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 [email protected]
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CONTENTS 4 SITES
SILO
TETTERODE DE LOODS EDELWEIS APPENDICES NOTES SUB-SITES

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

"TETTERODE" SQUAT 1981-/COLLECTIVE 1986 to-- - p11(of 18)

DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APARTMENTS

< TETTERODE - p1: INTRODUCTION <
< TETTERODE - p2: PUBLIC-USE & WORK-SPACES <
< TETTERODE - p3: RESIDENTIAL DOMAINS <

< TETTERODE - p4: DACOSTAKADE BUILDINGS: MERKELBACH & HARTCAMP <

< TETTERODE - p5: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS - mb//mb1/mb2 <

< TETTERODE - p6: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS - mb3 <

< TETTERODE - p7: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS - mb4 <

< TETTERODE - p8: DACOSTAKADE: MERKELBACH APTS - mb5/mb6 <

< TETTERODE - p9: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS - hc//hc1/hc2 <

< TETTERODE - p10: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS - hc3 <

TETTERODE - p11: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS - hc4(1)

> TETTERODE - p12: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS - hc4(2) >

> TETTERODE - p13: DACOSTAKADE: HARTCAMP APTS - hc5/hc6 >

> TETTERODE - p14: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT BUILDINGS >

> TETTERODE - p15: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS - bd//bd1 >

> TETTERODE - p16: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS - bd2 >

> TETTERODE - p17: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS - bd3 >

> TETTERODE - p18: BILDERDIJKSTRAAT APTS - bdN >

HARTCAMP HOMES & STUDIO-APTS - cont ...

Level-4 enclave is shown on this and the next page.

RADBOUD HOUTMAN - [recorded: 2008]
GER BERGEVOET & INA v d HEUVEL - [recorded: 1990/93 & 2008]
MIKEL v GELDEREN - [recorded: 1993 & 2008]
GASTON TEN HORN & MARION DE BEER - [recorded: 2008]

Shown here is the enclave and two of its five living-spaces:

HARTCAMP: hc-L4 ENCLAVE

On levels 2 and 3 the entry-vestibules of bridges claim Hartcamp's NW bay; on levels 4 and 5 all six of Hartcamp's bays are used for living-space. However on both these levels small central service rooms (L4's is an electricity distribution installation) intrude into Hartcamp's space and because they require central-landing access, force these enclaves' entries to be recessed, cutting the inner end of their NW living-spaces.

info-notes: ]: ... in process
At first the floor had 6 people then Fasco left - 5 people (Radboud / Ina / Ger / Mikel / Gaston) divided space in c1990. all apts on w side built mezzanines over enclave passage.

HARTCAMP: PLAN - LEVEL 4 ENCLAVE [hc-L4]

(Architect-Drawing 1986 / info 1993 / top is EEN)

HARTCAMP: PLAN - LEVEL 4 ENCLAVE [hc-L4]

(Plan: Mikel van Gelderen 2006 / info 2008 / top is EEN)

.
ENCLAVE (in 2008)


hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE ENTRY DOOR (pic 2-05-2008 / to W)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE FROM CENTRE TO SOUTH (pic 27-04-2008 / to SW)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE NEAR SOUTH END TO NORTH (pic 2-05-2008 / to NW)

hcL4 ENLCLAVE PASSAGE SOUTH END WITH ENA'S 1990 PHOTO-ETCHING (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE SOUTH END - S-STAIR ENTRY LOBBY (pic 2-05-2008 / to NW)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE SOUTH END - S-STAIR ENTRY LOBBY VIEW OF S-STAIR LANDING (pic 2-05-2008 / to NE)

hc-L4 ENCLAVE PASSAGE SOUTH END ENTRY LOBBY PLUS SHOWER/WC DOOR (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE SOUTH END SHOWER/WC (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE) The renovation of this wc/wash-room was designed by Mikel van Gelderen [see next page]. View through the opening door.	hc-L4 ENCLAVE SOUTH END SHOWER/WC (pic 2-05-2008 / to S)

hc-L4 ENCLAVE SOUTH END SHOWER/WC (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE) Shower - yellow / wc - green	hc-L4 ENCLAVE SOUTH END SHOWER/WC (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE)	hc-L4 ENCLAVE SOUTH END SHOWER/WC - SINK (pic 2-05-2008 / to SW)

hc-L4 ENCLAVE LIVING-SPACES
.

RADBOUD HOUTMAN LIVING-SPACE (1986 - ) (hc-L4 / E-W-sides N-end - 1 bay) [recorded 2008]
[Written 2008]

This living-space was not recorded until 2008. Its present developmental stage is similar to that of many apts recorded in the mid 90s - simple single-bay spaces with inner-end platforms.

The first version of this living space was the 1-bay east-side portion only, this was divided between domestic and workshop uses. In c1992 the version recorded here began with the acquisition of its corresponding west-side bay - all domestic functions were moved into this and the east-side became all workshop [1][2]. Note that his bed mezzanine, though it crosses the enclave passage, is not (yet) connected to his workshop mezzanine.

Foot-Notes :

Radboud's remarkable talent for 3D furniture design and his illustrational wit and inventiveness seems to have been lavished on the Ina and Ger (ver-2) living-space [see below] but is relatively undiscernible in his own. (Perhaps this difference is typical of the home of the designer and the home of his/her clients: ie to live in a home designed by an outsider is to live in an 'exhibit' which may induce a 'caretaker mentality' that tends to inhibit freedom of use).

He also rents a basement space [TET-p2] for storage.


RADBOUD: W-SIDE APT - ENTRY FROM ENCLAVE PASSAGE N-END LOBBY (pic 27-04-2008 [crop] / to NW)	RADBOUD: W-SIDE APT - KITCHEN & APT ENTRY (pic 29-04-2008 / to NE)	RADBOUD: W-SIDE APT - KITCHEN & BED-MEZZANINE (paste-up 2-pics 29-04-2008 / to EES)

RADBOUD: W-SIDE APT - BED-MEZZANINE (paste-up 2-pics 29-04-2008 / to W) The bed-mezzanine crosses the enclave passage but does not, at present, access the workshop mezzanine opposite. Notice the phantasmagoric grey figure lying along the bed. A propensity for fantasy-visions is incipient in 'undesigned' environments [NB: the most flagrant of these and thus the richest in fantasy potential were in the SILO SQUAT]. (Does this disconcerting human ability to project fantasies into external chance arrangements underlie the anxiety that motivates some to maintain in their homes an extreme visual order - returning objects to their pre-use positions, commanding "Re-make your bed in the mornings please", and intolerance of uncontrived patterns such as scattered toys.)	RADBOUD: WEST-SIDE APT (pic 29-04-2008 / to SE)	RADBOUD: WEST-SIDE APT (pic 29-04-2008 / to W)

RADBOUD: W-SIDE APT (pic 29-04-2008 / to WWS)	RADBOUD: E-SIDE WORKSHOP - ENTRY FROM ENCLAVE PASSAGE N-END (pic 27-04-2008 / to EES)	RADBOUD: E-SIDE WORKSHOP (pic 29-04-2008 / to SW) On the north [right] side lift and air shafts intrude into the space. Radboud intends to add "about 1.5m" to the platform front, face it with glass and build on it a shower/wc and "maybe" a sleeping room.

RADBOUD: E-SIDE WORKSHOP (pic 29-04-2008 / to NE) View from its enclave-passage entry.

GER BERGEVOET & INA VAN DEN HEUVEL LIVING-SPACE (1989 - ) (hc-L4 / E-W-sides N-cntr - 1 bay) [recorded 1990 / 93 / 2008]

[Written mainly c1994 and 2008] ... in process

This living-space has developed through more clearly planned complete changes than probably any other in Tetterode. It can serve as a type-exemplar of Tetterode's evolving homes - an early demonstration of the way in which two simple one-bay living-spaces, in this case initially separated by an enclave's central passage, may be joined via a bridging mezzanine, and within this substantially enlarged though still awkward and narrow 4.2m volume, through a sequence three of total reorganisations of closely packed and linked functional spaces that facilitate successive family needs, establishing the form of a three-person family home.

Shown below are three stages in the apt's development: the 1989 version (recorded in 8-1990), the 1991-92 version (recorded in 8-1993), the 2007 version (recorded in 5-2008).

In May 1986 Ina and Ger arrived in Tetterode together but built separate living-spaces, Ina on the west side of the enclave's access passage, Ger on the east. The development of their shared apt began in 1989 when they joined their spaces across the pasage with a huge mezzanine floor.

This 1989 version was as if a 'sketch' for the 1991-92 version. The volume of Ger's studio, which previously occupied the whole Dacostakade side beneath the domestic mezzanine, was added to the domestic space. This addition not so much completely changed the layout as rotated its functions and orientated the whole apt to the Dacostakade side; the full-height space beyond the apt's new stair and bathroom become a kitchen/eating (with some sitting) area - functions previously housed in the more cramped space on the west-side (now vacant, waiting for the next phase of renovation and assignment of functions [1]).

The inception of the 1991-92 version was simultaneous with their first child; its main stimulus was the desire for an in-house bathroom, thus for a 'complete home' (a rarity in Tetterode at this time). Because the child's needs will change rapidly over the first few years of her's and the apt's life, the functions of some spaces which were clearly designed for a baby will be released and those of spaces now uncertain will be defined. However in spite of such imminent changes, the whole apt (except for the west-side eating-room) has been planned and built as a single integrated object - probably the most complex and completely pre-determined in Tetterode.

In 2008 I again visited the apt and discovered a third total revision of functional arrangement and 'style' had occurred.

Foot-Note :

Indeed!: by 8-95 the west-side space has become Ina's studio and the west mezzanine, which had become the child's play/sleep space, had been extended beyond its glazed facade over the studio like a 1.75m angled 'balcony' [no pics].

GER & INA LIVING-SPACE (VER 1: APT AND STUDIO 1989 - ) (recorded 8-1990)
[12 of these 14 images are video-frames recorded on a low-quality vid-camera] [Written mid-90s]

This early 1989 version of Ger's and Ina's narrow 1-bay but full-building-width living-space, was an extraordinary if simple shape. From the enclave corridor one entered a west-side space the size of the smallest basic Hartcamp 1-bay apt. However in this case the ubiquitous inner-end mezzanine hardly intruded, but instead extended back for #m as a very shallow #m high floor ... over the enclave's corridor and over Ger's east-side studio to the Dacostakade east facade.


GER & INA: VIEW FROM MEZZANINE OVER APT ENTRY-AREA, KITCHEN & DINING-SPACE (pic 08-1990 / to WWS) View into the west edge from the mezzanine. First the entry lobby screened from kitchen and dining space, and containing a stair [pic: low-rt] up to a mezzanine which extends, first over the enclave's corridor and then all the way over Ger's E-side studio to the Dacostakade facade.	GER & INA: DINING-SPACE FROM MEZZANINE (vid-frame 08-1990 / to SSW) View into the dining area from the top of the mezzanine stair.	GER & INA: MEZZANINE STAIR-TOP (vid-frame 08-1990 / to W)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST FACADE FROM STAIR (paste-up: x2vid-frames 08-1990 / to SE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST WINDOW (vid-frame 08-1990 / to SW)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE SITTING-AREA TABLE (vid-frame 08-1990 / to SW)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE - VIEW FROM W-END SITTING-AREA (pic 08-1990 / to NE) The shallowness and narrowness of the upper mezzanine floor emphasises its length. First a sitting zone, then a sleeping one, then a small office perched over Dacostakade.	GER & INA: MEZZANINE - SITTING-AREA ENTRY TO BED AREA (vid-frame 08-1990 / to NE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE BED (paste-up: x2vid-frames 08-1990 / to NE)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE BED AREA (paste-up: x2vid-frames 08-1990 / to EEN) At its east end Ger's studio space rises to full height - masked from the mezzanine by a curtain.	GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST-END OFFICE ENTRY (vid-frame 08-1990 / to #)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST-END OFFICE (vid-frame 08-1990 / to EEN) Tucked in beside the full-height portion of Ger's studio, this little office is lit through the upper sashes of one of the tall east-front windows.

GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST-END OFFICE WINDOW (vid-frame 08-1990 / to EEN) Seated at the office desk beside the space above Dacostakade's water.	GER & INA STUDIO (vid-frame 08-1990 / to EEN) Ger and Ina's printing studio is a separate space on the central corridor's east side, under the apt's extended mezzanine - here viewed through its corridor entry. At the far end its Dacostakade windows are masked in red to protect photo-sensitive print-media.

GER & INA LIVING-SPACE (VER 2: APT ONLY: WINTER 1991-92 -) (recorded 8-1993 & 9-1994) ... in process
[Written mainly c.1994]

Though its awkward shape remains unchanged - only 1-bay wide with its two main volumes joined awkwardly over the enclave's central corridor - when I visited in 1993 the apt had differentiated into probably the most spatially complex, compressed and functionally complete home in Tetterode. In early 1992 the apt had been almost completely redesigned and became a much more integrated complex of two-level spaces, ingeniously squeezing into its quite narrow site all the functions of a family house.

This is the only self-contained/independent 'house-like' apt that I know of in the Hartkamp building and the only apt in Tetterode that by bridging its enclave's corridor possesses a building's full width [1], owning views through the big windows of both widely separated fronts. This double externality - claiming both Dacostakade and the central courtyard - makes the interior feel as independent from its surroundings, and as complete and bounded, as a conventional 'private house'. Furthermore, because of the relative separation of its two main parts, connected across the enclave's corridor by only a quite shallow upper floor; because of its (for a 'house') strangely located ingress under and into its centre; and because its internal complexity offers many choices of enclosure and function, one feels one is exploring a 'domestic-complex' rather than confined in a single narrow home.

The mezzanine is now divided into a series of rooms, opening into each other and is now entered, not only from the west-side stair, but also from an enclosed stair at its centre, rising just inside the new east-side 'front-door' (which previously opened into Ger's studio). Apart from the utilitarian practicality of Ina's studio, newly located in the west space, a new, consistent level of design quality and aesthetic functionality informs the whole [2].

Foot-Notes :

In the SILO's ground-floor such full-width apts, with mezzanines passing over their access corridor, were normal.
Who did what: GER: space design / INA: finish and style / RADBOUD HOUTMAN [see apt above] designed and made all the furniture (except the kitchen/dining space mass-market cabinets, table and chairs, and Ina's orange/yellow cupboard). Many of Radboud's designs were motivated by the needs of their very young child. Radboud said "They [Ina and Ger] trusted me" and "all knew each others taste"; all three discussed colours (with computer-assisted visualising). All wood, plus floors and doors, are "2nds" from dealers. Floors are wood laid on paper-insulation on the factory concrete.


GER & INA: W-ROOM - INA'S STUDIO (pic 08-1993 / to E) This west-side room has been opened into a single space - there is no longer a screened entry-lobby or kitchen - it has now become Ina's studio.	GER & INA: MEZZANINE W-FACADE (pic 08-1993 / to EES)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE W-FACADE-DOOR & BOOK-CASE (pic 08-1993 / to SE)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-SPACE (pic 08-1993 / to SW)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED (pic 08-1993 / to WWN)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-HEAD (RADBOUD IMAGE) (pic 08-1993 / to WWS)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-SPACE - E-FACADE WINDOW (pic 08-1993 / to N E)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-SPACE - E-FACADE WINDOW VIEW OF E-ROOM (pic 08-1993 / to E)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-SPACE - E-FACADE WINDOW & ENTRY TO CHILD'S SPACE (pic 08-1993 / to E) The mezzanine windows (brought from a factory to flats conversion in Maastricht) almost exactly fitted.

GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) BED-SPACE ENTRY TO CHILD'S SPACE (pic 08-1993 / to NE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) CHILD'S SPACE - STORE UNIT (RADBOUD IMAGE) (pic 08-1993 / to WWN)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) CHILD'S SPACE - COT (RADBOUD IMAGE) (pic 08-1993 / to SE)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) CHILD'S SPACE - COT MOTIF (RADBOUD IMAGE) (pic 08-1993 / to NNE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE (E-SIDE) - VIEW OF E-ROOM (KITCHEN/DINING) FROM CHILD'S SPACE (pic 08-1993 / to SW)	GER & INA: E-ROOM - KITCHEN/DINING (pic 08-1993 / to NE)

GER & INA: E-ROOM- KITCHEN/DINING (pic 09-1994 / to NE)	GER & INA: E-ROOM- KITCHEN/DINING (pic 08-1993 / to SW) The east kitchen/dining room connects with the enclave's corridor by a short passage [nb: open door at rear] off which opens the bath/wc room and the east-side mezzanine stair [ref: next pics].	GER & INA: (E-SIDE) BATHROOM / WC (pic 08-1993 / to N)

GER & INA: E-SIDE STAIR TO MEZZANINE (pic 08-1993 / to NNW)

GER & INA LIVING-SPACE (VER 3: APT ONLY: 2007 - ) (recorded 2008) ... in process
[Written 2008]

This living-space is still in a 'stage-3' process of family-home elaboration. In this latest incarnation it has sloughed off all studio functions [1] and become a single-volume domestic entity. Though the main structural forms of the 1991-92 apt are largely intact it has not only been through a third almost complete reassignment of functional spaces but the aspect of needs one might call 'aesthetic' has been elaborated to a new level of facility, comfort, decoration [2]. Almost all of Radboud's 1991 furniture-inventions are retained but re-assigned and there are many additions, from new furniture and appliances to 'decorative' objects and re-coloured surfaces.

Foot-Note :

Ina's studio - previously in the apt's W-side space - is now on Merkelbach mb3 enclave.
Such 'in-home' changes, elaborations, additions, are a structurally-superficial all pervading 'surface' that has almost completely covered the previous 1991 'style'.


GER & INA: ENCLAVE PASSAGE - APT WEST DOOR (pic 2-05-2008 / to #)	GER & INA: GER'S PLAN FOR PRESENT APT - MEZZANINE-LEVEL (pic 2-05-2008)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - KITCHEN & W-ENTRY (pic 2-05-2008 / to EEN)

GER & INA: WEST SPACE - KITCHEN & W-ENTRY (pic 2-05-2008 / to E)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - KITCHEN TABLE (pic 2-05-2008 / to SE)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - KITCHEN TABLE (pic 1-05-2008 / to SE)

GER & INA: WEST SPACE - SOUTH WALL (pic 1-05-2008 / to SSE)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - MEZZANINE VIEW (pic 1-05-2008 / to W)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - WINDOW (pic 1-05-2008 / to SW)

GER & INA: WEST SPACE - MEZZANINE FRONT FROM WEST STAIR (pic 2-05-2008 / to EES)	GER & INA: WEST SPACE - MEZZANINE STAIR-GATE (RADBOUD IMAGE) (pic 2-05-2008 / to SE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST - SIT SPACE (paste-up 2-pics 1-05-2008 / to SW)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST - SOUTH WALL DETAIL (pic 2-05-2008 / to SE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST - SIT SPACE (pic 2-05-2008 / to EEN)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE WEST - LANDING EXTERIOR (WITH CAT HOLE) (pic 2-05-2008 / to EEN)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE CENTRE LANDING (WITH CAT HOLE) (pic 2-05-2008 / to WWS)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE CENTRE LANDING - TO MEZZANINE WEST ENTRY (pic 2-05-2008 / to SW)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE CENTRE LANDING - STAIR WELL DOWN TO E-SIDE ENTRY HALLWAY (paste-up 2-pics 2-05-2008 / to SSE)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE CENTRE LANDING - VIEW DOWN EAST STAIR TO E-SIDE ENTRY HALLWAY (pic 2-05-2008 / to SE)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE CENTRE LANDING - ACROSS TO EAST BEDROOM ENTRY (pic 2-05-2008 / to E)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST - BED (pic 2-05-2008 / to SW)

GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST - OFFICE (pic 2-05-2008 / to SW)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST - OFFICE (pic 1-05-2008 / to E)	GER & INA: MEZZANINE EAST - OFFICE (pic 2-05-2008 / to SSE)

GER & INA: ENCLAVE PASSAGE - APT EAST DOOR
(paste-up 2-pics 2-05-2008 / to N)

GER & INA: VIEW UP EAST STAIR FROM E-SIDE ENTRY HALLWAY

(pic 2-05-2008 / to NNW)

GER & INA: EAST SIDE ENCLAVE ENTRY DOOR - HALLWAY
(pic 2-05-2008 / to WWS)


GER & INA: EAST SPACE - BATHROOM (pic 2-05-2008 / to N)	GER & INA: EAST SPACE - CHILDS ROOM ENTRY (pic 2-05-2008 / to WWS)	GER & INA: EAST SPACE - CHILDS ROOM (pic 2-05-2008 / to NE)


GER & INA: EAST SPACE - CHILDS ROOM - DESK (pic 2-05-2008 / to SE)	GER & INA: EAST SPACE - CHILDS ROOM (paste-up 3-pics 2-05-2008 / to SSE)