NDSM


NDSM is a neighborhood in Amsterdam, Netherlands located on the former terrain of the Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij shipbuilding company. It sits in the Amsterdam-Noord borough beside the IJ river and can be reached by ferry from Amsterdam Centraal station. After the shipyard closed, the various buildings were occupied by squatters before being gentrified in the 2000s, becoming offices for groups such as Greenpeace, MTV, Pernod Ricard, Red Bull and ViacomCBS.

History

The Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij existed until 1984, building and repairing ships. After the 90 hectare area of docks and shipyards became derelict, it was bought up by the Amsterdam-Noord borough.
In the 1990s, NDSM was largely squatted before Amsterdam-Noord began an urban regeneration process in 1999. The squatters realised they needed to adapt to the new situation and formed a foundation called Kinetisch Noord to represent their interests. A number of squats which were seen as cultural hotspots were legalized across the city and Kinetisch Noord became engaged in this process, arguing that NDSM was an incubator.

Incubator

In the 2000s, NDSM became popular as a cultural incubator zone, despite its relative distance from the centre of Amsterdam. Groups such as Red Bull, HEMA, MTV and publishing company VNU set up offices and as a result property prices rocketed. At around the same time, other post-industrial zones in other European cities have been redeveloped, such as Andrejsala in Riga, HafenCity in Hamburg, Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki, the Luma factory in Stockholm, Mediaspree in Berlin, the Northern Quarter in Manchester.
According to Lonely Planet, NDSM is a "derelict shipyard turned edgy arts community."
Most of the yearly Over het IJ festival takes place in NDSM. The last remaining hammerhead crane, Hensen Kraan 13, was dismantled in July 2013 and transferred to a yard in Franeker to be refurbished and converted into luxury hotel rooms. On 22 October 2013 the crane returned to become the Crane Hotel Faralda with three hotel suites and a television studio. As of 2019, NDSM still contained the huge Scheepsbouwloods and drydock. Organisations using buildings on the terrain included Greenpeace, Pernod Ricard and ViacomCBS. There is also a Doubletree hotel, a botel and a decommissioned Russian submarine.

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