De Baaibuurt
Amsterdam, NL | 106.000m2 | 2024-2025
This project initially started with an 'Architect in Residence' (AiR) at ARCAM. Central to the residency for 6 months was a research project on cooperative housing. The city of Amsterdam states that it wants 10% of the total municipal housing stock to be in cooperative ownership by 2040. We investigated what this entails, and drew attention to inspiring precedents by giving them a podium. This research was published by ARCAM (see publication here).
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We wanted to show the potential of the cooperative on an urban level. Soon enough, our focus shifted towards the Baaibuurt, one of the last 'urban fringe' areas within the ring road of the city. The city's got the area in the crosshairs and seeks to level the existing community preceding conventional urbanism practices. What if this area instead could become the city's first cooperative neighborhood? We concluded our AiR with a night of debate at the public library where we presented a provocative plan to bring the municipality to the negotiating table. Since the AiR, we are developing the alternative urban plans in close collaboration with the inhabitants of the Baaibuurt (Het Baaibuurt Collectief) and Buro Harro Landscape & Urbanism.
The ARCAM publication
Foto: Maarten Nauw
Project Details
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- Master planning
- Bottom up urbanism
- Cooperative design
- 1.800 housing units
- Het Baaibuurt Collectief
We presented our research at the Amsterdam public library. Present were many key figures in the cooperative housing movement, as well as a representative of the municipality.
We presented a strategical plan for 1.800 homes for the Baaibuurt - the same number the municipality aims to realize in the future through conventional 'top down' urbanism, which would eradicate the existing community and nature. By offering six different housing concepts that all allow for a resilient way of living with nature and water, this alternative offers multiple answers on the same challenge.
Together with 600 potential residents, we requested a building permit based on this plan, to bring the municipality to the negotiating table at give space to large housing cooperative in the city in order to reach the goal of 10% of COOP housing in the city of Amsterdam.
Foto: Maarten Nauw
The existing Baaibuurt community is one of free spirits, artistry and a love of nature. We believe this is a community to be conserved, not uprooted. The question is how the new development on the Baaibuurt can absorb these qualities. We, the Baaibuurtcollectief, believe we have the answer.
The Baaibuurt is part of a larger ecosystem of islands and waterways. The new urban plan should be morphologically and ecologically embedded within this system.
We created several urban layers consisting of multiple housing clusters, connected through structures of green and blue.
Waterstructure
Greenstructuur
Clusters of housing and communities
Main circulation & infrastructure
Plug-in city
Inner connections between clusters
Municipality
'Tabula Rasa'
The soil of the Baaibuurt is sagging, how to deal with this is one of the most important issues to be addressed. The municipality seeks to evict the land and level the ground with 7m of sand. Destroying all present nature and communities. Then, the land should remain vacant for seven years to speed up the soil settlement. A generic, top down planned city with 1800 housing is awaiting.
De Baaibuurt
'Tabula Scripta'
The plan of De Baaibuurt Collectief embraces the sagging and existing qualities, we see potential for a partially wet, dynamic landscape with small lakes and an exciting unpredictability. A place where the existing nature and community can flourish and is welcoming others in a specific urban development with 1800 homes.
Team Baaibuurt
Initiative
Architect
Landscape
Renders
Location
Year
Het Baaibuurt Collectief x Raumplan
Raumplan
Buro Harro​
Parallel
Amsterdam
2024 - ongoing