In December 2001, three parties, namely the Oost/Watergraafsmeer district, housing association De Key, and the Swammerdam resident committee, signed an initial memorandum that established a customized plan for the restoration and preservation of the Swammerdam neighborhood. The Swammerdam neighborhood is characterized by a wide range of architectural expressions, featuring many characteristic buildings, mostly from the nineteenth century. There are various national and municipal monuments designed by architects such as Van Gendt, Salm, and Henkenhaf.
Per architectural unit and building style, the initial note and the Plan of Approach were further developed into restoration and renovation plans. This enabled the start of the execution of the repairs to 290 homes.
An old facade, a candidate for the New Construction Award? It might sound strange, but that will happen more and more often. When renovating a neighborhood, planners no longer resort to demolition as quickly as before. Preserving the character of a street is considered much more important than ten or twenty years ago. This happened, for example, in the Swammerdambuurt, at the intersection of Ruyschstraat and Swammerdamstraat. It is proof of how good it is that this form of "new construction" can also be considered for the prize.
If only because of all the barriers the developer and builder had to clear before they could get to work. Especially the residents' resistance. “The neighborhood was slated for demolition in the 1970s. That made the residents very combative,” says Rein van Zelst (59), project manager on behalf of De Principaal. “We had to take an important step with the residents. To achieve this, we set up a guidance committee, together with the residents' committee, the Neighborhood Preservation Association (Vereniging Buurtbehoud), the Weesperzijdestrook, and De Key, the housing association that owned the homes. I was the chair. And decision-making regarding the project was handed over to this guidance committee. As far as I know, the renovation of a neighborhood has never been arranged this way before.”
Architect Jos Kroon (56) of Hooyschuur Architecten also had to deal with this. "They all wanted to have a say in their floor plans. I had to explain the possibilities to the steering committee, told them the pros and cons. It was purely custom work."
In 2003, work began on tackling 85 buildings that were in desperate need of repair, spread out in groups across the neighborhood. The job is now all but finished. All residents were guaranteed that they could return to a home in this project, according to Van Zelst. However, to keep the entire approach affordable, more homes had to be sold than was initially intended. Lex Orie (29) and his heavily pregnant girlfriend Anneke Huizinga (30) bought one on the corner. This made it an exceptional house, as it has a triangular floor plan. They paid 359,000 euros for 120 square meters. They both came from a small apartment in the city. "We really wanted a characterful house without having to do a lot of renovating."
We both fell in love with this property immediately," Orie says. "But there were already 75 interested parties just for this house. It was really a lottery."
Which they won. They are now sitting very contentedly near the Amstel, near the Pijp, and near the highway. The jury that compiled the top ten is particularly enthusiastic about the mix of social housing and the private sector in this project.
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