Het Schip

Het Schip (The Ship) is a building complex in the Spaarndammerbuurt neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The complex in the architectural style of the Amsterdam School was designed by Michel de Klerk in 1919. It originally contained 102 homes (now 82) for the working class, a small meeting hall, a post office, and an elementary school. Since 2001, the former school and post office are used as a museum about the Amsterdam School.

Historical background

In the 19th and early 20th century, Amsterdam faced a major housing shortage, with many working-class people living in cramped quarters with no electricity or running water. Heating was usually provided by burning peat, and poor families often lived in a single room together.

In response to these squalid conditions, the Dutch government passed the National Housing Act (''Woningwet'') in 1901. This law set up much higher standards for housing and resulted in both the demolition of older, inadequate tenement buildings and the creation of new housing blocks with much better living conditions and prices that made them accessible to Amsterdam's poorer citizens. The new law also set aside financial resources for the development of low-income housing. One of the affordable housing developments created in the wake of the passage of the National Housing Act was the Spaarndammerbuurt, where Het Schip and several other Amsterdam School social housing projects are located.

Much of the new low-income housing was financed by cooperative housing associations run by groups such as workers' collectives, socialist organizations, religious groups. One such group was Eigen Haard, or "our own hearth," a socialist group that commissioned Michel de Klerk to design and build three blocks of proletarian housing, including Het Schip.

Amenities

The apartments of Het Schip were a radical departure from the poor living conditions of many of Amsterdam's working-class people in the 20th century. Relatively spacious, they include several separate rooms as opposed to the one-room dwellings still common at the time. They also included flush toilets and had ample natural light and ventilation from windows. Ground-floor apartments also had gardens.

The building also includes a post office, which the poor had previously had little access to. The post office contained a telephone box from which families could make calls.

Gallery

Exterior and collection

Michel de Klerk Spaarndammerplantsoen Amsterdam.jpg, Perspective drawing by Michel de Klerk, 1917
Het schip zuidgevel zaanstraat.jpg, Southern facade with design windows
Amsterdam Het Schip 007.JPG, Tower
Rijksmonument 3961 Huizenblok Het Schip Amsterdam 23.JPG, Tower interior
Amsterdam Het Schip 005.JPG, Hembrugstraat-Zaanstraat corner
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Binnenplaats met straatmeubilair zoals een toilet, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Museum court: a design public toilet
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Binnenplaats met ornament van woningbouwvereniging Eigen Haard op de gevel, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Museum court: a brick ornament of the Amsterdam building society Eigen Haard
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Trap met houten ornament, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Museum school: staircase with a wooden ornament
Museum Het Schip, klok foto3.JPG, Museum: design clock
Museum Het Schip, Meubels foto3.JPG, Museum: design table

Post office

Amsterdam Het Schip 001.JPG, Post office exterior
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Hoek Zaanstraat - Spaarndammerplantsoen met een sculptuur in baksteen, Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office: outside view detail of the corner of the Zaanstraat - Spaarndammerplantsoen with a brick sculpture
Het schip postkantoor telefooncel.jpg, Post office: design telephone cell with the inscription "Spreek" ("Speak")
Het schip postkantoor deur 2.jpg, Post office: design door with fist and text "Verboden" ("Restricted area")
Het schip postkantoor deur.jpg, Post office: design post office front door
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Pop van een ambtenaar van de Post in zwart uniform met pet. Loketten. Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office: a mannequin of a post official in uniform with cap
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Tentoonstelling. Textielen PTT-merken voor uniformen, metalen knopen met PTT-opschrift. Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office exhibition: textile tags for PTT postal uniforms, metal buttons with PTT inscriptions
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Schild "Post en Telegraaf Kantoor". Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office: a shield "Post en Telegraaf Kantoor"
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Plafond met kartelranddecoratie als van een postzegel. Raam. Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post coffice: ceiling with a decoration imitating the edge of a deckled post stamp
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Hal met telefooncel en bureau, gezien vanaf de balie. Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office: hall with a design telephone booth and writing desk, seen from the counter
Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Schrijftafel bij een uitstekend raamkozijn. Postkantoor Zaanstraat, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Post office: a writing desk in front of a design protruding window frame

Museum housing

Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip - Krotwoning, Amsterdam 2020.jpg, Museum court: a slum lodging
Museum Het Schip, Vergaderhuisje foto 5.JPG, Design office building "vergaderhuisje"
Het schip museumwoning huiskamer.jpg, Museum apartment: living room
Het schip museumwoning keuken.jpg, Museum apartment: kitchen
Amsterdam Het Schip 010.JPG, Museum apartment: bedroom

References

External links

Het Schip
museum website


on the website of Roger Shepherd (archived)

{{Authority control

Schip, Het
Apartment buildings in the Netherlands
Architecture museums in the Netherlands
Brick buildings and structures
Brick Expressionism
Modernist architecture in the Netherlands
Museums in Amsterdam
Residential buildings completed in 1919
Rijksmonuments in Amsterdam