protoTAGS and validators

Tram wagons http://prototag.hyperbody.nl/prototag.php?id=TQgQjbLyJnShebt8hP2XIQ

Space between MTV and Red Bull http://prototag.hyperbody.nl/prototag.php?id=158gBovxL4QJf3kPDZz5Gw

Sofa in Kunststad http://prototag.hyperbody.nl/prototag.php?id=8JteR98bzXT9CBsHpTrdhQ

Validators

Tim, Photographer working in Kunststad http://prototag.hyperbody.nl/protoTAG.php?id=fMtdUvUZxTTFoRsF0Gr8Fg

Maarten, Urban planning student living in container housing http://prototag.hyperbody.nl/protoTAG.php?id=LAE8XOdp9mSJXfLqWeRqmw

NDSM Ecosystem

NDSM is a vibrant area of a former shipyard in Amsterdam Noord. Currently occupied by different kinds of users (creative buisnesses, companies workers, artists, skaters, students). One of its qualities, which attracts so many people to the area is its informal, guerilla character. Graffiti, sculpture, reuse, industrial interventions and even abandoned tram wagons can be found there. So far there's not much control over the area, activities taking place there have organically grown.

What makes its users so fond of the place is that they acctually think of it as theirs. A good example can be artists working at Kunstad. They were given an empty unit of space in the warehouse, which they had to build and arrange themselves, which automatically made them strongly connected to the area - the adaptation of space reflects the needs of its users.

Currently the NDSM area is a mix of vast open spaces and densely occupied, closed ones. People there are either exposed to all kind of factors, or closed in their working environment.

vs

Concept - Industrial Garden

A need for a space introducing other density qualities to the area emerges. An space, where people can adopt the space to their current needs - they can either be exposed to others, isolated from each other, or stay in a semi-private area, having contact with each other if they wish to. Individuals, pairs or larger groups of people can used it, the space will change with its users.

Analogy to nature, which always provides the best sollutions can be observed - such qualities exists in a forest or a garden. It'a a place, where people escape from everyday life, work to relax. Trees provide shelter from rain, sun or wind, but the connection to weather conditions is still strong. One of the most important qualities of nature is its adaptibility and constant change and that's what needds to be adopted from the garden idea. Planting a forest at NDSM is not a solution, but finding a way of translating its principles into urban, industrial context - an Industrial Garden.

Qualities of a garden:

- semi-isolation

- intimacy

- shelter

- constant change

- relaxation

- lack of disturbing factors

How to provide such qualities in NDSM, without destroying it's character?

One of the most valuable qualities of the NDSM site, which needs to be preserved is the “freedom of rules”. Industrial garden provides interactive shelters for people, reacting to changing weather conditions and social needs.

Current Users

Social aspect of the NDSM site is that it's mostly used as a transit area to other parts of Amsterdam Noord, turist destination and work place (apart from restaurants and living areas). People who work there (artists in Kunststad, Red Bull and Mtv workers) chose this area and are connected to it (the connection is strong, because artists working in Kunststad rented a space in the warehouse and had to build their working environment themselves), but still most of the time they spend in closure.

Students occupying the container houses represent a different approach. They mostly use their containers to sleep and migrate for the whole day to Amsterdam. They don’t have a feeling of being connected to the NDSM and use it as a transfer site. From their point of view the area doesn’t offer them anything interesting.

It changes its character in summer time, when the festival season starts. Then the flow of people is much bigger.

Connections and future users

The neighbouring projects, which are de markt, media lab and ccc introduce new activities to the ecosystem of ndsm and new users as well. The idea of Industrial Garden is to adresses their needs. The media lab focuses on workshops for children and youth, which means they’ll need a space to play . It also has a canteen and a kitchen, connected directly to the project by the northern façade of the warehouse for which the Garden provides sheltering in the summer. The target group of CCC are corporate workers, who will need a place to relax and have a break as well as the users of de markt, located between MTV and Red Bull offices.

The introduction of this kind of space will also provide a change in the way NDSM is used throughout the day. Currently, due to it's working character it's occupied in working hours, from 8-17, but with encouraging inhabitants to use the area as well this cycle can be lenghtened.