Amsterdam's Architecture Over The Years

Amsterdam has witnessed many architectural changes during its existence as a capital. From its earliest canal houses to its recent "modernisation", it is a widespread array of fascinating design and architecture. Throughout this short guide, I wish to take you through these ages, demonstrating the designs, the reasons for them, the way of living and the way the architecture developed around the community. This guide focuses mainly on the last one hundred years, looking in depth at the gradual changes made to this great city, and its surrounding areas. I will also look at the great architectural achievements made over time in this area, looking at their design purposes and influences.

Older architecture

Central Amsterdam ages back to over 700 years, but most of the buildings seen today were built in Amsterdam's "Golden age", about 250-500 years ago.

The "Golden age" was the period when most of what is now known as central Amsterdam was built. Some people think it is Amsterdam's best architectural achievement. Probably the most prominent building built within this time period is the canal house. These line all the canals in the centre of Amsterdam. Every canal house was built to be unique from any other, though built with the same shape, each one was personalised with an ornamental piece, such as the gables and plaques. Another method was to put very decorative carvings on the "neck" of a house. This is called "necking".

The picture on the right is an excellent example of necking.

Due to the swamp like quality of the reclaimed land under Amsterdam, it was very hard to build buildings. Because of this wooden stilts were used to support the houses. They were driven into the wet ground before construction for support. Now due to the wet ground some of these supports are rotting, causing houses to tilt and sink into the earth. The picture on the left is of a house on the Keizergracht, it has gradually sunk into the ground over the years causing it to lean sideways.

During the time period in which these houses were built, your house taxes depended on the frontage. Meaning your taxes were determined by the width of your house. Therefore the sneaky Dutch built their houses deep and narrow to avoid severe taxing. For this same reason the staircases are very narrow and low, making it impossible to take furniture up and down them. To solve this problem hooks were put at the top of every house to winch goods up and pass them through the windows on the needed floor.

This picture shows two such hooks at the top of the buildings.

Because of the heights of the buildings and the width of the streets barely any sunlight reaches the roads, this luckily is saved by the canals which give an illusion of space by reflecting the sky.

Oude Kerk

The Oude Kerk is a very unique building situated in the centre of Amsterdam. Built in 1260 it is Amsterdam's oldest church and is now one of Europe's monuments.

Hugging the sides of the old church are little alms houses, looking like small cottages.

The church was stripped of all artefacts during the reformation and now only has a few faded vault paintings and a beautiful stained glass window of the sixteenth century. Rembrandts wife Saskia is also buried here and this is commemorated by a plaque. The original tomb was apparently sold off by Rembrandt to pay for the burial of his second wife.

Other famous old buildings

* Rijksmuseum 1885 P.J.H. Cuypers

* Niewe Kerk 1350 unknown

* Montelbaanstoren 1512 Hendrick de Keyser

* Sint Nicholaaskerk 1887 A.C Bleys

* Magna plaza 1899 C.P. Peters

* Central station 1889 P.J.H. Cuypers

* The royal palace of Amsterdam 1648 Jacob van Campen

Bridges

Within Amsterdam there are hundreds of bridges. A majority of these are drawbridges needed to allow big boats through the cities canals. Bridges have been around in Amsterdam ever since its start, needed primarily to get from island to island of the reclaimed land. Slowly as the city expanded more and more bridges were needed and the number is still growing now. You'll find that the further you go out of Amsterdam the more modern the bridges get. The oldest being in the centre and the most modern on the out skirts. The picture to the right is one of the more modern designs of drawbridge, though towards the middle of the city the most remain the old design from centuries ago.

Interior

The interiors of these old canal houses are very deep and narrow. This means they are pretty small but the amount of floors makes up for the space. Since the rooms are pretty narrow the space is not that great, which makes it hard to put in furniture and move around. The rooms are very light due to the huge front windows, this makes the space seem bigger and more open. The interior of most of the rooms is pretty grand, with ornate ceilings and fireplaces. This however is usually only in the first and second floors, as this is where the guests and home owners would usually stay. The other floors would not be as grand as they were usually reserved for the maids, workers, nannies and children. The workers would also have there own separate door below the main one for their own access.

This ground plan of a common Amsterdam canal house really gives an impression of the sizes and dimensions. You can see the minimal frontage and real depth, and how the rooms are very small.

Amsterdam School

After world war one, architects were given huge housing projects intended to replace the slums and expand the city.

There was much discussion over what designs should be included and different architects had different ideas. Mainly they were designed to have larger floor plans to escape from the very small ones found in the centre of Amsterdam. They also were designed with balconies that overlooked central gardens to create a community effect and to have a selling feature of a garden.

Most of the buildings were built in very ornate original styles and interested the public greatly on their appearance. The apartments were light and