Images by Yungui Cai and Will Metcalf
An illustrated guide to De Ceuvel, WWW.DECEUVEL.NL. The guide clearly shows how the sustainable strategies used in this place and the location of boathouses.
The greenhouse at De Ceuvel is consisted of one of the cycles. Plants use fertilizer converted by microbes and worms and produce fresh and filtered water going to fish tank. They provide cafe with vegetables and herbs.
Birds and ducks often walk around the river in the park. It is a good sign of ecological success in the park. Humans and other creatures share the living space.
Hanging out in the central gathering area in front of the cafe.
Upcycled materials were used by tenants to make curious sculptures hidden all throughout the space.
Wandering the circuitous path through the houseboats.
Part 1: Anya Moucha
Our day started in North Amsterdam, at an experimental coworking space called De Ceuvel. Built on the site of a former shipyard, De Ceuvel is a workplace for professionals in the creative field made out of a network of old houseboats. We were given a tour by Amber, an architect who has an office in the space.
One of the founding principles of De Ceuvel is that it is a sustainable community. After the shipyard was closed in 2000, the soils on the site were heavily polluted and any potential development on the site would have to respond to these constraints. By placing old houseboats on the land, the designers of De Ceuvel avoided having to dig into the ground (and disrupting the pollution). A meandering elevated boardwalk weaves between the offices and acts not only as a pathway but also as a community meeting point. Amber described the boardwalk as their version of an “elevator”, the place in a shared office setting where people from different companies run into each other. This elevated pathway also allows for strategic plants to grow on the ground plane, which help improve the soil quality through phytoremediation. Other sustainable practices on site include composting toilets, adaptive reuse of found materials, aquaponics, and solar panels.
At the moment, this experimental community is coming up on the halfway point of their 10 year lease. It is unknown if the city of Amsterdam will renew their lease for additional years or if De Ceuvel will try to relocate to another location. As for now, seeing this unique space tucked into a heavily industrial area of Amsterdam certainly gave us a lot to think about.
Part 2: Jiangchen Zhu
5 mins walk to Noorderpark, east of De Ceuvel. It’s a park for bike, roller skates, strollers and runners. The park is an irregular rectangle shape, at the middle of the park is Noordhollandsche Canal. They are ducks, geese and coots in the park which are very common aquatic birds in the Netherlands.
People could spend 1 hour to walk around the park or 15 to 20 mins to do a loop on bike. It’s not a huge park but with a wide range of programs include tennis, playground, gardens, swimming pool, bar and mini stage. So the user of the park include almost every age group. The priority of the park users would be bikers as the bike lane are closest to the water, then is the pedestrian loop at outer loop. In some extend the bikes dominant the waterfront, the bikes cut off the circulation of people on foot to the water, as we have almost no opportunity to get closer to the water when we walked there. But if on a bike, then it would be a very pleasant experience. In fact it would be a great alternative route for people who spent a long time with cars on roads.
There are some highlights others than the multiple users of the park. First is the playground, it has a manual operated water pump and a rope bridge for children to cross a small stream, well, we used the rope bridge too. It’s fun. The second highlight is the history, the Noordhollandsche canal was opened in 1824 and use for the largest trading vessel, the open is at the middle of the park, now Buiksloterdijk road.
Overall it was a very nice walk around the park, we are able to see multiple transports integrate together and also multiple programs come together in this park. The history of the canal and park is only a fragment of Netherlands history with water. It’s a nice park.
Cities on Water 2019 