The Oostzanerdijk is part of the Waterlandse Zeedijk, which has protected the Waterland region against the water of the Zuiderzee since the Middle Ages. After the St. Elizabeth's Flood of 1421, the inhabitants of the area were granted permission in 1422 to construct the dike. For a long time, the dike formed the northern border of the municipality of Amsterdam.
Along this historic dike, eight semi-detached homes have been designed with the characteristics of a dike house. For instance, the elevation difference between the dike and the 'lowland' results in a split-level layout within the homes. On the south side, the homes feature an extra space on the ground floor, adjacent to the garden. This space can be used as a garage or as a home office.
From the Zuidas to Tuindorp Oostzaan – as the crow flies it's not that far, but you experience it as a journey between extremes. Yet there are also points of similarity. In both places, residents gave it a 9.3 out of 10. And in both places, they live with great satisfaction. Zoë Kwint (37) was born and raised in the doctor's residence on the Kometensingel; her mother still lives there. When she went to study, she lived 'in the city' for eight years, as the residents of Tuindorp call Amsterdam south of the IJ. "But I knew I never wanted to stay there."
She could get a small house, also on Kometensingel. “With two children, that became too small. Would I have to leave Noord after all? Until a sign was put up here saying that houses were going up for sale. We took an option right away.” For 390,000 euros, Kwint got a home of 185 square meters with many split levels; with the leasehold bought off included, it would have been 50,000 euros more expensive. “The nice thing is: here you don't feel like you're in a newly built house. It's as if it's been there for years. The architect has very cleverly succeeded in adding something that does not clash with the character of Tuindorp Oostzaan.”
That architect is Henk Snoeks (45), and he confirms: “Such a home has to fit the location. Kometensingel and Oostzanerdijk almost touch each other there. That dikes lies four and a half meters higher than the canal, and that determined the level differences in the house. From the dike it looks like a classic little dike house.”
Yet things could have turned out differently. When project developer SKA Bouwontwikkeling acquired the site from the owner, who had shut down his gas station, a plan was initially developed for about 25 apartments for young people. But the borough put a stop to that. "They liked this plan," says Marcel Schreuder (36) of SKA, a family-owned business. "This was on a much smaller scale. We looked at the surrounding houses to apply that same architectural style, and we also used high-quality materials. People like this."
The residents are enthusiastic about the space and the playful layout, but above all about the residential environment. Their home fits in nicely, and they are immediately "in a cozy neighborhood with a village character." Only the Kometensingel district could use better paving. The jury found it a drawback that this is not immediately a case of innovative architecture, as in numerous other places in the city. "But this is very nicely integrated into the surroundings," Johanna Bruin thought. And besides: if you want to nominate the extra eccentric, you also have to give the strikingly ordinary a chance. "I thought at first: this is not spectacular, this will never be nominated," architect Snoeks confesses. "Yet it shows everything that I have with architecture. In the house you notice the movement that is in it. It hasn't been smoothed over. And it shows the diversity of the city of Amsterdam. You have special places in Noord as well."
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