Forced off her bike, the founding director of THISS Studio gets a different view of Dutch urban space and discovers inspiring architect-assisted self-builds
Amsterdam is spectacular if you are on wheels. Just as London is probably best if you are on a horse, there is a distinct feeling embedded in the streets of how people are intended to move around the city that really changes how you enjoy it if you are, for example, on foot.
Normally, I am on wheels. I’m an architect in my 30s in Hackney so its almost mandatory. However, at the moment I’m not because I am always carrying a baby who doesn’t fit bike helmets yet. Its amazing how this shift can change your perspective of a city. Once you are out of the historic centre, Amsterdam feels much more north American in scale than European, with broad streets and districts strung out along tram lines. Cyclists shoot past, creating comfortable adjacencies between destinations – while pedestrians sluggishly crawl around what feels like a city that could halve its footprint.
The Borneo Sporenburg district to the east seems as if it could only exist in a city that embraces micromobility. In a former harbour area about 15 minute cycle from the centre, the land was assigned as housing in the 1990s with West 8 landscape practice drawing up a scheme to make a new development feel like one of the old districts. Overall 2,500 new homes were created – but the ones that feel groundbreaking are the 60 new townhouses that spread along one of the old docks. West 8 proposed a restriction – that these ‘free parcels’ of land which were made available for self builders should be architect designed and have at least 30% of their volume as voids.
These simple rules sparked beautiful invention. The intention was to create internal spaces that offer something back to the public space – like a de Hooch painting. Standing over the water, they offer glimpses into courtyards beyond – and in some cases all the way to the street on the other side. The interiors relax away from maximising saleable floor area and focus on connection and depth, not relying on the admittedly lovely view out onto the water, which remains public.
Although it's not a move that would solve a housing crisis, encouraging homeowners to work with architects (including MDRDV, OMA and UNStudio) to craft individual homes makes this area feel incredibly thoughtful and lively. In a large new development that runs the risk of feeling flat, these buildings are personal and give a contemporary sense of the historic. The unifying plot size, height restriction and limitations of a waterfront build evens out a democratic rhythm. But these houses give an optimistic glimpse into new development that doesn’t always have to be about economic performance, and show how important that can be in making places we all want to live.
All in all, worth the walk.
Tamsin Hanke is a founding director of THISS Studio
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