Botel to Move to Amsterdam’s New Culture Centre

Amsterdam Botel will move to Amsterdam’s latest artistic and cultural hotspot in January 2007. Its new home will be the former NDSM-shipyard in Amsterdam North, at the Mt Ondinaweg, 1033 Amsterdam. This colourful and vital dockside area now houses workshops and artists’ studios, hip cafes and restaurants, exhibitions and performances.

The NDSM shipyard is a major new sustainable tourism destination in Amsterdam. It will provide FREE public parking spaces for cars as well as busses, and it is just a 5 minutes drive from the Amsterdam Ring road A10. There is also a FREE 10-minute ferry connection to and from Amsterdam Central Station.

Late 1999, a group of artists, theater people, skaters and architects calling themselves Kinetisch Noord approached the local council with a plan to redevelop the former shipyard. In June 2002, Kinetisch Noord presented its plan to turn the NDSM into the largest hotbed for artistic talent in the Netherlands. Working closely with tenants, Kinetisch Noord has built affordable studios and other working spaces. NDSM builds the basic units that the tenants then complete themselves, giving everyone a say in the costs, quality and design of their own spaces. The wharf also offers ample opportunities for exhibitions, try-outs, large and small performances, festival, parties and other events.

A former shipyard on the northern banks of the IJ and larger than 10 football fields, the NDSM wharf is now a center for underground culture in Amsterdam. This huge area contains the NDSM hall, a hangar-like structure 20,000 sq. meters in area and 20 meters in height, the 6,000-sq. meter Docklandshal and two historic ship slipways(Hellingen) housing workshops and artists’ studios.

The NDSM wharf offers facilities for a number of artistic disciplines and small crafts. The wharf has also become a sanctuary for individual artists and craftspeople as well as for independent organizations, both established and less known, to cooperate, inspire and create.

Late 1999, a group of artists, theater people, skaters and architects calling themselves Kinetisch Noord approached the local council with a plan to redevelop the former shipyard. In June 2002, Kinetisch Noord presented its plan to turn the NDSM into the largest hotbed for artistic talent in the Netherlands. Working closely with tenants, Kinetisch Noord has built affordable studios and other working spaces. NDSM builds the basic units that the tenants then complete themselves, giving everyone a say in the costs, quality and design of their own spaces.

The wharf also offers ample opportunities for exhibitions, try-outs, large and small performances, festival, parties and so on. The NDSM tenants are working on a number of projects on the site, some of which are complete including:

1. Dazzleville, painted temporary workshops covering some 900 sq. meters iin the outdoor area.

2. The Oostvleugel (East Wing), theater studios and performance areas to the east of the NDSM hall covering 2,250 sq. meters.

3. Kunststad (Art City), more than 7,000 sq. meters of stacked workshops and free lots in the NDSM hall.

4. Section 4, a youth area covering more than 4,000 sq. meters with a skate park, a boulder/cave, music studios, multi-functional project spaces and a hip-hop school.

5. The Noordstrook, 6,000 sq. meters of artists’ studios, artists’ homes, cafÈs and restaurants and experimental programming and exhibition areas.

6. De Houten Kop pavilion, a cafÈ and performance area made from recycled materials and straw.

7. Hellingen (slipways) X and Y, 2,500 sq. meters of traditional studios and an underground canteen for those working at the wharf.

8. Renewable energy, a heat pump, a windmill attached to a crane, prayer and gas station ‘God and Gas’ for spirituality and mobility (the gas station pumps vegetable oil) and mobile gardens and a mobile library.

For more info:

http://www.gvb.nl/reizigers/soortenvervoer/veerndsm.html>

http://www.amstelbotel.nl/ 

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