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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

"GRAIN-SILO" SQUAT 1989 to 1998

the PUBLIC SILO & THE KROEG  - p1(of 1)

 

< SILO - INTRO <
< SILO - GROUND-FLOOR <

< SILO - CENTRAL STAIR <

< SILO - ATTICS <
< SILO - DRYING TOWERS <

< SILO - "CORNER TOWER" <
   THE PUBLIC SILO & THE KROEG
> NEW-SILO - PUBLIC & PRIVATE >

.

the PUBLIC SILO 

DE KROEG - THE CAFE-BAR
PARTIES & PUBLIC-ART

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DE KROEG (THE CAFE-BAR) & ASSOCIATED SEMI-PUBLIC PLACES

The public bar-restaurant, the "Kroeg", was made in the Vacuum-Pumping house at the Silo's extreme NE corner - the last door before the water. A steel-strapped almost cubic room with its own quay-edged panorama of the Ij. Its huge reciprocating vacuum pump (removed before the squatting) once drove the Silo's suction systems and powered the suction-derricks on the Ij quay. Through the ceiling stick the stumps of its great pipes (like the legs of a black elephant trapped above). 

In October 1989 the Silo's new occupiers removed the machine's brick plinths with power hammers. In autumn 1990 everyone decided how the Silo should be divided up and almost all wanted the Pumping house as a living-space, however it was agreed (with Diderik) that it was 'obvious as a cafe'. The Kroek opened in 1990 with a primitive kitchen, which Brian replaced after he'd completed work in the N-Tower.

The Kroeg is close to a cube: 8.40x7.75x6.45m high   ...in process

KROEG: VIEW FROM THE DIJK NORTH OF SILO - KROEK ENTRY
(pic 8-95 / to SSE)

Visitors are waiting for opening time at the locked entry-door of the "Kroek". 

The Kroeg's entry passage passes across the Silo's extreme N-end, through a house built for the 4 workers who tended the Ketelhuis heater. It first drops down 7 steps below the level of the Dijk, passes a (Vielborg painted) water door and the Kroeg's kitchen entry, and climbs 3 steps up into the Kroeg (Ketelhuis) at the Silo's NE corner.

KROEG ENTRY PASSAGE: DIJK ENTRY DOOR FROM INSIDE ('LOCKED' WITH A POLE)
(pic 9-94 / to WWS)

Immediately inside its entry door the passage descends from the level of the Dijk down seven steps. 
An opening through the south wall [pic left] accesses the Kroek toilets [see pics below] - also sometimes accessible from the Kroeg's quay [ref below].

KROEG ENTRY PASSAGE: WATER-DOOR - IJ VIEW
(pic 11-97 / to N)

The north side of the low-level passage becomes a wide water loading-door (its exterior painted by Vielborg) .

KROEG ENTRY PASSAGE: WATER-DOOR HALF OPEN
(pic 9-94 / to EEN)

One of the double water-doors is open, revealing half of Vielborg's painting. 

KROEG ENTRY PASSAGE: KROEG DOOR OPEN
(pic 9-94 / to EEN)

The passage water-door is fully open - opposite it is the Kroeg's kitchen. The door into the Kroeg is also open revealing another Vielborg painting, beyond it 3 steps mount into the Kroeg.

KROEG ENTRY PASSAGE: VIEW INTO THE KROEG KITCHEN
(pic 9-94 / to SE)

KROEG KITCHEN
(pic 9-94 / to NNW)

View from the kitchen's south end towards its entry and the open water-door beyond.

KROEG: DOOR INTO ENTRY PASSAGE
(pic 9-94 / to W)

From inside the Kroeg: the little entry-passage door down narrow steps beside the base of the huge 1896 chimney.

KROEG: FROM ENTRY DOOR
(pic 8-95 / to E)

Emerging into the Kroeg up the entry steps, past the chimney's base and Bart's new stove [replacing Ernst's broken 1990 stove - see below]. 

KROEG: E-WALL FROM KROEG ENTRY
(pic 9-94 / to E)

Emerging from the passage into the Kroeg, towards its double doors that open to the quay.

KROEG: TOWARDS NW ENTRY-CORNER
(pic 6-94 / to NW)

KROEG: W SIDE WITH BART'S STOVE
(pic 11-97 / to W)

KROEG: BAR & CORA'S PAINTING
(pic 6-94 / to SSW)

KROEG: S-WALL - CORA'S PAINTING
(pic 6-94 / to S)

This magnificent vital but generalised picture - a sinister précis of the 'Dutch-sunflowers' theme - adorned the Kroeg like a huge 'logo', precisely scaled to the proportions of its cubic form, though made on a found roll of unmeasured paper. 

KROEG: 
(pic 9-94 / to SSW)

KROEG: BAR & STOOLS
(pic 6-94 / to SW)

KROEG: BAR CORNER
(pic 6-94 / to SSW)

KROEG: NIGHT PARTY
(pic 6-94 / to SSW)

KROEG: NIGHT PARTY - VIEW OF THE IJ
(pic 6-94 / to SSW)

KROEG: AUCTION OF SILO SOUVENIRS
(pic 11-97 / to SSW)

Duro Toomato is auctioneer.

 

KROEG: N-WALL WITH STOVE-1 BETWEEN THE WINDOWS
(pic 6-94 / to NNW)

I have seen this flat stove on a January night glowing in its centre red as a cherry, flanked by pointed wave tips glinting prussian-blue in the cold black windows. Heat radiating through the big room marooned among the passing ship lights.

KROEG: STOVE-1 (ERNST LEAVEN 3-1990)
(pic 6-94 / to NNW)

[Re: ERNST sketches for this stove: NOTE 5]

Ernst made this stove for the Kroeg opening. Adapted from a corn-chute, cut & re-assembled 'in the wrong order'. The 'eyes' were once glass. The wheel once turned and raised the bottom charging-door on a chain to regulate the fire's air. As an alternative control Fred inserted three tubes, sized to be capped with beer-bottle tops! However, the stove's centre - corroded by creasoted wood - melted when coal was burned. 

KROEG: STOVE-1 - SIDE VIEW
(pic 6-94 / to EEN)

This thin broad firebox radiates the room from its big flat surface.

KROEG: STOVE-1 & BABY-CHAIR
(pic 9-94 / to N)

KROEG: STOVE-2 (BART & RUUD)
(pic 8-95 / to SSW)

In Nov 1994 Ernst's now corroded stove was replaced by the Silo's latest version of the more efficient three-tiered type - this one by Bart and Ruud.

KROEG: 'MENDED' TABLE
(pic 9-94 / to SSE)

Ironically situated in one of two most 'mobile' positions in the room: in the pathway to the open quay exit, this extremely funny 'lame' table has purloined a stool to functionally survive. An example of the fascinating entertainment of forms gratuitously assembled via immediate necessity, (and of consequent functional relativity!).

KROEG: VIEW FROM ITS EAST-EXIT
(pic 9-94 / to E)

The Ij water and the Kroeg's quay with its fire brazier - through the open door.

 

KROEG QUAY & THE KETELHOK DOORS
(pic 6-94 / to NNW)

The Kroeg's public portion of quay seen from the raised north end of the Silo's private quay. 

The heart-windowed doors are the Silo's most northerly entry to the Gang via the N-Tower's boiler-room (Ketelhok) and discharge floor. On some public occasions they are open and the party space extends through the Ketelhok and into the N-Tower discharge floor [see pic below]. WCs are reached either via these spaces or more directly from the Kroeg entry passage [see previous and next pics].

BOILER-ROOM DOOR WINDOW (NORTH) - FROM WITHIN
(pic 6-94 / to EEN)

BOILER-ROOM (KETELHOK)
(pic 6-94 / to WWS)

The Ketelhok housed a 2m high furnace that heated air for the N-Tower dryers; it almost filled the area of the floor (the squatters had it removed in case of asbestos). This is now a functionally indeterminate place, sometimes open as an extension of a Kroek-based party.

From the quay-entry end we look through the Ketelhok towards an opening into the N-Tower discharge room.

NORTH-TOWER DISCHARGE ROOM WITH AFTER-PARTY DECOR
(pic 6-94 / to WWS)

The North-Tower's erstwhile discharge room seen through the Ketelhok exit. Sometimes open as an extension of party-space it displays remains of festive decor. On the left is a steel door into the north-end of the Gang. To the right (signalled by a sign on the far-wall) is a door to the toilets behind the Kroeg.

TOILET BEHIND THE KROEG
(pic 11-97 / to N)

Improvised WC cubicles ("H"=heren / "D"=dames) in the toilet space behind the Kroeg kitchen. Accessible from the N-Tower discharge floor or the Kroeg entry passage (through the opening to the left of the cubicles).

TOILET BEHIND THE KROEG: WC CUBICLE
(pic 11-97 / to N)

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PARTIES & PUBLIC-ART 

On public party days the great backdrop of the Silo wall towers over the cobbled dijk on which strange bikes are played with and art-machines perform - made from its stores of metal, huge wood, stones, tubes, chains, wheels and rollers; moved by geared pedals and electric power. A crowned and open-fronted car, replete with velvet swags, safety switch, sculpted eaves, and seats with chatting drinkers - a mobile fragment of a cafe - trundles slowly, outstripped by bemused strollers, winding up and paying out its cable, reversing itself ingeniously at the ends of the dijk's rusty rail.

The crowd spills down from the Kroeg past the hot brazier onto its stone quay - extended out on the flat steel top of a barge moored for the party. Under a canopy a band plays - the big tarpaulin caught up by the drooping suction-trunk of a tube-like derrick sprouting high on the Silo's side from an out-growth of pipes and cyclone-cones.

DIJK: STEEL TREE
(pic 6-94 / to SSW)

In a breeze the steel tree blinks its mirror leaves

DIJK: MOBILE CONSTRUCTIONS
(pic 6-94 / to NE)

Bart's 'cycle' and Koik's van with crane.

DIJK: MOBILE CONSTRUCTIONS
(pic 9-94 / to SW)

Bart's 'cycle' and 'Bull cart'.

DIJK: MILOU & MOBILE-SCULPTURE
(pic 6-94 / to NW)

A spherical wheel with a long handle. The welded work and its essential human 'motivator' make a single odd collage-object.

DIJK: MILOU & MOBILE-SCULPTURE
(pic 6-94 / to NNW)

 

DIJK: "5-JAAR SILO" PUBLIC PARTY DAY
(pic 4-6-94 / to NE)

Dijk with mechanised sculptures.

[For "5-Jaar Silo" publicity info: flyer and programme Ref: NOTE-4]

DIJK: "5-JAAR SILO" PUBLIC PARTY DAY - HAND-CRANKED MOBILE OBJECT
(pic 4-6-94 / to WWS)

DIJK: "5-JAAR SILO" PUBLIC PARTY DAY - ERNST SELF-MOBILE SCULPTURE
(pic 4-6-94 / to SSE)

Ernst's machine moved itself along the dijk guided by a single wheel running in a dijk rail.

DIJK: "5-JAAR SILO" PUBLIC PARTY DAY - FRED & BART's SELF-MOBILE 'TRAM'
(pic 4-6-94 / to SE)

The tram moved, unsupervised, at less than walking pace along a dijk rail-track, paying-out and winding-in its electric cable onto a red drum and reversing automatically near the dijk ends.  

A shelter from the frequent rain, and furnished with bench and chairs, it was a relaxing place to meet, converse and slowly view the activity on the dijk. 

DIJK: "5-JAAR SILO" PUBLIC PARTY DAY - FRED & BART's SELF-MOBILE 'TRAM'
(pic 4-6-94 / to NE)

DIJK: FRED & BART's SELF-MOBILE 'TRAM' 
(pic 6-94 / to E)

Fred's note 2006 [edited]:

- Making the tram:

"A funny detail about making the tram was that Bart and me had the idea one night of making a tram on the old rail ... the incredible thing was that the same night we gathered ALL the material for the tram in the building. It was just there laying around between the scrap, we did not even have to buy one little screw. None of the materials had ever been used for a tram, they were all from other machines."  

DIJK: FRED & BART's SELF-MOBILE 'TRAM' - CABLE-DRUM 
(pic 6-94 / to E)

Fred's notes 2006 [edited]: 

- The Cable-Drum: 

"Driving in one direction it was winding on and in the other winding off. In fact the motor was 'trying to wind on the cable all the time but when the tram was driving in the wind-off direction the v-belt started slipping, so the motor was keeping the cable on a constant tension no matter if it was winding on or off the drum. This was the most difficult part of the tram."

- The Drive-Motor:

"There was an even smaller motor (a grey one I think on the Silo side) driving the wheels - it has a big reduction (a lot of cogs) it's slow but strong (Do you know that with a clock you can lift a piano! it just takes a long time - of course the axels are too thin, but it has enough power)."

- The Reversing-Switch:

"There was a reverse switch on the tram that flipped over as soon as it hit a little vertical steel rod placed next to the rail on the go-back point."

DIJK: FRED & BART's SELF-MOBILE 'TRAM' 
(pic 9-94 / to NE)

An emergency-brake switch (a "Nood Trem") dangles a toilet-roll-dispenser 'handle' into the passenger-space.

KROEG QUAY: "5-JAAR SILO" PARTY DAY
(pic 4-6-94 / to S)

From the Kroeg's east-exit people step down to the quay. A tarp hangs from a suction derrick over a band-stage. Because it's a party day the Ketelhok (boiler-room) doors are open and everyone may enter normally private spaces between the Gang and the Kroeg.

KROEG QUAY: "5-JAAR SILO" PARTY NIGHT BAND-STAND
(pic 4-6-94 / to NW)

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^ Top     > Next Page >

< SILO - INTRO <

< SILO - GROUND-FLOOR <

< SILO - CENTRAL STAIR <

< SILO - ATTICS <

< SILO - DRYING TOWERS <

< SILO - "CORNER TOWER" <

   THE PUBLIC SILO & THE KROEG
> NEW-SILO - PUBLIC & PRIVATE >

.

CONTENTS   4 SITES  

SILO

  TETTERODE   DE LOODS   EDELWEIS   APPENDICES   NOTES   SUB-SITES