The building consists of twenty apartments with outdoor spaces on the water. The task of the competition, organized by the municipality of Amsterdam, was to design a collective residential building of three floors, with a length of eighty meters. The winning proposal was Het Open IJnde. In this design, all communal facilities are located around the opening on the first floor, such as an eighty-meter-long terrace for recreation and exhibitions, a multifunctional space, a fitness room, guest accommodation, and the garage. This building also features a collective garden situated on the water. A sustainable climate control system has been installed that utilizes heat and cold stored in the ground, with the major advantages being lower CO2 emissions, lower energy costs, and underfloor cooling in the summer.
At the southernmost point of Steigereiland in IJburg stands an elongated residential building that can serve as an example for future construction. The project is the result of ‘collective private commissioning’—remember that term. Usually, a developer offers ready-made homes for sale. But with collective private commissioning, a group of buyers first comes together to (have) design the house collectively and then have it built themselves.
“I had only just started as an architect when we heard about a design competition for this plot,” says Daniël Peters (37). Together with his partner from Mopet Architecten and friends from NATArchitecten, they submitted an idea for a building with twenty homes and collective facilities. “This is naturally a wonderful commission, because it offers a chance to live in one block with friends, and also because we were looking for a new house anyway.”
All four architects wanted to live there themselves, and the sixteen other clients were easily found within their circle of friends. Joep Zijp (52), for example, who had lived in De Pijp for thirty years ("small, without a garden, without a balcony"), was happy to join. "I used to live in a squat and in a communal living group, so I knew the dynamics of solving things together. But above all, it was an insane opportunity to acquire an affordable home of my own in Amsterdam, and in such a beautiful location at that."
The homes (single-story on the ground floor, maisonettes above) are all around 105 square meters and cost €217,000 shell-finished, excluding ground lease and parking space. Anyone who bought out the ground lease and wanted to park their car in the garage wound up at around €280,000. And for that, the residents also have large communal spaces on the ground floor and the first floor. They gave their building an 8.7, and the five jury members fully agree. "Beautiful homes with a very good price-to-quality ratio," judges Willemijn van Kempen. "A nice initiative," Joyce du Pont adds.
Being your own client, even if it is as a group, also has disadvantages, Zijp acknowledges: “All setbacks that you normally wouldn't notice as a buyer, you now have to deal with yourself. It all took a year longer.” “We had to figure out a lot,” architect Peters also says. “That's why we involved the contractor at a very early stage. Where the residents mostly let their emotions speak, the contractor looks at it very rationally.”
He lived to regret it, sighs Han Troost (49), director of Bontenbal Bouw. “It required a lot of meetings to ultimately get a building that meets all the requirements. It looks simple on the surface, but the exterior is truly a technical masterpiece. The cantilevered balconies with glass balustrades were quite a challenge. They still aren't finished either.” Yet he is glad he put up this complicated structure. “We learned a great deal from it. I think collective private commissioning really is the future.”
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