As an architectural frontrunner of NDSM, an up-and-coming neighbourhood in Amsterdam north, Pontkade, is designed as a bridge between its industrial past and its vibrant future.Both designed by de Architekten Cie., Pontkade embodies fundaments of the NDSM masterplan. As urbanism in architectural form, it is establishing a benchmark for the NDSM architecture to come.
An insatiable desire for “growth” puts high pressure on the social landscape of Amsterdam. It is often the task of an urban plan to provide a strategic vision of a balance between public values and private interests. The NDSM masterplan finds this balance in preserving the eastern part of the old shipyard for events, art and culture, while the western part has been allocated for a high-density development (FAR 4,5), combining living, working, culture and leisure programme. In this way, this masterplan should be understood as a highly contextual development strategy.
Pontkade itself is a block, where each part has its own architecture and façade material. What they all share is the raw and sturdy character of the shipyard and functional architecture fitting the industrially efficient logic of the old site. Precise façade design while simultaneously keeping a balance between all parts was a result of de Architekten Cie. teamwork.
As we contemplate this future neighbourhood while gazing at its prototype - Pontkade, we become aware of it as a member of another, much rarer urban condition. Built on an Amsterdam ferry landing (Pont) it welcomes the new arrivals from the city centre to the new land.
The arrival by water creates a gradual impression where Pontkade and NDSM unmistakably become one, visually discernible in the variety of functions and apartment types, enriching an ever-growing landscape of Amsterdam, its neighbourhoods and their respective architectural languages.
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