Dijkman and Bosse go out: Jonas and Sluishuis

Paul Dijkman and Mieke Bosse investigate the state of affairs regarding new construction in the Netherlands. This time they go to Amsterdam, to Jonas and the Sluishuis. Two buildings with their own website.

The tradition of the Moderns, retromodernism

Dijkman and Bosse meet at the harbour. It is very busy on the quays and in the water. It's like vacation. Dijkman can recover for a while. He cycled over the IJburglaan here and became sad. 'IJburg did not have a happy start.'

Bosse: Why not?

Dijkman: The problem is that forced modernism. Everything is a block on a straight street. Even the DIY blocks have an extra block on their head. That seems to be stipulated in the conditions.

B: Coffee?

We are located at café-restaurant NAP on the Krijn Taconiskade, a nice place to eat at the head of the harbour, with friendly service. On the right are the ships, on the left Jonas rises from the quay.

B: The newspaper said that Jonas is the best building in the Netherlands and the other contender is close by, the Sluishuis. At least: according to the Branchevereniging Nederlandse Architectenbureaus.

We see a long building, a wall that accompanies the harbor, about seven storeys high. Inside, Jonas accommodates a mix of public and collective functions, according to the site, from commercial in the plinth to cinema and a roof-beach.

D: ‘What do you think?

B: I wonder, are we looking here at the tradition of the Unités d'Habitation, the building as a city? Le Corbusier's did not become a great success, the collectivity imposed from above does not always fit. Successful forms of collective housing are the result of residents' initiatives. There are many of them now. Were these whoppers just conceived from above? The websites suggest that.

D: It is the open air that connects us, people are not greenhouse plants and a building is not a city. There is nothing wrong with a traditional city if we ignore the excessive traffic. We still have to solve that problem.

B: If I define Tradition as 'the sum of successful innovations' I define Modernism as 'the sum of failed ideas.

Bosse can cite heroic examples of this. El Lissitsky's children's book about the adventures of Two Squares is wonderful, just not for children.

D: This place can best be called traditional, a nice urban space with a mix of functions. A port with catering and business space, all kinds of people live there, and it is used heavily. The facilities are alive, and are now also supported by this Jonas. No fewer than 273 homes on a narrow headland. With that density you stimulate the middle class.

B: Aha, right. But we do not see very beautiful architecture. Strangely enough, that is exactly the opposite of a number of neighborhoods we visited earlier. Then we saw attractive architecture, but there was no mixing of functions. Here we see a nice mix of functions and the architecture lags behind.

Bosse watches the harbour, where Jonas completely takes up one of the sides.

B: I don't like tall buildings.

D: I usually don't either. It takes forever to walk past it, and verticality expresses the tightness of the city better than sprawling buildings. But here it works because it's the facade wall along the harbor, and that little kink does a lot. It is a successful kink.

B: It is a pity that the buildings here are not very attractive.

D: The context is great. The water, also before that at the lock, those quays, that bank with that cycle path. The funny thing is, if you look at the Jonas from a distance, it is perfectly in place, and it makes it that way. No draughty modernism, but an enclosed space. But when you sit here on the terrace, so close by, that facade makes a somewhat cold impression. Despite that beautiful excuse wood. How come?

B: Those double-height loggias with wood can just be called a quote that stems from Corbusier's Immeuble Clarté, in Geneva. That's the second time that name is mentioned. Is that a desire for Modernism?

D: Retromodernism. Let's go for a walk and see. First the outside, and then we try to get in. Ring the bell?

B: We'll find something.

Rewilding the city.

We pay and walk onto the quay. It's warm, the stones are shining. There is no greenery, no facade garden, no flower pots anywhere. The designers may want to keep the quay stony, but what about the heat stress?

Dijkman tends to break out wide strips of stones to welcome nature. Seeds land by themselves.

D: 'Rewilding the city' is a great trend.

B: The ground floor is currently still completely for rent and empty. Maybe things will get better here when the spaces are rented out and the owners appropriate the quay. Now it's a bit monotonous.

Chance favors us. A resident lets us in and a moment later we admire a deep quarry that cuts the building from top to bottom and end to end, a wood-clad canyon, the belly of the building.

D: Exciting and beautiful. It's a lot of wood, but it works, even if it's decorative.

B:I object to that expression: decoration and ornament are important to me, as are the symbolic value or proportions. I don't care if the rest of the world thinks these are secondary issues, I think they are of decisive importance for the quality of our living environment.

We're going upstairs. It doesn't really look inhabited. No traces of people anywhere. It is probably forbidden to put anything at your front door, by the fire department or the manager, or by the designers, for the unit. We can go up on the roof. Here we enter another world. The top apartments have an open-air spot on an artificial stream. Speaking of vacation. The other apartments have to do on the inside with a very narrow courtyard. Well, all those square meters have to come from somewhere if you want to get rid of so many residential units.

D, approving: It's actually more like a light well. There is a big difference in the quality of life of the various apartments.

B: It is a nice light well. And I think it's a great thing if there are differences. People are also different. Most people have 2 legs, and that says nothing about housing needs. Some people use their home as a pit stop, so a small, well-equipped home can be perfect.

We don't take the elevator or stairs down, but the healing track, a nice trip.

B: I hope no child ever crashes on a tricycle here.

D: It is a special building.

Outside we walk around it. There is no quay on the other side, but a shell path, nicely done. Homes have outdoor spaces and private steps down to the water. There are jetties. The word excuse wood comes up again.

We walk back. Bosse looks up along the facade.

B: I used to not find tall buildings attractive, but I grouped that under “opinions”. You can also love it, I thought at the time. Jane Jacobs has written about it: what you can still see on the street, when you can still recognize a person. In Paris you can also wave from your balcony on the sixth to a waiting boyfriend on the sidewalk.

D: A large tree, that is a nice building height. On the top floor you still have contact with the earth through the tree.

B: Indeed, and trees can reach six stories. The tallest tree in the Netherlands is 50 meters.

D: Living among the treetops feels good. Higher is another story.

B: On the thirtieth floor you live anonymously in front of the street, you have no individual representation. I once thought that could be a personal choice. At first I thought the picture Leon Krier made after the attack on the WTC was a bit exaggerated. But it is TRUE.

D: If you build on attacks.

B: Twhen Covid came, and all the high-rise residents in the same elevator car had to operate the buttons and breathe the air, I thought it was getting risky.

And now that glass plates are falling down, this time in Almere, because of too high expectations of the glue, I think buildings that are too tall are just criminal. In The Hague, those glass plates fell down on the Rijnstraat, owned by OMA. You weren't allowed to walk there then. Then buildings are killers. And engineers get a fail.

At the terrace of NAP we take another look around

D: What do you think of the building height around this harbour? I'm fine with it.

B: Yes, the building height is certainly convincing. It is a consistent and diverse whole. There are also ground-level homes in the streets behind the harbour. That makes the “eyes on the street” diverse. There are also more signs of life there. This environment could use that. Only Jonas is very big and tall and monotonous. Perhaps the most special thing about this building is that it is so inconspicuous.

D. Let's go to the Lock House. Can we compare the two.

A summer palace.

The Sluishuis turns out to be a completely different story. It presents itself solitary, striking, accessible, green and very photogenic

B: If you appreciate the individual presentation of the house, you can take a photo as a drawing by Stefan Verwey.

What a presentation of the collective!

D: Great, those balconies with all those starting plants, and that integrated water. This is a Catholic building, you can enjoy it here. Very tempting, I get that people fall for this.

A corner of the block opens up to the city. The apartments rise in terraces. The opposite corner opens to the water and takes a big sip. The apartments form a bridge. The courtyard is also a swimming area and publicly accessible.

It looks like a commercial. Children play in the water, they paddle in canoes and rowing boats. Boys jump the fastest in the water and grown men happily jump along in the courtyard. Further on, adults swim calmly towards one of the islands that also belong to the building.

In English we speak with an Asian woman who has been living there for a year. Because of the young children swimming, she worries about supervision, which is mandatory in the city where she comes from. She also lives there very happily and praises her view of the setting sun. She does say that the courtyard is almost impassable in winter because of the wind. The openings of the block then turn into windbreaks.

B: I read that people are also bothered by the sound of children playing in the courtyard. That sounds like a nice sound to me.

D: Child sound is fine. You know what's crazy? Jonas does well at a distance, and up close it's a little chilly. The Sluisgebouw works the other way around. From a distance it seems like a trick, something new again, but when you're here on such a beautiful day, damn, it's very sympathetic and lively. It works.

B:Where would you like to live? Here?

D: Haha, maybe in the Jonas I think. Because of the context. The environment here is somewhat desolate. Jonas is actually in the active city. The Sluisgebouw is more like a summer palace.

B: To come and swim.

D: Very tempting.

The facts:

Jonas:

Best building in the Netherlands according to the BNA

Architect: Orange Architects

Number of apartments: 190 rental apartments, 83 shell owner-occupied apartments, 7 units for doing business

Website: https://jonasijburg.nl/about-jonas/

Lock house:

Nearly the best building in the Netherlands according to the BNA

Architect: BIG

Number of apartments: 441 apartments of which 369 for rent

Website: https://sluishuis.nl/

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