Borneo-Sporenburg

Now that my 'stint' in Holland is very close to its due date, there was still one last thing in Amsterdam I had my heart on seeing. Before I had left South Africa, I was reading 'False Flat: Why Dutch Design is so Good’. A good chunk of one of the books chapter was dedicated to Borneo-Sporenburg, a new take on traditional Dutch canal housing designed by West8 Architects. I had set aside some time in my day to see it, and actually had some trouble locating the dock itself. Turns out, I was pretty much in front of it, I just had to lower my expectations in reality from the perfectly cropped images I had seen in the design books and blogs.

‘Two peninsulas in the eastern part of the Amsterdam docks, were to be exploited for water-related activities, as well as2500 low-rise dwelling units, with a density of 100 units per hectare. For anew interpretation of the traditional Dutch canal house, West 8 suggested new types of three-storey, ground-accessed houses deviating from the usual terraced house in being strongly oriented to the private realm by incorporating patio sand roof gardens. By repeating this type in a great variety of dwelling modes and with maximum architectural variation, an animated street elevation emerges with a focus on the individual. At a larger scale, a delicately balanced relationship exists between the repetition of the individual dwellings, the roof scape and the great scale of the docks. Three immense sculptural blocks take their place as landmarks in the vast expanse of houses.’-West8 Architects

 

RISE AND FALL

I awoke to a late Saturday morning and jumped out of bed to set out on my journey to Amsterdam for the weekend, yet again. Driebergen to Utrecht, and Utrecht Centraal to Amstel station, a mere block away from Basti's flat. On arrival we went to a local street market for fresh orange juice and a bite to eat followed by coffee at the cafe' we seem to have made our regular spot on my Amsterdam weekend stays in the city. Basti and I speak about a lot of things, mostly relationships, people and generally just wanting to be happy. He's cool like that.

Later on in the day I met up with Marie, a South African Friend who I had met a few months ago in SA through a mutual friend we shared. Our initial plan of visiting the Rijks museum was short lived once our eyes set sight on the queue.

Instead we opted to walk through Vondel park and catch up. The weather had cleared up quite nicely with sunny skies all around. We wandered through the red light disctrict and Dam square and I even spotted  the Old Amsterdam cheese store that I had seen so much about on design blogs and magazines.

We also may have set foot inside a coffee shop or two, as one does in Amsterdam. This stopover lasted longer than Marie and I anticipated. We ended up sitting on a few steps just watching people walk by for hours. We eventually set out to a friends place via tram. I was completely freaked out at this thought. I had never taken one before and in all honesty felt claustrophobic in the people moving machine. A lot of deep breaths were taken, but we prevailed and after what felt like 2 hours of walking around and taking one tram to the next we were greeted with open arms by my good old friend Reinoud.

The rest of the night was followed by drinks at Bar Nel and shocking service at Café de Fles. Their food however was incredible, as expensive as it was. Marie and I shared the "Geitenkaas salade" (goats cheese salad) which had goats cheese wrapped up in phyllo pastry on a bed of leaves with a dash of balsamic vinegar, fresh berries and some sort of caramelised nut shard thing ( a whopping 14 Euros= 150 ZAR), It was tastebud heaven and although I paid an arm and a leg for a salad, I was pretty pleased the meal didn't involve any bread or potatoes!

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Sunday was by far the most miserable day. It rained, and rained and rained, and it just didn't stop, I had left my bike outside the Rijks museum the previous day and had been putting off collecting by telling myself  I'd go when it stopped raining, It didn't. Resulting in facing my fear of taking the tram to the museum and biking back in rain and wind. It took me the entire day to convince myself to go and do such a meagre task. Sometimes the rainy weather here can make you the laziest person in the world. To justify this, as I write this post I am lying in bed whilst it rains quite severely outside...