IMPROVISED AMSTERDAM INDUSTRIAL SQUATS

In 199# the City evicted the Silo occupiers. By 2002 the Silos had been converted into one of Amsterdam's most expensive sets of housing blocks. The Old and New Silos were gutted - their uniquely strange interiors destroyed and the husks partitioned into a multitude of rectangular concrete spaces; windowed, doored, staired, and shafted with lifts - almost as utilitarian and mean, boorish and cynically crude as a suburban speculator's 1960s office-block. The location alone ensured value.

The Silos' dijk became a steel-fronted asphalt-topped box, diagrammed for car parking, with a facade-fringing plank pavement for the softer needs of human soles. At its north end a brand new housing block was made (designed by MVRDV - finished 2002), straddling the water, and (it is said) referencing via its checkered facades the chance-order and vicarious visual entertainment of stacked shipping containers (an irony: both aesthetic and social?). This chunk of architectural wit slightly breaks the tedium of visual and physical simplicity and cleanness.


"SILODAM": DIJK SHOP-FRONT - SELLING APARTMENTS (pic 6-8-05) / to EEN)	"SILODAM": FROM THE STENENHOOFD (pic 6-8-05 / to NW) The converted Grain-Silos and the new MVRDV designed building beyond their N-end.	"SILODAM": FROM THE DIJK ENTRY (pic 6-8-05 / to NNE)

"SILODAM": S-END FROM DOCKSIDE - NEW-SILO CONVERSION (pic 6-8-05 / to N) Who will sit here and why - to gaze at that! What determined the seat positions - Idealism?	"SILODAM": W-FACADE FROM THE HOUTHAVEN - NEW-SILO CONVERSION (pic 6-8-05 / to EEN)	"SILODAM": BETWEEN NEW & OLD SILOS (pic 6-8-05 / to E) Note the South Drying-Tower has been removed, but the Corner Tower on the quay-front survives.

"SILODAM": W-FACADE FROM THE HOUTHAVEN - OLD-SILO CONVERSION (pic 6-8-05 / to EEN)	"SILODAM": DIJK FACADE - PART (pic 6-8-05 / to NNE)	"SILODAM": DIJK - NW-CORNER OF OLD-SILO (pic 25-10-06 / to NNE )

"SILODAM": QUAY - NE-CORNER: THE OLD- SILO'S KROEG (paste-up: x2 pics 25-10-06 / to NNE )	"SILODAM": E-FACADE FROM THE STENENHOOFD - THE OLD SILO'S CENTRE (pic 6-8-05 / to WWN)	"SILODAM": THE GLAZED QUAY (pic 6-8-05 / to SE)

"SILODAM": QUAY - CENTRE ENTRY-HALL (pic 6-8-05 / to EEN	"SILODAM": QUAY - CENTRE ENTRY-HALL (pic 6-8-05 / to WWN)	"SILODAM": QUAY - SUBSIDIARY ENTRY-HALL (pic 6-8-05 / to W) A less public, subsidiary entry from the rear quay: here this architect's 'clean and definite', seemingly 'minimal and pragmatic' style is exposed by this shoddy mélange as a cheap and easy signage that merely makes kitsch references to 'definitive design' and 'quality finish'.

"SILODAM": DIJK - CENTRE ENTRY-HALL (paste-up: x2pics 6-8-05 / to NNE) From the 1st landing, looking through an office space towards the west front.	"SILODAM": STAIR THROUGH APT LEVELS - LANDING WITH LIFT (pic 6-8-05 / to ?)	"SILODAM": STAIR THROUGH APT LEVELS (pic 6-8-05 / to ?)

"SILODAM": STAIR THROUGH APT LEVELS (pic 6-8-05 / to ?)	"SILODAM": STAIR THROUGH APT LEVELS - LANDING WITH APT ENTRY-DOOR (pic 6-8-05 / to ?)	"SILODAM": E-SIDE APARTMENT (pic 6-8-05 / to WWN)

DE LOODS IS DESTROYED AND WESTERDOK 'REDEVELOPED' AS HOUSING AND OFFICES - (Pics - 08-2005 / 10-2006 / 9-2007)


WESTERDOK (pic 6-8-05 / to S)	WESTERDOK (pic 26-10-06 / to N)	WESTERDOK (pic 26-10-06 / to N)

WESTERDOK: BOATS (pic 26-10-06 / to NW)	WESTERDOK: SOUTH-END DOCK (pic 26-10-06 / to NNE)	WESTERDOK: SOUTH-END DOCK - - LIVING-BOAT WITH IMPROVISED GARDEN (pic 26-10-06 / to NNW)


WESTERDOK: SOUTH-END DOCK - LIVING-BOAT WITH IMPROVISED GARDEN (past-up 2-pics 26-10-06 / to NNE)	WESTERDOK: SOUTH-END DOCK - POST-BOX (pic 26-10-06 / to WWN)