Kleiburg Renovation Project
Amsterdam NL
NL Architects
XVW Architectuur
2016
Type
Collective dwelling
Tags
renovations, second life, in danger of extinction, conservation, XXL, restored modern heritage
Visitability
Visible from the street
Description
Kleiburg is one of the biggest apartment buildings in the Netherlands: a bend slab with 500 apartments, 400 meter long, 10 + 1 stories high.Kleiburg is located in the Bijlmermeer, a CIAM inspired residential expansion of Amsterdam designed in the sixties. An urban renewal operation started in the mid nineties. The characteristic honeycomb slabs were replaced by mostly suburban substance, by ‘normality’. Kleiburg was the only remaining fragment in more or less original state. However Housing Corporation Rochdale calculated that a thorough renovation would be too costly. Demolition seemed the only option. But there was fierce resistance and eventually Kleiburg was offered for ONE EURO in an attempt to catalyze alternative, economically viable plans. Consortium deFlat was chosen with their proposal to turn Kleiburg into a Klusflat. ‘Klussen’ translates as to do it yourself. The idea was to renovate the main structure -elevators, galleries, installations- but to leave the apartments unfinished: no kitchen, no shower, no heating, no rooms. The future residents could buy the shell for an extremely low price and then renovate it entirely according to their wishes. Owning an ideal home suddenly came within reach.The smart renovation revealed the latent beauty and established successful embedding in the park that surrounds it. Kleiburg was miraculously brought back to life: a collective effort of more then 500 people. (Description provided by the architects)