Amsterdam creatively mixes the old with the new
City invests in its buildings to showcase art and culture
AMSTERDAM— The Hotel Droog is housed in a 17th-century building in the historic centre of Amsterdam. But walk inside, and you’ll very much feel like part of the 21st century.
Adesign shop features such unusual and whimsical accessories as a lamp shaped liked a milk bottle and a chair made of rags to promote recycling.
Then there’s the Droog classic known as the Chest of Drawers, which has been exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Designer Tejo Remy bundled together several old drawers to create one chest. It was his way of criticizing consumerism in 1991, when he created the piece, but it remains popular to this day, at a price tag of about $22,000 (U.S.).
“It’s a very distinct design flavour,” said Lara Mikocki, Droog’s publicist. “It’s about the dry humour of the Dutch. It’s witty, informed.”
The Hotel Droog is a loose interpretation of a hotel. Only one room, on the top floor, can be reserved. “The One and Only Bedroom” is actually an impeccably decorated one-bedroom apartment with impressive views of rooftops of neighbouring buildings.
To many Canadian and U.S. travellers, Amsterdam has always been known for its picturesque canals, historic houses and — much to the chagrin of its tourism officials — a Red Light district filled with coffee shops where most adults can buy marijuana legally.
This small Dutch city wants to be known for its other attributes — its world-class museums, vibrant dining scene, and trend-setting design and architectural accomplishments.
“People still think this is party paradise,” said Machteld Ligtvoet, manager of press and communications at Amsterdam Marketing. “It’s not.”
Ligtvoet said the city has closed many of the coffee shops and allowed entrepreneurs and designers to take over the spaces. It has also spent billions of dollars on refurbishing historic buildings, including the famed Rijksmuseum, which houses many Vermeers and Rembrandts, including the latter’s masterpiece The Night Watch.
Designed by Pierre Cuypers, the castle-like building that blends neoGothic and neo-Renaissance elements first opened in 1885. It shuttered its doors for a decade starting in 2003 for a renovation. Since reopening in 2013, it’s been one of Amsterdam’s most visited museums.
Similarly, the Stedelijk Museum, which debuted in 1895, reopened in 2012 after a four-year rehab. Located in the same square as the Rijksmuseum, the museum is devoted to modern and contemporary art and design, displaying works by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and many other notable artists.
“We invested in buildings again because we have so much art and culture,” Ligtvoet said.
“The buildings just needed to be modernized.”
This theme comes up again and again in Amsterdam.
“There seems to be an ongoing appetite for old buildings,” said Frank Uffen, a partner at the Student Hotel, a chain of hotels that doubles as student housing. “We don’t tear things down anymore. We reuse it.”
The recently opened Student Hotel in Amsterdam’s city centre once housed a newspaper printing facility. Now students and hotel guests sleep in loft-like rooms and hang out in meticulously curated public spaces, such as a TED Talk booth.
The city’s architecture is such a part of its identity that it has an entire institute devoted to it. The ARCAM, the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture, is housed in an aluminum pavilion by architect René van Zuuk, itself an example of the inventive modern creations blending in with the beloved relics of the city’s Golden Age. A waterside façade is made entirely of glass.
Each Friday, visitors can take a crash course on Amsterdam’s architecture and urbanism at ARCAM.
Yvonne Franquinet, director of ARCAM, described how Amsterdam came about at the end of the 13th century, when a dam was constructed where the River Amstel flowed into the Zuiderzee. A port was built around the dam. As trade and fishing thrived, the city continued to expand. More canals and bridges were built.
“We have more bridges than Venice,” she said.
But the population expanded faster than housing, and the city had to build new residential districts beyond the ring of canals. Today, that expansion is continuing, with the city even building new districts on a series of artificial islands.
De Ceuvel is an example of the kind of sustainable urban development popping up in the area. Located next to a canal, the complex is billed as a planned workplace for creative and social businesses. The former industrial plot was once filled with pollution. Now it is home to offices and workshops, some located in retrofitted houseboats.
Among the businesses is Café de Ceuvel. In keeping with the mission of the complex, the restaurant makes its own soda so as not to waste plastic and glass bottles. The menu changes each day based on the availability of products. On a recent night, I dined on a simple, light pasta made with fresh organic vegetables.
Back at the Hotel Droog café one early evening, young Dutch residents and a few visitors are sitting on furniture that are works of art, some sipping wine, some drinking coffee.
The Hotel Droog also has a garden that is open to the public. It’s a mixture of artificial and real elements. Metal flowers and real fauna coexist.
Inside, there’s a courtyard with shutters and blue birds hanging from the ceiling.
The building also has a spa, a library and exhibition spaces.
“The whole point is that we would flip the idea of the hotel on its head,” Mikocki said.
“The cultural personality of the Dutch is very much represented in design and makes compelling, surprising stuff that comes out of the creative.”
On a back wall of the café is a large canvas called A Stitch in Time by Berend Strik. It’s a re-interpretation of Rembrandt’s De Staalmeesters, a 1662 oil painting that hangs at the nearby Rijksmuseum. It depicts a team of male textile inspectors.
From afar, Strik’s piece also looks like an oil painting, but it is an embroidery, a nod to the building’s history as a textile factory. It’s yet another example of the Dutch creativity mixing old and new.
“It’s important that we keep our history and show it to the world,” Ligtvoet said.