Het Schip (Part 2), Spaardammerbuurt, and a Residential Complex Between Haarlemmerweg, van Hallstraat, van Hogendorpstraat, Waterpoortweg

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]


The weather on 11th of April
100% cloudy: compact blue-gray clouds have covered the whole sky, the whole day.
It has been quite cold, and the wind has been continuously blowing.
In one word: terrible. In more words: classic Amsterdam weather, just to be nasty about it. You wouldn't have forced even a dog out of the house.
Oh well, I did get out and stayed some 5 hours.


Het Schip Museum, Amsterdam - part 2
(Museum of the Amsterdam School of Architecture)

As I've promised in part 1, I returned for another tour of The Ship, in order to have a complete tour this time.

At 2 PM, a group of Dutch-speaking people had already formed.
There were only 3 of us for the tour in English, out of which only 2 were not speaking Dutch. Ha ha, sad news, since I only got a summary in English of the main explanations; since I have already attended the first part, I did not mind about it. I did kind of mind when I reached the part I have not attended the first time (i.e. after visiting the 1920s-style-apartment). However, it turned out there was little I missed at the first tour: (1) basically the outer part of The Ship on Oostzanstraat, emphasizing how Mr. de Clerk had integrated in his building an already built school in that perimeter, and (2) the details on the urban furniture used in Amsterdam some time ago (the urban furniture was placed in the back yard of the museum's coffee shop, across the street).

Again, I was the only young person in the group; not more than other 3 people were around 38-50 years old, and the rest of approximately 12 people this time were definitely above 50.

A tip from Liviu: Also closely look at the building north of The Ship, since it's really awesome. Go take a look in the courtyard, basically Zaanhot street, you shall like it.





Spaardammerbuurt
 
West of Spaarndammerstraat: Average looking area, quite nice area, but nothing special. There is only one quite cool playground at Zaandammerplein, and one might find interesting the paths between the blocks of flats in the southern part of this area.

East of Spaarndammerstraat: Well, here's a different story to tell, i.e. it's a nice area and I should get back some time to make some pictures.



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Residential Complex Between Haarlemmerweg, van Hallstraat, van Hogendorpstraat, Waterpoortweg

Very nice.

I liked the boards placed at various entrances in the residential complex, with the map and several details regarding the complex. All buildings are numbered: 1-17.

The bricks had a different shade of red from everything I've seen so far.
A couple of buildings, I think, had some sort of wood on the outside on one of their sides.

On the other hand, I had a strange feeling they had designed it with the sole purpose of turning it into a touristic attraction some 20 years after its completion :) Given that it's been finished in 1998, I guess there's little time left until they shall start advertising tours here.

So, hurry up, put it on your list to visit, just to be sure you have talked about it to your friends before anyone else than me!
I haven't read about it, it just happened to discover it in another random walk I took, and now again, so I decided to take some pictures this time, although the blistering cold and wind kind of had my hands frozen. Indeed, I sacrificed myself for art, beauty, pictures and my explorer's ego!



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