It’s good to dream big! New commons, new coops: De Nieuwe Meent and De Bundel

In Watergraafsmeer (Amsterdam-East) FGA meets Selçuk Balamir, co-initiator of De Nieuwe Meent, a cooperative housing complex for “a post-capitalist commune” of 50 people, to be completed by 2022. It is organised around the principles of commoning, combining living groups, social housing, shared functions and public spaces in a 7-storey wooden structure. It developed as a bold next step from NieuwLand —a housing coop with work spaces and a community centre set up in a renovated former school building by social housing association SoWeTo, themselves a product of the squatters’ movement. De Nieuwe Meent will realize sustainable and compact living, with 100% social rent and full independence from the housing market—forever.

In Slotervaart (Amsterdam-West) FGA meets historian/journalist Tayfun Balçik and urban planner/activist Loraine Smith. They are two of the ten initiators of coop De Bundel. Collaborating with Andrea, they hope to win the next tender with their plan for a complex with 120 houses and 800 m2 of shared space. Their first major activity is to change the tender itself, by aiming not for the prescribed 40% but for 100% social rent. In Amsterdam-West, just like Rotterdam-South, low-income homes are being demolished, to be replaced by mid and high-income property. It’s a second wave of gentrification, following the violent first wave of the 1980s. The community that grew up in the area is now being pushed out. If it’s up to Tayfun and Loraine, that’s not going to happen. They are here to stay and provide a 100% social rented home to a diverse mix of people.

This field trip took place on September 22, 2021.