De Bowling - How squatting helped preserve Amsterdam Noord

Amsterdam, a city that has become notorious for its housing crisis, has set itself the goal of building 20,000 new homes by 2035, with a focus on densifying already existing neighborhoods while also improving their environment. However, with these new plans of investing in already existing communities, residents fear the impact gentrification might have on their neighbourhoods and their way of life. 

The neighbourhoods being targeted in this new plan include Osdorpplein, ArenApoort, Zuidas, and also Buikslotermeerplein on the north side of the city. At the center of this neigbourhood in Noord lies an abandoned bowling alley: De Bowling, also commonly known as De Bunker by ‘Noorderners’. Erected in the 1980s, the centre has long been abandoned, and an eyesore according to those around it. Plans to demolish it were made in 2011, but then squatters invaded the building in 2016 and have been living there ever since. Although different squatters have come and gone in the past almost decade, their goal remains the same: to inhabit the building in order to protect it’s fate from becoming another “grotesque plan” of the municipality, keeping it a symbol of the old Noord, before the arrival of “gentrification and the cupcake supply stores”. 

Despite not having similar methods of execution, another group of people from the area share the same goal: Verdedig Noord, or “Defend North”, is a community-run association focused on protecting social housing in Noord, prioritising Noordeners so that they can continue living there comfortably, and promoting cultural institutions in the neighbourhood, among other stances. They stand by the idea that development should be done with the collaboration of the community, and not just to them. They are associated with Coöperatie 5711, named after the zone code for Amsterdam Noord,  made up of unified efforts from Verdedig Noord, Productiehuis Noord (a production house), Kringloopbedrijf De Lokatie (a thrift shop) and the architectural firm Bright, whose founding partner Thijs van Spandook wants to create an inclusive community centre from  the abandoned De Bowling.

“There’s no neighborhood centre, there’s no activity centre for kids or young people,” says Thijs, speaking of the Buiksloteermeerplein. “So we said ‘Hey, can we turn it into a community art centre or something like that?’ A place for the community where people can work on cultural expression, whether it’s music, film, photography, theatre, exhibitions, or whatever is the need of the community.”

Verdedig Noord’s plans for De Bowling represent their fight to preserve Amsterdam Noord. They made plans to buy the building from the municipality and dedicate it to the needs and history of the neighbourhood: “That’s also very much about the history, the storytelling, of Amsterdam North - can we also connect it to the idea of this building? That was how it started”.

Although the municipality initially bought the building in order to demolish it, many obstacles prevented that from happening, most notoriously the defiant stance of the squatters and their occupation. This led the municipality to hold an open call for what to do with the building, to which Coöperatie 5711 pitched their plan and, after some time, were finally accepted. 

Local urban development expert Eva DeKlerk was then called in: “My purpose in my professional work is dedicated to creating an affordable workspace,” she says. “I also live in the neighbourhood, so I think it’s really cool. They have all the people from the neighbourhood involved, and it’s very much a neighbourhood thing.”

Eva has previously worked on other projects representing alternative forms of urban development, such as Skatepark Noord in Amsterdam, or the Templehof abandoned airport in Berlin. Her goal with De Bowling was to ensure that a fair, market-based sales price for the building would be proposed to the local community association. “The price was €2.4 million, and then I came there and said ‘What!?’ That is the market, but we are now talking about the benchmark of neighbourhood co-op. It’s not the same thing.” She eventually managed to negotiate the price from €2.4 million down to €600,000, paving the way for the project to commence. As a local of the neighbourhood and acquaintance of some of the members of Verdedig Noord, she was also a part of the community outcry for inclusivity in urban development. “I also live in the neighbourhood, and it’s very much a neighbourhood thing. The city of Amsterdam asked me to help out lead the group, because, of course, they were also a little bit afraid of Verdedig Noord. But, it’s a super nice group. I said ‘Okay, I’ll help’. I’ve known Munty since he was 14 years old. I gave him his first job so that he could finance his first mixtape, so we go back 20 years.”

Although everything seems to be going according to Coöperatie 5711’s plans, it means that the squatters still residing in the building have finally reached the end of their stay. Previously, there seems to have been some back and forth between the squatters and the co-op about what to do with the building, and what will become of the squatters: “They (the co-op) are in good contact with the squatters. I think they are trying to account for everybody in the whole process, of course. At the same time, I come from the squatting team. I also believe that if you are a squatter, you could also come up with a plan. You cannot just shout out ‘it’s not fair’. Come on, you know you’ve been here for ten years, you had time to make a plan,” is the opinion of Eva. 

Thijs, however, is hopeful for collaboration and input from those that still reside in the building: “It’s a bit of a struggle. As Verdedig Noord, we really value the role of the squatter movement in Amsterdam, and it’s a very necessary thing. So, in the beginning of our initiative, when it was first published, there was a bit of negativity between us - ‘Hey, what’s happening here? Are we going to be pushed out?!’ - but then we came in contact with the people that actually did live in the building and we were able to develop some kind of agreement on the future of the building. Also, they understood that it’s not going to be housing, it’s not going to be market-oriented. It’s going to be something else, something community-owned. In the principles of the squatter movement, you cannot really squat something from the community, I guess. We also said, ‘We are not going to build anytime soon because we first have to elaborate this plan. So, as long as it takes, we don’t mind people living in the building’.”

I think that if the building wasn’t squatted then it would already be demolished. So, they deserve the credit for that.

When the municipality offered to evict the squatters from the building in order to continue with plans for Coöoperatie 5711 and De Bowling, the co-op declined the forced expulsion: “We really believe that we can come to good agreements with the people that live there. So, we don’t want anybody to be evicted or pushed out of the building,” Thijs insists. “I would like to really see it as a collaboration, also because I think that if the building wasn’t squatted then it would already be demolished. So, they also deserve the credit for that. They played a role in actually keeping the building there. I guess some people would not see as a good thing. A lot of people find the building very ugly and want it to be demolished, but more and more people are, I think, enthusiastic about the potential future of the building. I would be very happy to really engage more with them. So, it’s also a requirement from us actually, to put more effort in that”.

Among stories of the city’s plans for the future of housing in Amsterdam, the story of DeBowling stands out as proof of what can be achieved if the needs of a community are heard. Although the efforts of the squatters against gentrification may have been considered radical for some, they succeeded in saving this formerly abandoned cultural centre, turning it once again into a space for the neighbourhood and it’s future generations.The collaboration between Coöperatie 5711 and the municipality serves as a example and reminder that the urban renaissance of Amsterdam should be rooted in the needs and preservation of it’s already existing communities.