Affordable Housing in Noord

Ams­ter­dam-Noord is a work­ers’ hous­ing area in tran­si­tion. It con­sists of a mix of gar­den cities from the 1920s and post-war res­i­den­tial devel­op­ments. After decades of neglect, a process of gen­tri­fi­ca­tion is cur­rent­ly under­way – and arous­es con­sid­er­able controversy.

In Van de Pekbu­urt, hous­ing cor­po­ra­tion Ymere recent­ly real­ized a prize-win­ning, large-scale ren­o­va­tion scheme. Adja­cent neigh­bour­hood Bloe­men­bu­urt is also in trans­for­ma­tion: Built in the ear­ly 1930s, it con­sist­ed of social rental apart­ments, which have part­ly been merged into larg­er free-sec­tor rental hous­es. A short ride with the new metro leads to Plan van Gool, a hous­ing area from the 1960s, which has also recent­ly under­gone a ren­o­va­tion. The aim was to bring the hous­ing blocks up to stan­dard — regard­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty as well as safety.

We’ll take you on a tour through work­ing class hous­ing areas in tran­si­tion, high­light­ing the best ren­o­va­tion and trans­for­ma­tion projects.

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Programme: Affordable Housing in Noord

  • Expla­na­tions about hous­ing mod­els and the rental sys­tem in the Nether­lands: social rent, free sec­tor rent, own­er­ship. Finan­cial mod­els, reg­u­la­tions, cur­rent challenges.
  • Van der Pekbu­urt: list­ed gar­den city, recent­ly ren­o­vat­ed (Jan Ernst van der Pek, 1926 / Ren­o­va­tion by hous­ing cor­po­ra­tion Ymere, 2014–2023)
  • Mosplein: new shop­ping cen­tre with 53 apart­ments and 140 park­ing spaces (SeArch, 2016) 
  • Dis­tel­dorp: tiny hous­es from the 1st World War 
  • Bloe­men­bu­urt: 1930s gar­den city bor­der­ing Noorderpark
  • Hous­ing area Plan van Gool: apart­ment slabs with pedes­tri­an bridges  (F.J. van Gool, 1962–68 / De Architek­ten­Cie, 2018)

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