Building on Housing History
The exhibition ‘Building on housing history: from resistance to renewal’ shows the influence of housing protests and housing policy on historical and contemporary urban renewal in Amsterdam Noord, Zuidoost and Nieuw-West. The exhibition takes you through classical architectural history, historical housing protests and the contemporary lived city per district and makes cross-connections between the three storylines. By retelling these stories, Arcam wants to show that the architectural history of these three Amsterdam districts is more polyphonic and richer than the dominant narrative.
The wall-filling exhibition (on display at Arcam for a year from 15 November 2024) brings together the results of the annual theme Retellings.
The architecture of Amsterdam-Noord reflects a history of continuous transformation. The garden villages, the NDSM shipyard and the Vliegenbos are icons of early urban development, but there is also a dark side to these industrial developments. As early as the 1920s, there was resistance in the garden villages against poor housing conditions, with the Van der Pek neighbourhood as a symbol of contemporary protest. Recent additions such as Buiksloterham and De Ceuvel show a mix of innovative urban designs. Today, residents' movements such as "Defend North" and "Save Amsterdam-Noord" advocate the preservation of their neighbourhoods and question whether all residents benefit equally from sustainability ambitions and new green areas. Under the heading Ecogentrification, it is highlighted how solar panels and heat pumps are not the same as sustainability processes of social housing, and that one urban green area is not the same as another.
Nieuw-West is known as the brilliant inspiration of Cornelis van Eesteren, but female designers such as Jakoba Mulder, Koos Pot-Keegstra and Annie van Hattem have also made important contributions to and in the Western Garden Cities. The transformations of Parkstad (1998-2005) show how this area has continuously adapted to modern urban needs and political ambitions, and also that there has gradually been more attention for the breakdown of social networks in the wake of the demolition-new construction operation. In the 1990s, the August Allebéplein was briefly the scene of uprising, comparable to current protests such as “Nieuw-West in Verzet” and in the Wildemanbuurt. The consequences of restructuring the neighbourhood and the financial crisis are mainly borne by existing residents and gentrification does not automatically lead to better neighbourhood facilities (for everyone). Intergenerational housing problems are a recurring theme.
Zuidoost, built according to the Nassuth Plan, is only partly recognizable as a collection of iconic honeycomb flats such as Kleiburg, Geldershoofd and Gravestein (also known as the Gliphoeveflat, squatted in 1972 by residents with a mostly Surinamese background in protest against a city council that denied them access to large parts of the city) and buildings such as the Zandkasteel. In several building waves, the district changed in shape and composition. Karspeldreef, Hondsrugpark and OBA Next give an impression of the progress of urban renewal. The image of Zuidoost is strongly influenced by stigmatization and negative imagery, and existing structures and networks are still often ignored in top-down processes, but behind this lies a rich history of resilient residents.
Newspaper headlines, posters, maps and photos bring the past and present of Noord, Nieuw-West and Zuidoost to life. The podcasts ‘Van Tompouce tot Baklava’, ‘Red Amsterdam-Noord’ and the podcast series on eco-gentrification by Wouter Stroet give residents a voice, while historical images and personal stories provide insight into the struggle and transformation of these districts. In Nieuw-West, Soumeya Bazi shares residents’ experiences through audio stories, while in Zuidoost, personal stories and historical film material highlight the social and architectural changes of the district. These resources connect the past with the current reality and show the residents’ commitment to a better future.