What is innovative about this project?

  • Project planning and management:   Architectural and design approaches that allow individual housing buildings to address a combination of purposes (housing, economic, leisure, nature, etc.).
  • Project planning and management: Attracting and including private capital as a source for funding lighthouse districts.
  • Technical: Maximising circularity in district renovation or construction.

Kleiburg is the last original honeycomb style apartment block in Amsterdam. A cornerstone of the Bijlmermeer district, a modernist enclave that slowly became a derelict and deprived no-go area of the Dutch capital. Given the high investment costs that such a renovation would entail, the building owner at the time – the Rochdale social housing association – was left with no other alternative but demolition. Consortium DeFlat – a team of motivated private developers – saw an opportunity to preserve the original building structure and architectural character and promote an alternative business model. Reducing the investment costs to a minimum only allowed for the refurbishment of the main buildings structure and façades while apartments were sold unfinished at an affordable price for residents to re-design themselves. Since then, the Kleiburg has become a thriving neighbourhood and is widely recognised as the largest ‘DIY home’ project in the Netherlands.

Local Partnership

  • Company: Consortium DeFlat: KondorWessels Vastgoed; Hendriks CPO; Vireo Vastgoed; Hollands Licht
  • Municipality: City of Amsterdam
  • Housing provider: Social housing corporation Rochdale
  • Other: NL Architects, XVW architectuur (architects); Kondor Wessels Amsterdam (contractor); Rossum Raadgevende Ingenieurs Amsterdam bv (structure); Schreuder Groep (building physics); Homij Technische Installaties (installations); De Wijde Blik and Bureau MEST (communications, marketing and branding).

The Social housing corporation Rochdale agreed with the City of Amsterdam to tear down Kleiburg due to its state of dereliction. This was however overturned at the last minute. The City then contracted with the Consortium DeFlat – consisting of KondorWessels Vastgoed, Hendriks CPO, Vireo Vastgoed and Hollands Licht, to renovate the estate. Private developer KondorWessels acquired Kleiburg from Rochdale and transformed it into a DIY apartment block which became known as ‘DeFlat’. The communication and Marketing team De Wijde Blik and Bureau MEST were essential in attracting new residents and shifting the public image of the neighbourhood.

Key Facts

  • Year of construction: 1973
  • Renovation period: 2014-2016
  • Area of intervention (m²): 66,000 m²
  • Number of dwellings (before/after): Before: 400 After: 500
  • Housing typology: multi-apartment buildings
  • Housing tenure:  owner-occupied
  • Number of residents: 100.000
  • Shared facilities: Workspaces; day care; Bijlmer Museum; community gardening

Financial information

  • Funding sources: KondorWessels Vastgoed
  • Total cost of renovation (€): N/A
  • Subsidies received (€): N/A
  • Rent before and after renovation (€/month): N/A
  • Energy bill (€/month): N/A

Context

Kleiburg is located in the Bijlmermeer, a residential expanse of the city of Amsterdam designed in the 1960s inspired by modernist utopia. De Bijlmermeer was designed as a single project and intended as a green, light and spacious alternative for the (at that time) unfavoured Amsterdam city centre. The district was built with multi-family blocks (a single slab) designed along a hexagonal grid in a vertical Garden City concept. Traffic modalities were radically separated; cars on elevated roads and bicycles and pedestrians on ground level. Although the Bijlmermeer had promising start, with the years that enthusiasm wore down as the building stock degraded and the neighbourhood emptied. As the overall physical decay of the buildings was accompanied by poverty, social disorder and an overall sense of insecurity (petty crime, youth gangs, drug problems) belonging to the district quickly fell into a stigma (a ‘ghetto’).

In view of the high costs associated with a needed deep renovation (estimated at 70 million euros), the social housing owner Rochdale had plans to demolish the Kleiburg blocks and build anew. All residents had already been moved out when demolition was averted ‘at the last minute’. The city of Amsterdam decided then that an alternative plan should be pursued: selling off Kleiburg for one euro in an attempt to catalyse alternative, economically viable plans. The consortium DeFlat was the winning bidder and launched an innovative renovation approach for the derelict estate, by included turning it into a Klusflat, meaning that the inhabitants renovate their apartments by themselves.

Goals

  • Renovate the main building structures with minimal investment as a new business model for housing renovation in the Netherlands.
  • Open up new ways to live, to offer new typologies by combining several flats into one, by making vertical and horizontal connections.
  • Improve the perception of safety in the area.
  • Achieve a social mix in an attractive and varied housing stock.
  • Overcome the stigma associated to the ‘ghetto’, while preserving its cultural heritage and legacy.

Interventions

  • Renovation of the main building structure – including elevators, galleries and installations – while leaving the apartments empty.
  • Delivery of incomplete flats. To keep costs down, residents were expected to cover the installation of the kitchen, bathroom, and individual heating systems, as well as the flat furniture. A catalogue of modules (customised layouts and furnishing options to personalise apartments) was also available to choose from. This entailed a ‘Do it Yourself’ approach for the dwelling completion.
  • Relocation of storerooms on the upper levels, opening up the ground level for apartments, workspaces, small businesses and day care centres. Originally the storage units were located on the ground floor creating a ‘blind zone’ for the residents, which was prone to petty crime.
  • Replacement of interior passageways formerly connecting parking spaces with larger gateways adding permeability and visibility to the ground floor.
  • Placement of double glass windows in each floor corridor. Before renovation, the corridors were devoid of windows.

Impact

  • The project is a case study of salvaging existing buildings from demolition and alternative business models.
  • Today, Kleiburg and the wider Bijlmer have become a recognised example of ‘ghetto’ dissolution in Amsterdam. The image has changed and now accommodates a diversity of residents – age, income and ethnical background.
  •  The DeFlat consortium was able to keep some of the cultural heritage of the neighbourhood (modernist style), and transform it into an open, permeable space.
  • The DIY approach enabled residents to purchase a home for a reasonable price and apply a customised look within a large block of flats.
  •  The fact that so many residents were involved in the renovation work created a feeling of ownership and togetherness which had an effect on the entire local area and taking social cohesion to a new level.
  •  The renovation brought with it a considerable rise in the value of the buildings. Even though the original flats were put up for affordable prices, the recent overall hike in housing prices in Amsterdam was also reflected in Kleiburg. The flats in Kleiburg are now being sold by the residents for twice or three times their original price of 2014.
  • Since May 2019, the district became a municipally protected cityscape and integrated in the so-called Bijlmer Museum, which is managed by the Bijlmer Museum Foundation.

Advice to future “Lighthouse Districts”

  • Look for alternative business models. Renovating the structure of Kleiburg at minimum investment cost was a challenge that the DIY housing sale model helped achieving.
  • Count with marketing and communication experts also to change the public perception of a neighbourhood. At the outset overturning the negative image of Bijlmer was deemed problematic. This is why marketing and communication specialists were hired to overturn it. For example, they organised social activities such as community dinners and film screenings in the buildings to get potential residents acquainted with the area;
  • Develop a working catalogue or prototype units to show how the apartments would look like and the potential of the entire district once the renovation is concluded.
  • Consider legal obligations to renovated dwellings affordable after renovation as well (in a given timeframe) to ensure gentrification does not occur.