Haidar Al-Dayri

HET GETIJ (THE TIDE)
Meeting place for the city of Amsterdam

Amsterdam is growing at a rapid pace. As a result of the arrival of many new residents, contact between neighbours is no longer a matter of course. Social and shared amenities are needed to connect neighbourhoods and neighbourhood residents with each other again.

The public bathhouse used to be a meeting place in the city. This function has slowly disappeared from the streetscape. With Het Getij (The Tide), I am bringing the bathhouse back to the city and it serves as a connecting element in the neighbourhood. The name of my design refers to the tide: the periodic changing of the water level, or ebb and flow. This can be recognised in the design. Water is the basic element in my design and has three functions: water as therapy and relaxation, the water square as receptacle for rainwater and cooling for the city, and water as natural partition.

Het Getij consists of five pavilions that are connected with each other through a central square where visitors come together. The various water surfaces in the complex serve as natural partition between the public space of the city and the semipublic space of the complex. The accessibility of the central square is determined by the water level. During the day, the square is solely intended for visitors to the bathhouse; in the evening, the water level drops, whereby a footpath appears and the central square becomes accessible to the neighbourhood. Neighbourhood residents can enter this space and come together on the central square. In this way, Het Getij is returned to the neighbourhood after closing time.

Graduation committee: Saša Radenovic (mentor), Ira Koers and Pieter Jannink. Additional members for the exam: Micha de Haas and Jeroen van Mechelen.