Regeneration of the Hamerstraat area in Amsterdam

Abstract

My design of ‘The Hamer’ is aimed at the improvement of the qualities that can be made in the transformation of an industrial area into a mixed working living area. The different actors are: the owners of the land and its properties, the municipality and its responsibility for the public space, the current inhabitants, and of course the possible new inhabitants. In this transformation, I tried to attribute the Hamerstraat area a prominent place on the map of Amsterdam and to provide it with abundant values for the area and its close surroundings by taking a multidisciplinary perspective, integrating insights from architecture and urbanism. In my project, I started out with a pilot study on the location in order to arrive at a well-articulated problem definition. This resulted in the idea to regenerate the old industrial area of the Hamerstraat into a work living community. As a next step, I conducted a problem analysis to define basic principles which would enable me to translate the optimal transformation of the Hamerstraat area into a proposal for urban design and another one for architectural design. By continuously formulating and testing hypotheses, I tried to come up with the design of the region that would give the most suitable answer to the analysis. The design of the Hamer is directed in the first place to improve the accessibility of the whole area. In my plan for urban design, the East- West connections string together the different neighborhoods and the park whereas the North-South connections make the waterfront accessible. The strip can be seen as a place where public programs can be implemented while taking into account the historical morphological structures and monumental buildings and give them new meaning. In this way it integrates the existing industries with possible new developments on the waterfront. My plan for architectural design resulted in the construction of a ROC Plaza with opportunities for student housing and public facilities while focusing on the transformation of urban morphology and changes in building typology.