the penthouse, its Hartkamp portion a single studio-apt, the larger Merkelbach portion divided into 3 studio-apts entered from an external terrace (a tiny & unique 'row-house' situation). Surmounting all is the tiny 'look-out' room L7 and its L8 roof with Tetterode's radio-aerial.

DACOSTAKADE BUILDING: MERKELBACH (mb) (Architect-Drawing: 19## / Section WWS to EEN)	DACOSTAKADE BUILDING: HARTCAMP (hc) (Architect-Drawing: 19## / Section WWS to EEN)

DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 01 (BASEMENT) (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 0 (GROUND) (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 1 ("ENTRESOL") (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]

DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 2 (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 3 (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 4 (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]

DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 5 (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 6 (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]	DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: PLAN - LEVEL 7 (ROOF & "LOOKOUT") & LEVEL 8 ("LOOKOUT" ROOF) (Architect-Drawing 1986 / top is EEN) [all plans 386K]

INSIDE THE DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS

[Written mid 1990s]

Entering at Dacostakade 158 on the edge of the old building (perhaps with a key on a kite-string thrown from a high window) one traverses a bent passage that squeezed the mis-calculated theatre-wall into a curve flanked by terminal ‘rustication’ [1] - the strange wall is flush-set with panels of face-height glass and mirror, redeeming the mistake as ‘art’: the introduction to the severe and serious practicality of Merkelbach.

If one misses the lift and stair one can wander into a ground floor that is a confusion of junctions between disparate places and routes, left-overs of piecemeal enclosures (mostly of workshops), winding across the width of the site in a single-story muddle of layered bikes and ad hoc conversions strangely giving way to 1920s panelling, mirrors and marble, a silent cool empty fossil foyer opening into the traffic-roar of the Bilderdijkstraat [2].

The lift in its cluttered dark corner (opposite uninvitingly large stairs - they have the scale of climbing a house between each floor) stares orange out of its doors’ eyes: steel-rimmed portholes open into a blood red box lit by a tungsten bulb; heavy steel doors swing open as if to a banqueting room. One rises past the inside lips of floors and daylight-flashing ports in numbered doors [3].

On five lift-levels the smooth valves of the lift doors are flanked by locked and belled floor doors - riveted, with strap-hinges, severe rectangular stares and small handle-noses. Each leads into a floor-enclave: 1949 Merkelbach on the west hand, 1912 Hartcamp on the east. On these landings one can feel stranded high-up in a senseless place locked out of Tetterode’s inner life.

However once inside there is rarely the communal sense of the Bilderdijk enclaves; on all these floors a more or less straight central passage serves the living-spaces, doors to the right, left, and end. In Merkelbach especially even these inner doors are almost always closed and often locked: there is a working rather than domestic atmosphere...it feels as if the severe concrete floors/ceilings and the cement-block and boarded walls are too simple to hide rich and complex apartments, they resemble those in studio-converted warehouses or art-college studios.

Indeed in 1985 the Collective had decided to reserve Merkelbach for studios and relocate studios when vacated in other buildings...distilling domesticity. However in spite of this policy, by ‘94 Merkelbach had at least 13 living-spaces among its studios, and behind its austere inner facades are the most developed and ambitious apts in Tetterode (three are described below). After the ‘86 legalisation a ‘stick and carrot’ situation pertained: the new rents (approx 1000% rise over squat levels) and the inducement of Het Oosten’s internal renovation fund precipitated an intense period (‘87-’88) of building - except for two spaces walled in ‘85, divisions had previously been plastic curtains or flimsy wood and board, now everywhere was divided by cement-block walls. Separation of work and home was financially unsustainable - apartment construction was stimulated and the huge studio spaces differentiated internally or were simply divided into work and domestic portions.

Topping the block is Merkelbach’s highest living level (mb-L6), a steel and glass-walled ‘penthouse’ (the workers' canteen), stepped back under a shading roof and served by a railed pavement - now divided into three magnificent studio/apartments. Its 1963 extension across the Hartcamp building (a ‘directors dining-suite’) terminates at the SE end in a little glass room shaded under the slatted ‘bris-soleil’ of its extended roof, opening on a terrace rimmed with a steel ships rail - a dizzy drop into the central courtyard with its long brick chimney rising up and past - now a grass lawn strewn with a child’s toys and edged with flowers (a ‘suburban garden’ absurdly high above the domestic roof-tops of the Kinkerstraat). Almost since the squat’s inception the glass room has been the bedroom of Frank April, and the adjoining ‘dining-room’, now a single huge decor-stripped space with an oil-drum wood-stove (the last of this early type), his studio/living-room. The little “sky-garden” is a Collective place.

Between these two wings of the ‘penthouse’ an elegant steel stair twists up into a tiny glass pavilion like the ‘look-out’ of an airship, furnished with mats and empty wine bottles. Outside and higher still up steel steps, one stands on its head: at 31 metres Tetterode’s final platform but not its highest point - here a 12½ metre lattice radio transmission mast rises and the whole horizon of Amsterdam surrounds it.

Foot-Notes :

It was said that it took “half a year” to mutually decide to re-build the wall “five centimetres back” to allow access through the passage for trolley-carts!

This journey is shown in TETTERODE p1 - INTRO

The lift has since had its character transformed by a top to bottom 'ocean' painting made by Tetterode young people in 2006 [Ref: NOTE-8: Tetterode's painted lift].

DACOSTAKADE CIRCULATION - MERKELBACH AND HARTCAMP BUILDINGS' CENTRE ENTRY AND STAIR/LIFT

Ascending from ground entry to the building's roof:

DACOSTAKADE CIRCULATION - HARTCAMP BUILDING'S SOUTH ENTRY AND STAIR

Climbing from ground entry to building's top-level terrace:


DACOSTAKADE L0: EXTERIOR DOOR (164) INTO HARTCAMP SOUTH END (pic 12-4-2006 / to SW)	DACOSTAKADE L0: HARTCAMP ENTRY LOBBY (pic 12-4-2006 / to WWS)	DACOSTAKADE L0: HARTCAMP ENTRY LOBBY (pic 12-4-2006 / to E)

DACOSTAKADE L0: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR & LIFT-SHAFT - VIEW UP FROM ENTRY LOBBY (pic 8-1993 / pic-top to W) The redundant lift with its surrounding stair. Our view up encounters two obstructions: at L2 a ledge of floor projects into the shaft supporting a spiral stair to an office in the upper half of L2's landing; at L3 the shaft is floored for store-space.	DACOSTAKADE L1/0: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR VIEW DOWN LIFT-SHAFT TO L0 LOBBY (pic 12-4-2006 / to NW)	DACOSTAKADE L1: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - VIEW DOWN LIFT-SHAFT TO L0 LOBBY (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE)

DACOSTAKADE L1: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - N WALL (pic 12-4-2006 / to NNE)	DACOSTAKADE L1: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE)	DACOSTAKADE L2: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - N WALL (pic 12-4-2006 / to NNE)

DACOSTAKADE L2: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - LIFT WITH PLATFORM & SPIRAL STAIR TO MEZZANINE OFFICE (pic 12-4-2006 / to EES) The lift doors have been removed, and a small lobby made that juts into the shaft: a plank platform backed with walls of concrete-reinforcing wire. In this enclosure a delicate steel welded spiral stair climbs half the height of the tall landing, to an office in its upper half.	DACOSTAKADE L2: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - LIFT PLATFORM & SPIRAL STAIR TO MEZZANINE OFFICE (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE)	DACOSTAKADE L2/3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF-LANDING - VIEW OF SPIRAL STAIR & OFFICE (pic 12-4-2006 / to NNE) We are standing on the stair in the upper part of L2 looking down through the mesh of the lift-shaft and through the spiral stair's diaphanous 'cage'. In the north upper half of the high landing's space a walled mezzanine has been built, with a blue 'front-door' reached by the flimsy spiral stair. In the 1990's this was an office which administered the needs of immigrant refugees.

DACOSTAKADE L2/3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF-LANDING (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE)	DACOSTAKADE L3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - LIFT STORE (pic 12-4-2006 / to WWN) On this level, behind the barred doors, the empty lift-shaft is floored and serves for storage.	DACOSTAKADE L3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING (pic 8-1993 / to E) The room-sized main portion of each landing faces the (redundant) lift and has (locked) access doors to the south end of each floor-enclave.

DACOSTAKADE L3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING (pic 12-4-2006 / to NW)	DACOSTAKADE L3: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - N WALL & ENCLAVE S DOOR (pic 12-4-2006 / to NW) At the left is the south entry of floor-enclave L3, which uses the large landing to store a surplus of posessions.	DACOSTAKADE L4: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - E SIDE PAST LIFT STORE (pic 12-4-2006 / to NNW) On this level also, the empty lift-shaft is (in 2006) floored and used for storage.

DACOSTAKADE L4: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - LIFT (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE)	DACOSTAKADE L4: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - N WALL (pic 12-4-2006 / to NNE) At the left is the south entry to floor-enclave L4; some of whose domestic/service functions have spilled onto the large landing.	DACOSTAKADE L4/5: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF-LANDING - BIKE & MATTRESS (pic 12-4-2006 / to SE) The strange pose of the bike amplifies the odd conjunction of stair-diagonals, horizontal ladder and ridged board; directing a disconcerting illusion of 'perspective' cues by its suggestion of purposeful leaping speed. Its position is presumably practical - the slope of the mattress would have slid it to the smooth floor but for the ledge of hidden frame that grips the wheel.

DACOSTAKADE L5: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR LANDING - LIFT STORE (paste-up 2-pics 12-4-2006 / to WWN)	DACOSTAKADE L5: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR L5 LANDING - WITH APT ENTRY (pic 12-4-2006 / to WWN) One of two living-spaces in Hartcamp independent of an enclave (the other occupies the whole L6 penthouse) opens its steel-barred front-door directly onto the L5 landing, and strews domestic accoutrements from there to the L6 terrace exit.	DACOSTAKADE L5/6: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF LANDING - VIEW DOWN (pic 12-4-2006 / to WWN)

DACOSTAKADE L5/6: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF-LANDING (pic 8-1993 / to EEN) By 1993 the L5 apt had outgrown its bounds and furnished its neighbour stair and L6 above it with signs of domesticity. On reaching the final floor one realised the stair's low ceiling was a small room built over it and reached via a narrow passage above its rght hand side.	DACOSTAKADE L5/6: HARTCAMP SOUTH STAIR HALF-LANDING - FLIGHT TO TOP L6 (pic 12-4-2006 / to E) When next visited in 2006 the constructions that had intruded over the stair had been removed, probably under collective pressure and apparently after the late 1990s repaint - note remaining traces of their presence.	DACOSTAKADE L6: HARTCAMP CORRIDOR EXIT TO "SKY-LAWN" (pic 12-4-2006 / to WWS) Finally one reaches L6 and, after a few turns corners and doors - through what appear to be outlying suburbs of the L5 apt below - one finds a door to Hartcamp's final destination, a gardened terrace that I called the 'Sky Lawn'.

DACOSTAKADE L6: HARTCAMP ENTRY TO "SKY-LAWN'' (pic 12-4-2006 / to EEN) The door in last picture from the outside - opens to a remarkable spatial suprise.	DACOSTAKADE L6: HARTCAMP "SKY-LAWN'' (pic 8-1993 / to WWS) Past Frank April's bedroom (in the directors' penthouse) is a little garden on Hartcamp's SW corner, with views to the city's horizon and into Tetterode's centre Courtyard.	DACOSTAKADE L6: HARTCAMP "SKY-LAWN'' (pic 8-1993 / to SE)

DACOSTAKADE L6: HARTCAMP "SKY-LAWN'' - VIEW OVER TETTERODE COURTYARD (pic 8-1993 / to WWS)

HOMES AND STUDIO-APTS IN THE DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS
[Written 4-1996]

The most recent stage in the evolution of Dacostakade’s living-spaces is that of elaborate, completely self-contained, (sometimes ‘family’) homes. Increasingly dissociated from their location - emphasising the strangeness of individual ‘houses’ stacked inside the cellular ‘megastructure’ of a factory [1]; increasingly independent of shared facilities - tending to erode the collective social structure and ethos [2]...while often reliant for their realisation on its shared skills and workshops.

Apart from two extraordinary examples in Hartcamp [hc] [3] this development is almost exclusive to Merkelbach [mb] where spaces are usually large enough to contain ‘houses’ rather than ‘elaborated bed-sits’, and where as ‘working-artists’ the inhabitants seem more independent of each other - bound together, if at all, more by shared responsibility for work conditions than sociability. Inside the more vocationally mixed floors the sense of a social-enclave is strong [4]: exhibited in the obviously shared telephones, bathrooms, and socially used sitting/eating rooms with pictures, tv, sofa, and ‘private’ domestic objects ‘lying around’ - very different from (for instance) mb-5’s tiny ‘left-over’ tiled cooking-space, with its empty cupboard and dusty drainer! [mb-5 Kit]

Because these ‘house-like’ living-spaces (like those in EDELWEIS) were made in an ‘already-tamed’ site; in a single burst of building, by visually aware ‘artists’, in ‘tabula rasa’ spaces; they convey a sense of ‘set-piece’ all-at-once design, which - accepting of course that at least part of the chicken must pre-empt the egg - nevertheless tend (like the mass-taste forms of ‘suburbia’ or the resolved/received objects of architecture) to specify the forms of living before it is lived and/or bring a previously ‘sketched’ apt to a sudden detailed finality [5]. Contrast these conditions and results with the youthful SILO where domestic forms accrete in step with needs and in reciprocation with the site, where scenic wonders and even inimical features stimulate an inventiveness which is (even in jokes) pragmatically expressed in ‘immediate time’, rather than considered and aesthetic.

Foot-Notes:

Tetterode has become a ‘storage-cabinet’ of individualistic dwellings; a miniaturised reminder of Corbusier’s Algiers “Plan Obus”, 1930: a megastructure of open concrete shelves supporting individually styled houses.

Indeed, when I next recorded Tetterode apts in early 2008, this type of development was blatent.

One of these is described below: INA HEUVEL/GER BERGEVOET APT [hc-L4].

It's interesting to compare the SILO’s joined-up ‘neighbourhoods’ with Tetterode's closed dc and bd floor-enclaves. The latter are socially-local, ‘safe’, locked, like shared hostel floors - unlike the SILO where apt facades open onto 'streets’ that may be ‘furnished’ with shared ‘pissoirs’, bathrooms, store-spaces, but never kitchen-diners and telephones!

Exemplified by INA HEUVEL/GER BERGEVOET APT [hc-L4]: Inception 1986 - in 1991 treated as a single (almost) finalised work: totally and all-at-once re-designed and re-constructed.

MERKELBACH (L4): LIVING-SPACE MAKING
(pic 8-1993 / to WWS?)

An example of individualistic ad hoc planning and construction: sub-dividing a large existing space with Tetterode's ubiquitous construction material cement-blocks, possibly for a domestic inclusion. An activity most typical of Merkelbach, where most of Tetterode's largest studios were established.

The following nine pages will show 12 enclaves and 3 independent apartments, comprising 33 of Dacostakade's living-/work-spaces. First the Merkelbach building [mb] and second the Hartcamp [hc]:

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