PHOTOS AND TEXT © Ayash Basu | MAY 2017
Amsterdam’s NDSM Werf
Most urban metropolises have a creative hub — a neighborhood corner or a few blocks — where artists hang out. These spots are often characterized by street art and graffiti on walls and windows, and sculptures made out of twisted metal, plastic, and glass. They are viewed as eclectic, cool, and off-the-edge, offering artists a cheap canvas for creative expression. Yet, often times, these spaces become isolated, graced only by visitors from the "hipster clubs." One doesn't tend to see too many "regulars" in such places — the office goer, the woman with her kids, the baker and his crew, or the postman in the van. That was indeed my frame of reference for the NDSM in Amsterdam until a recent visit with a local photographer revealed the dichotomy out there.
In order to attract individuals beyond artists, a hub needs to be more than a "creative spot with free paint." The NDSM is exactly that: a cultural hub that enriches Amsterdam's eminence as a lifestyle city and a breeding ground for creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
The Dutch pragmatism of "if you can't eliminate a problem, manage it profitably and sustainably" is very much at play here. The NDSM is Amsterdam's 21st century approach to another centuries old problem: prostitution, which hasn't been eliminated but is enveloped within a structure that manages it as reasonably as possible (considering the nature of the business).
© Ayash Basu. Old naval submarines and abandoned ships greet you on the approach to the NDSM from Amsterdam by ferry
© Ayash Basu. High quality, colorful graffiti grace many an old brick facade, changing weekly and constantly renewing the artistic fabric of the NDSM.
© Ayash Basu. Container boxes being moved to form a venue for a street art festival in a few hours. The shipping containers have many uses, including a canvas. "Make art not €," prominently displays on a massive wall of one of the warehouses.
© Ayash Basu. Portable toilets gel well with the background and are moved easily to festival and performance venues as needed, within minutes.
© Ayash Basu. The local council authorities are invested and involved in the maintenance and upkeep of the old shipyard; here water and sewage pipe repairs are underway.
© Ayash Basu. Shipping containers converted into colorful, modular, and super cheap student housing for emerging artists. Yes, it's basic and a metal box but one can't beat the price for being in the heart of Amsterdam, where affordable housing is increasingly a distant dream.
A key tenet of the NDSM is the symbiosis of art and business, and the overlapping lines between the two to extend Amsterdam's social fabric across the river IJ.
This has meant not only retaining the creative community through affordable infrastructure, but also attracting small- and medium-businesses through targeted investments. The result is a rich cultural hub: sustainable start-ups, manufacturing shops, innovative housing projects, social impact organizations, cultural and music festivals, and exhibition spaces that celebrate its creative residents.
The NDSM is an extension of Amsterdam and yet a stark contrast. Cobblestone streets, canals, boats, charming 16th century Dutch architecture, Renaissance museums, delicate cheeses, and lacework give way to exposed steel, warehouses, brick facades, gritty street art, industrial size exhibition spaces, and a vibe that feels marginally edgier than Dam Square or the Canal Ring. Yet, ferry boats transport hundreds of people every 30 minutes back and forth from Central station free of cost — artists, technicians, entrepreneurs, musicians, constructions workers, employees, marketers, social media gurus, social workers, housing developers, restaurateurs, and the people of Amsterdam.
© Ayash Basu. Massive exhibition and display spaces used for gatherings, events and festivals are part of the Kunststad, one of the main hangars of the shipyard.
© Ayash Basu. The Kunststaad offers two levels of office space that renters can modify to their needs at very cheap costs. By my rough estimate, there must be at least 300 office spaces within this warehouse alone.
© Ayash Basu. Enormous art canvases (this one is 7 ft high) scatter the display halls, often shipped to other locations and then brought back to the mother ship.
© Ayash Basu. A film crew waits for a business meeting with one of the local production houses. There are theaters, films, art projects, architectural designs, 3D prints, all happening right here at this ten thousand sq. meter defunct shipyard.
© Ayash Basu. Amsterdam's quirky charms are well reflected at the NDSM work spaces.
© Ayash Basu. Make what you will of this structure, an art installation with a ready to use metal workshop and foundry.
© Ayash Basu. Massive shipping containers are re-cut and assembled to serve as office spaces for all kinds of business - this one, an office a tax and accounting firm.
Until having gone there, one might perceive the NDSM as Amsterdam's second cousin, trying but not quite there, a competent side dish but not the main course.
Yet, there is as much Dam quirkiness, Dutch charm and pragmatism, refinement, and stimulation that makes this place tick. Very effectively. Take the Faralda crane hotel for instance, yes this crane on the edge of the NDSM offers three of the most spacious and high end suites in the world. Or, the Lasloods, a welding hangar back in the day, now being modified to be the largest street art museum in the world with 7,000 sq. meters of floor space, twice the size of the turbine hall at the Tate Museum in London. Or that, this defunct shipyard is now a hot bed for start-ups, emerging technology and social media companies as well as for larger established players like Red Bull, who have moved their Netherlands headquarters to the NDSM.
© Ayash Basu. The Faralda hotel situated in a crane. The red cubes are super high end suites, offering probably the best views of Amsterdam. A hotel with 3 rooms situated in one of the tallest cranes in Europe, amidst rail tracks and abandoned carriages.
© Ayash Basu. An enormous office space built on top of elevated rail tracks that were once used to haul frames and steel in and out of ships.
© Ayash Basu. Throughout the NDSM, old shipping infrastructure is getting a creative facelift every single day.
© Ayash Basu. Love Holland, Amsterdam and the Noord.
© Ayash Basu. NDSM succeeds by making art an integral part of the cultural and economic dialog, and not an effort in isolation.
Today, some of Amsterdam's best festivals happen at the NDSM, and it is home to Europe's largest flea market. There isn't a clear and defined outcome for the NDSM beyond the aim of transforming it into a metropolitan cultural hub. What that will become in the coming decades remains to be seen. While the destination is unknown, the journey is based on clear cut frameworks - respect for the shipyard's history, functional spaces rooted in creative expression, re-cycled materials, and a shared lifestyle within its community. So far, the NDSM laboratory has delivered successful experiments towards establishing that sustainable cultural hub and not another isolated artsy neighborhood.