Development and design of a creative incubator on a polluted brown-field. By using low-tech techniques such as recycling houseboats and cleaning the soil by vegetation, the former shipyard is an innovative sustainability experiment.
In 2010 architects space&matter and Marjolein Smeele brought together a group that put forth the winning concept for reimagining the site of the former de Ceuvel Volharding shipyard. After winning the competition, which was announced by the municipality (Projectbureau Noordwaarts en Bureau Broedplaatsen) a whole team of experts developed the project to a highly innovative plan on the fields of urbanism, architecture and sustainability. Because of the temporary,10-year nature of the development and the low budget, space&matter focused on developing an innovative concept where mobility and reuse are central. The design of the urban plan and community-driven nature of the project rapidly combine ‘waste’ land and ‘waste’ materials into something beautiful and valuable. “This green oasis creates a new on-land harbor for secondhand house boats, which otherwise would have ended up in a junkyard,” said Glasl. As largely autarkic elements, the boats will be able to leave the site after ten years without much of a trace, leaving the land more valuable, biodiverse, and cleaner from pollutants. The site, which is now heavily polluted, will feature imaginatively retrofitted houseboats placed around a winding bamboo walkway and surrounded by an undulating landscape of soil-cleaning plants designed by Delva Landscape architects. Each of the upgraded boats will house offices, ateliers, or workshops for creative and social enterprises. Space&matter and Metabolic are now leading the design and technical outfitting of the boats retrofit, together with construction foreman and boat expert Huib Koel. The boat retrofitting process has been publicly visible at NDSM wharf in Amsterdam North from April to September 2013. The boats were placed on the de Ceuvel site in October 2013.
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