Vrijburcht

In 2000 the City of Amsterdam held a competition for a collective residential building on the south-western point of Steigereiland. Steigereiland is part of the expansion district of IJburg that consists of a series of artificially constructed islands in the IJmeer. The city council had cleared the way for the experiment on Steigereiland, including the provision of many plots for both private individuals and collective commissions. The Vrijburcht foundation was set up especially for the competition and consisted of a group of friends, among whom architect Hein de Haan of CASA architecten. The foundation’s plan was selected for the location. Residential building BO1 in the East Harbour Area of Amsterdam developed earlier by CASA served as an example of their work. Housing association De Key played an important role by standing surety in the development phase and providing continued management of a number of the project’s components…