In 2003, MVRDV completed the Silodam, a polychromatic apartment building on Amsterdam harbor that was part of an extensive urban operation that transformed a former dam and silo building. A mixed program of housing, offices, workspaces, commercial spaces, and public spaces was arranged in a 20-meter deep and ten-story-high urban envelope.
Silodam Technical Information
- Architects1-2: MVRDV
- Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Type: Housing
- Area: 19,500 m2 (165 dwellings)
- Project Year: 1995-2003
- Photographs: © Rob ‘t Hart
The economic requirements added differentiation in facade material and outside spaces. […} As a result, an unexpected sequence of semi-public routes appeared: from galleries on one side one can walk via slits and corridors to galleries on the other side and higher up. Connecting all the houses with the hall, the public balcony, the harbor, the barbeque area and garden, the library, fitness area, and toy exchange, a three-dimensional neighborhood materializes
– MVRDV Architects
Silodam Housing Block Photographs
Text by the Architects
In the western part of Amsterdam harbor, an extensive urban operation has been undertaken to densify the city and meet the market’s demands, even in one of the more vulnerable areas. A former dam with a silo building on top has been transformed into a new neighborhood that consists of a series of relatively costly components: a dam with a sunken parking lot, renovation of the old silo buildings, the required mix of less expensive social housing, the underwater protection barrier against oil tankers, the required deep piling foundation and the expensive temporary drydock constructions.
A new housing block at the end of the dam was proposed to help pay for parts of this operation. Timing helped. The Dutch real estate boom in the 1990s allowed for higher profits. Waiting for some years could generate additional income. How could MVRDV design a building that would wait?
The problem of a fast-changing housing market was approached with a series of different housing types. The demand for a wide variety of living spaces, on the one hand, led to different typologies but, on the other hand, as a counterbalance to the increasing individuality. A mixed program of 157 houses (for rent or sale), offices, workspaces, commercial spaces, and public spaces had to be arranged in a 20-meter deep and ten-story-high urban envelope.
The apartments differ in size, cost, and organization. To accommodate this process in time, a series of neighborhoods of 8 to 12 residences were created—blocks of apartments that surround a corridor, a garden, a gallery, and a hall. As a counter-form, these organizations lead to specific apartments: apartments with a panoramic view, with views on both sides, double-height flats, apartments with a patio, and apartments with a view to the harbor. The daylight requirements caused different amounts of windows for these types.
The financial obligations added differentiation in facade material and outside spaces. In time, these blocks were offered for discussion. It leads to political and economic negotiations that could span the time. Based on a four-tower organization, these blocks could be shifted. In the political discussions, a mix had to be achieved over separations, stratification, or apartheid constellations. In the economic discussions, Gauss curves accompanied the changes in demand. Up until that moment, the discussions had to be frozen. The existing situation was maintained in place.
As a result, an unexpected sequence of semi-public routes appeared: from galleries on one side, one can walk via slits and corridors to galleries on the other side and higher up. A three-dimensional neighborhood materializes by connecting all the houses with the hall, the public balcony, the harbor, the barbeque area and garden, the library, the fitness area, and the toy exchange. It became a container of houses, literally interpreting the surrounding harbor.
It is adding a 21st-century silo of houses to the next 19th- and 20th-century silos. One of the blocks contains a restaurant pushed outside of the volume. The dam has been bent through the volume. It creates a public plaza with a panoramic view of the river. It compensates for the loss of the view at the former dam. Below the balcony is an office with almost the same magnificent view.
Silodam Housing Block Plans
Silodam Housing Block Image Gallery
About MVRDV
MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The name is an acronym for the founding members Winy Maas (1959), Jacob van Rijs (1964), and Nathalie de Vries (1965).
Notes and Additional Credits
- Client: Rabo Vastgoed, Utrecht NL and De Principaal B.V, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Budget: EUR 16.8 million (EUR 861/ m2)
