NDSM Wharf

Neighborhood · Amsterdam-Noord (NDSM)Amsterdam,Netherlands

An eighty-hectare Amsterdam shipyard that stopped in 1984 and was occupied by artists rather than cleared, its slipways still running into the water.

NDSM Wharf is a shipyard that stopped working and was never cleared away. Ocean-going ships were built here on about eighty hectares of the north bank of the IJ, and the last hulls left the slipways in 1984. The cranes, the slipways and the sheds all stayed where they were. The yard today is hard, open and windy: the slipways still run down into the water, and you can stand on the concrete where hulls slid off. Artists moved into the empty buildings in the 1990s without asking, and in 1999 the district council put the site out to tender for a cultural use. Inside the shipbuilding hall the users built their own studios in the shell of the shed, and the old welding hall next door holds a street-art museum. Thousands of flats are going up on the western half of the site, so large areas are fenced off and the fencing moves from month to month. There is almost no shelter anywhere on the yard.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Check the wind before you come, not the rain — The yard is open concrete facing the IJ, and there is nowhere outdoors to get out of a westerly.
The ferry from behind Centraal Station is free and runs all night — Bicycles go on board at no charge, and the crossing takes about a quarter of an hour.
The painted walls inside the welding hall are hung panels — Artists work on large boards that are lifted into place, which is why the display changes and the building stays a monument.
One weekend a month the sheds fill with a second-hand market — Come early on the Saturday if you want to buy; by Sunday afternoon the good stalls are picked over.
Walk to the water's edge first — The slipways slope straight down into the IJ from the middle of the site, and the rest of the yard makes sense once you have seen them.

Things to do

1
Stand at the bottom of a slipway
Walk down the concrete slope until the water is a few metres in front of you. Ships were built pointing up this ramp and released stern first into the water. The slope is steep enough to show how easily a finished hull would have run down it. Look back up and the whole length of the ramp runs to the shed doors.
2
Look up inside the shipbuilding hall
Step in and raise your eyes above the studio walls. The tenants built their workshops as free-standing boxes on the floor, so nothing blocks the view upwards. Several storeys above the doors people actually use, the roof trusses, the crane rails and the grimy clerestory windows of the shipyard run on uninterrupted.