De Ceuvel
Courtesy of Space&Matter

De Ceuvel

Space&Matter as Architects

A polluted plot in Amsterdam was transformed into an urban oasis through a community-driven development. In 2012, together with a diverse group of architects, sustainability experts and members of the community, we put forward a regenerative concept for the former shipyard De Ceuvel Volharding. An ecohub for creative and social enterprises, De Ceuvel provides visitors with a unique experience from the moment they first lay eyes on its buildings: beautifully retrofitted houseboats placed on the land, surrounded by soil-cleaning plants and connected via a winding jetty.

photo_credit Martijn van Wijk
Martijn van Wijk

 

“Houseboats were always the soul of the project. Not only were they ideally suited to be plotted, without foundation, on land best left untouched, but they can be converted into innovative spaces before being towed up the harbour and placed on the site by crane.”
— Sascha Glasl, co-founder Space&Matter

photo_credit Courtesy of Space&Matter
Courtesy of Space&Matter

Uniquely regenerative
Due to the small budget and temporary nature of the development, the multidisciplinary team focused on developing an innovative concept that prioritised mobility and reuse. The urban plan was designed in such a way that wasteland and waste materials would be transformed into valuable resources. 

photo_credit Courtesy of Space&Matter
Courtesy of Space&Matter

The site features imaginatively retrofitted houseboats branching off of a winding bamboo walkway that is, in turn, surrounded by an undulating landscape of soil cleaning plants designed by Delva Landscape architects. This green oasis creates a terrestrial harbour for boats that would have otherwise been demolished. As largely self-sufficient elements, the boats are able to leave the site without any trace when the ten years are up.

photo_credit Martijn van Wijk
Martijn van Wijk

“All of it is to attract a lot of people, to get a lot of people here so that they get in contact with the sustainability stories.”
— Sascha Glasl, co-founder Space&Matter

photo_credit Martijn van Wijk
Martijn van Wijk

Playground for innovation
De Ceuvel is a Cleantech Playground for the exploration and testing of new green technologies as they become available. The site’s compost toilets and biofilters collectively save around six million litres of water from being used to flush waste and divert ten million more litres into on-site biological treatment. The eco-retrofits and renewable energy production on site have saved an estimated 600 tonnes of materials throughout construction and will save over 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions throughout the site’s ten-year existence.

photo_credit Courtesy of Space&Matter
Courtesy of Space&Matter

De Ceuvel’s polluted soil is purified with the use of phytoremediation techniques. A carefully put together selection of plants is used to stabilize, break down, and absorb pollutants, while at the same time producing low-impact biomass. After a decade, the entire site will be returned to the municipality of Amsterdam, much cleaner and healthier than it was when the project began. Research on the purification and low-impact biomass production at De Ceuvel is conducted by the University of Ghent.

photo_credit Jean-Pierre Jans
Jean-Pierre Jans

Making sustainability accessible, tangible and fun
De Ceuvel is not only a cultural centre for the green innovation community, but also a place where locals (and even visitors from faraway places) can come together to enjoy art and culture, and where they can learn about circularity in an inviting manner.

photo_credit Courtesy of Space&Matter
Courtesy of Space&Matter

Since its opening in 2014, De Ceuvel has welcomed thousands of people from various backgrounds for a number of reasons: healthy and locally produced drinks and food at De Ceuvel cafe, an experiential tour of the cleantech playground, a meeting in one of the unique offices, a sustainability workshop, a music evening or ‘Trashlessfestival,’ or panels and discussions about circularity, sustainability and urban farming.

De Ceuvel

Metabolic Lab as Engineers

DE CEUVEL: FROM A POLLUTED BROWNFIELD TO A CREATIVE ECO-HUB THAT IS THE HOT SPOT OF AMSTERDAM


De Ceuvel has become one of the most unique and sustainable urban developments in Europe. Previously a polluted post-industrial brownfield, the site now hosts space for creative entrepreneurs and has been transformed into a showcase for a closed-cycle urban environment. The social and innovative aspects of de Ceuvel attract hundreds of visitors every week, turning this into a new hotspot for the city of Amsterdam.


De Ceuvel is a workplace for creative and social enterprises. It has been built on a water-bound plot of land that has been secured for a 10 year lease in 2012 through a tender held by the Amsterdam municipality. The group, brought together by Marjolein Smeele from Smeele Architectures, put forth the winning concept for reimagining the site of the former ‘De Ceuvel Volharding Shipyard’. The group included Space&Matter architecture, which designed the urban plan, and DELVA Landscape architects, which designed the phytoremediation garden that uses plants to clean the soil over time. Metabolic, a cleantech development and systems consulting firm, is responsible for the sustainability plan and the implemented technologies on the site.


By using low-tech techniques such as recycling houseboats and cleaning the soil by vegetation, the former shipyard is an innovative sustainability experiment. Construction began in early 2013 and thus far a diverse group of creative entrepreneurs have moved their offices into their boats.


Towards a Circular City Today’s cities need new models to cope with the resource and sustainability challenges we face. De Ceuvel can be seen as an example of this alternative model. Eva Gladek, CEO of Metabolic explains: “De Ceuvel is like a tiny village. We are working to close the nutrient cycle and implement distributed infrastructure on a local level. De Ceuvel is a proof of concept for more circular models of development”.


At de Ceuvel, Metabolic has installed technologies that capture nutrients from waste streams, filter and collect water, generate energy, and monitor resource flows.


“De Ceuvel shows what is possible when you match ambitious sustainability goals with bottom-up urban development. The clean technology used on-site showcase possibilities in a future, circular economy.”


“We have envisioned the de Ceuvel site as a 'Cleantech Playground' for the exploration and testing of new technologies as they become available,” said Gladek. In collaboration with partners such as Waternet, Amsterdam’s public water utility, and Stichting Doen, research and development will explore how cities can transform from resource-drains to sustainable cities with a healthy metabolism.


Plants Cleaning the Soil The brownfield’s polluted soil of is being cleaned through a process called phytoremediation, adding a regenerative element to the plan. This plan has been designed by DELVA Landscape Architects with consultation from the University of Ghent. The heavily polluted soil is now being purified by the specially selected combination of plants, resulting in a cleaner, greener and more biodiverse area than even a year ago.


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