WHERE DUTCH ARCHITECTURE IS A JOKE

The gable of the Zaandam Stadhuis (Town Hall) enters into the playful spirit of things.

Dutch architects have been hard at work in and around Amsterdam, inserting colourful humour into some very public buildings, and it’s remarkable that, in the Zaanstreek, local planning authorities have been happily going along with the joke.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS – Amsterdam’s weekend of architecture

Intel Hotel, Zaandam. Brilliantly witty or gimmicky kitsch?

Mevrouw T is a regular at Amsterdam’s excellent annual Dag van de architectuur (Day of Architecture). This year I joined her, and many others joined us.

The event’s popularity led the organisers to extend the 2014 edition to a whole weekend of walks, talks and open building inspections.

Highlight of our Day 1 was a boat ride along the Ij from Amsterdam to Zaandam with Mr Remy Vlek as our expert guide. Naturally I was pointing the camera at the sights along the route.

ZAANSE SCHANS – cycling by Dutch windmills

Zaanse Schans may be a little kitschy cute, but it's fun for young and old.

Recent hiking duties have left me a little soft. Legs and lungs are doing a good job, but the backside hasn’t been on the bike for a while.

So I eased myself back into the saddle for a little loop ride out of Amsterdam.

ZAANDAM INNTEL – Holland’s strangest hotel?

“If you want to build new multistorey hotel in our town, it has to fit in with the existing architecture.”

But the surrounding architecture in the town of Zaandam, just outside Amsterdam, includes the cute little Dutch dolls’ houses and windmills of the Zaanse Schans. They’ve been moved there from other parts of Holland to create a living open air museum which is now a popular tourist attraction. This sort of stuff…

Zaanse Schans

So this is how the designers of the Inntel Hotel handled the problem of fitting in with them:

The Inntel Hotel Zaandam opened a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, it’s controversial with residents, but it will surely put Zaandam on the tourists’ radar. I made a special trip out from Amsterdam (and hour on the bike, though it would have been just a few minutes had I taken the train) and shot a few photos.

I love a building with a sense of humour. Well done, architects Molenaar and van Winden!

But wait...there's more to come!

Construction work on the complex is still continuing.

I haven’t seen the hotel from the inside, but I presume each room has a traditional low beam for guests to bump their heads on. According to the hotel’s publicity, rooms are decorated with pictures of chocolates, cookies, cheese and mustard – now there’s a selling point! And there are double rooms available for under 100 euros – that’s more like it!