
Amsterdam’s canal houses have endured for 300 years - pseudolus
https://www.citylab.com/design/2020/01/amsterdam-architecture-history-canal-houses-urban-design/604921/
======
davidw
“The canal houses were from the outset combined residences, storage units, and
places of business,”

This is covered well in the Strong Towns book that came out recently:
[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Strong_Towns/w0WyDwAAQB...](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Strong_Towns/w0WyDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover)
(available on Amazon here: [https://amzn.to/2FRT6bA](https://amzn.to/2FRT6bA)
or your local library on request).

In the name of 'progress' we've outlawed that kind of thing in most of the US,
so now we have to drive pollution spewing vehicles to do even the most basic
things.

~~~
minikites
You have it backwards, the availability of pollution spewing vehicles enabled
white flight and our current sprawl.

~~~
davidw
Read the book, he talks about a lot of these things. That kind of development
is completely illegal in most of the US, though.

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alamortsubite
I was hoping the article would discuss the issue of the visibly shifting
foundations of many of the houses, which most of us find delightful as
spectators but must be terrifying for property owners. It's impressive the
houses are still here after 300 years, having been built on a bog. Even more
impressive how many appear to be in otherwise excellent condition given their
lean angle! I have to imagine many societies would have demolished and rebuilt
them long ago (boo).

In the same vein, I've also read that the forward tilt many houses exhibit was
intentional- to make it easier to hoist goods to the upper floors.

~~~
kalium_xyz
People just rebuild everything but the front if the house. Most classical
gragtenpanden have modern insides

~~~
alamortsubite
> Most classical gragtenpanden have modern insides

Yes, and many of these beautifully-renovated interiors are visible from the
street! (Sorry, Amsterdamer, it's just impossible not to notice when walking
by.)

The point is, though, that it appears common for these renovations to be
carried out despite egregious settling of a house's foundation.

~~~
nate_meurer
Don't apologize, it's perfectly acceptable and even expected that you gaze
into people's houses while passing by. It's a Dutch thing; front windows are
large and heavy curtains are rare.

I look in everyone's house when I walk by, and wave at everyone I see inside.
I _always_ get a wave in return. My kids count cats on sills. I spend
considerable time in my in-laws' front room waving at passers-by, and we've
even been known to go out and join someone on a walk.

I've heard it said that the open front window thing originated as a backlash
against the heavy curtains that became common during German occupation in
WWII. I don't know if there's any truth to that.

~~~
Matticus_Rex
>I look in everyone's house when I walk by, and wave at everyone I see inside.
I always get a wave in return. My kids count cats on sills. I spend
considerable time in my in-laws' front room waving at passers-by, and we've
even been known to go out and join someone on a walk.

Wait, _that 's_ acceptable? Heck yeah! I'm moving there in May (though I've
been a number of times) and that's going to be super awesome and fun.

Of course, getting my wife to reciprocate and not put up a heavy front curtain
will probably be impossible...

~~~
nate_meurer
I do see a lot of shear curtains, the sort of light gauzy material that's
easier to see out of than inward. Heavy, opaque curtains tend to draw a bit of
gentle curiosity, as though the occupants might have a reason to hide their
stuff. It's not a big deal either way, but living in a house without a clear
front window would be terribly depressing for me.

I bet it'll be easier for your wife to accept once you get to know your
neighbors. Most Dutch neighborhoods are intensely pedestrian, and waving
through front windows buys you consistent contact with your neighbors for
little effort.

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Neil44
When I did a walking tour there the guide said the very narrow and deep form
factor of the houses was to do with the way property was taxed at the time. I
imagine they're all protected now what with the look of the city being so
important for it's tourism industry.

~~~
vijayr02
Maybe referring to this?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax)

> The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house.

I don't know if this tax was levied in the Netherlands, but I've heard of
other towns that developed narrow house fronts to minimise this outflow.

~~~
IkmoIkmo
Tax was levied on the width of the house.

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eecc
Well the article was a bit thin on the why TBH. But indeed one thing I noticed
about Dutch houses is the attention to the living room, at the expense of all
other spaces. Bedrooms barely as wide as a bed, ludicrously small bathrooms,
entrances that are barely an afterthought (unless you count the space to “get
the mud off your hoofs” as one.)

Oh, and the cheapness an often obvious design mistakes even in new buildings,
mostly due to the boom/bust nature of the housing market: projects grind to a
halt during bust, only exploding in a hurried frenzy when the market would
happily buy anything as long as it has a roof (leaky.)

~~~
Avalaxy
> Oh, and the cheapness an often obvious design mistakes even in new
> buildings, mostly due to the boom/bust nature of the housing market:
> projects grind to a halt during bust, only exploding in a hurried frenzy
> when the market would happily buy anything as long as it has a roof (leaky.)

I don't agree with this at all. The houses here in the Netherlands seem to be
built a lot more solid, better insulated and come with more luxurious features
than the houses I've seen in almost every other country in the world.

~~~
Luc
To me that's a very surprising view. Ample space does not seem to be one of
those luxurious features, that's for sure.

~~~
warp
The Netherlands is densely populated. There isn't as much space available
compared to most other countries.

~~~
mrarjen
This is mainly the case in the cities, other area's offer more space that is
similar to other countries.

Also Amsterdam is the peak of tiny spaces here. Single bedroom 25 m2, with
shared toilet/kitchen for sale can cost you €100.000,- easily.

~~~
thijsvandien
I just checked funda.nl, one of the most popular property websites, and that
amount currently doesn't even buy you half that space anymore.

------
DonHopkins
In the discussion of the previous article of this series, I posted some stuff
about the beautiful public housing in the Spaarndammerbuurt district of
Amsterdam, which Michel de Klerk built in the Amsterdam School of
architecture.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22043056](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22043056)

------
acd
There is the Herengracht house index which tracks house prices along the
Herengracht canal during a long period of time. Its an interesting read, one
notices that house prices flucates over time.

Herengracht index [https://hotelivory.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/a-very-long-
view...](https://hotelivory.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/a-very-long-view-on-
house-prices/)

~~~
gpuhacker
Thanks for sharing! Very interesting I wonder where the index would be now
since we have experienced another surge in house prices over the last 5 years
in the Netherlands and in particular in Amsterdam.

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throw0101a
A slight (meta-)architectural comment: in the floor plan there is a hall that
leads to living/dining room, kitchen, etc. This is lacking in many modern-
built houses.

What I find it a strange architectural design choice, especially in areas that
experience something even close to the season of winter, where the main door
opens out into the main area of the house. It seems to be this is letting out
a lot of warm air and blasting the living area with chilled air.

It would better that after you open the main door, there would be something
(2-3 steps' worth of distance) that limited airflow:

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestibule_(architecture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestibule_\(architecture\))

AFAICT, this is "130 Entrance Rooms" in _A Pattern Language_.

~~~
TeeWEE
Most new houses in the netherlands do have an entrance hallway. Just not in
Amsterdam because square meter price is too expensive.

However I live in a neigbourhood with houses from 1930 in Amsterdam. All of
them have a hallway of 1m.

------
Someone
I think the main reason is that they were well-built centuries ago, and, by
the time something really better could be built, the Netherlands was rich
enough and fond enough of their looks to not demolish them.

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talkingtab
I question logic in the article about stairs being narrow because there was a
crane. There is a good case it is the opposite way around - that a crane.
There was a tax on the width of the house, so having wide stairways was
certain to increase the cost or reduce the useful space. My guess is that this
led to narrow stairs, which required the crane in order to bring in things
like lumber, beds and other furniture. And then windows that would accommodate
those items.

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uijl
A Dutch professor created the "Herengracht index" to track the price of these
canal houses back to when construction started in 1620.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herengracht_index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herengracht_index)
[2]
[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=598](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=598)

------
wayoutthere
A big part of this is that the Dutch capitulated to the Nazis in WWII before
they got to Amsterdam. Pretty much every other major city in the area was
reshaped by the war, but Amsterdam avoided the major conflict.

Compare with Rotterdam (which was destroyed by the Nazis).

~~~
misja
Well only Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans. The next city to be bombed
would be Utrecht, but then the Netherlands capitulated.

All other destroyed cities (e.g. Arnhem, Nijmegen) were bombed by allied
forces in their attempts to drive out the occupying Germans.

~~~
shusson
> All other destroyed cities (e.g. Arnhem, Nijmegen) were bombed by allied
> forces in their attempts to drive out the occupying Germans

I initially learned this from Band of Brothers. It doesn't seem to be as
common knowledge in the Netherlands compared to the bombing of Rotterdam.

~~~
Avalaxy
In that case I got more interesting knowledge for you: Rotterdam was also
bombed by the allies. It's often refered to as the forgotten bombardment:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_bombing_of_Rotterdam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_bombing_of_Rotterdam)

------
joss82
A bit off-topic but aren't there two Tesla cars in front of that house? If you
look closely, they are plugged into an electric charging station on the
sidewalk.

When I lived in the Netherlands a couple years ago, I was fascinated by the
large number of electric charging stations everywhere. The highest density in
the world, as I recall reading somewhere.

I love the Netherlands.

~~~
alamortsubite
Yes, there are many Tesla automobiles in Amsterdam.

Fortunately, they're greatly outnumbered by the bicycles. ;)

~~~
LeonM
Not just Amsterdam, but basically everywhere in the Netherlands. In 2019, 30%
of new cars sold in the Netherlands were Teslas [0]

It's mostly due to the very attractive tax benefits the government gives on
EVs.

[0]
[https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/tesla/](https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/tesla/)

~~~
dmytrish
Correction: 30 thousand new cars (6.9%), not 30%.

~~~
LeonM
You are right, I read that graph wrong

------
earthboundkid
One of the reasons I think no human will ever be immortal is that we can't
even make houses live for more than a couple of hundred years in the general
case, and houses are objects rather than dynamic systems.

~~~
ravingraven
I think it is the other way around, a dynamic system is better at lasting long
than a static one.

Human bodies are able to regenerate and repair themselves to a certain extend
(no single cell in your body will live as long as you). In fact, one of the
factors that diminishes our life is a malfunction of our regeneration
processes: cancer.

Human body machinery mostly outperforms man-made machinery i.e. there is nor
reason to believe that a human heart can beat for ever if we find a way to
allow it to regenerate for ever without faults.

Human brains are able to perform medicine which is also a positive feedback
loop for how long human bodies can last.

In a nutshell, a dynamic system has a least the chance to reverse or repair
damage done to it due to entropy, a static one has not.

~~~
drjesusphd
> (no single cell in your body will live as long as you)

Unless you're a woman who dies before menopause...

~~~
icebraining
Well, maybe: [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/07/evidence-
sug...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/07/evidence-suggests-
womens-ovaries-can-grow-new-eggs)

------
classified
That's just proper craftsmanship. As opposed to that, the term "house" means
any shitty cardboard box in the US. Which is as intended because the cardboard
box vendor makes money with resales each time the weather gets bad.

~~~
alamortsubite
I generally agree with the point you're making, but to be fair, there are
plenty of 200-year-old houses in my neighborhood in the U.S., and few younger
than 100. And unlike the canal houses in Amsterdam, all were originally built
as residential structures rather than commercial, which I think speaks even
more highly to their ratio of craftsmanship per cost.

In our case, however, we're lucky not to be sitting on top of a swamp!

~~~
kurthr
I think you make the real point. These "houses" were highly overbuilt
warehouses for stacked storage of relatively heavy trade goods on multiple
floors... with an intentional overhang for winch loading.

But also, houses built before the end of WW II were often built significantly
better than now (e.g. with more "European" standards) to last for a century or
more. Since then the commoditization and rapid suburban building (and now
multi-story mixed use "urban" condos as well) are meant for maximum profit and
30-50 year lifetimes, just long enough for the mortgage to be paid.

~~~
rootusrootus
That sounds more like "get off my lawn" than objective truth. I grew up in a
house built in 1914, and almost 10 years ago I bought a brand new house. The
new one is built better in nearly all regards.

~~~
bcrosby95
Beyond that, most people are comparing old houses built by well off people vs
modern middle class houses. If you look at "middle class" houses built 300
years ago they were basically shacks.

~~~
kurthr
At least those shacks didn’t ‘cost’ a $million so the developer’s REIT could
show 12% returns on quickly degrading crap. At least they have to meet some
modern codes, but that doesn’t mean they won’t fall apart, leak and mold, or
burn quickly.

