Amsterdam's Welvaren - Whimsy and Wonder in the Center of Amsterdam

Whimsy, play and wonder are just a few of the words that come to mind when entering Amsterdam’s Welvaren, the first kindergarten in the Netherlands. In 2011, the third owner of the building since 1830, purchased the property in the center of Amsterdam and set out to create something magical. He was not prescriptive in his desire, yet he wanted for visitors to have a profound experience. As he said, “I would like for visitors to feel as though they are walking through an art piece. This should be as much a house as it is an experience.”

With this vision in mind, he hired a talented young architect, Arjan Linnekamp, and asked him to dream along with him. Everything in the building was done with creative expression at its core. To set the tone for this journey, the owner sent the architect to the United Kingdom to visit two house museums for inspiration, the Sir John Soane's Museum in Central London, on Lincoln Inn Fields and The Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham. Both structures embodied the sensibility that he was looking to evoke in the space: eclectic, mysterious, shifting perception. It took three years to realize this project as each room had its own visioning process.

The question was, “What purpose does the room serve and how can we stimulate that through creativity and inspiration.” Some core tenets that led the design process were, how do we embrace the unique history of the house, while at the same time, inviting in influences from Dutch Artists, shifting perspectives and adding sheer joy.

You can see these aspects throughout the house. Each of the floors has at least one hidden door, which creates a sense of mystery and wonder as one roams through the rooms. The highlight of these is on the top floor with floor to gabled ceiling shelving which showcases hundreds of pieces of Delft Blue, the famous Dutch pottery. From the naked eye, one would not know that behind these shelves there is an entire hidden room. To enter there is a Harry Potter book sitting on a side table which acts as the key. Pressing the “O” on the book title opens the door. All of the Delft on the actual shelf that acts as a door, is created in papier mâché to decrease the weight and keep the illusion alive.

This is only the beginning of this experience because each of the floors also showcases a Dutch artist. The bottom floor, which is a half level below street grade, highlights the work of M.C. Escher, with tiles imported from Italy and cut in the Netherlands. In this location sits the kitchen where the furniture and appliances have been raised off the floor to maximize the experience of his work. The dining table is made of glass and is encircled with Philippe Starck Ghost Chairs to further extenuate the optical illusion of the floor. If you have a drink or two you might just lose your balance.

On the floor above, the mezzanine, the work of the Dutch textile artist Claudy Jongstra is highlighted. In this commissioned work, she portrays the history of Amsterdam, with the rough edges pointing to the swamp land from which the city was reclaimed. The gold touches, made from the dye of onion peels, references what until recently was called the city’s Golden Age.

Across from her work, the nautical theme of boats has been slavishly applied to the opposing wall with over 40 original maritime paintings arranged in a tight jigsaw like formation, making it hard for the eye not to be absorbed by seascapes. The inspiration for this comes from the Teylers Museum, as well as others, which have maximized the viewing of their works on display by creating compressed clusters. Here it was taken one step further, with the paintings covering the entire wall.

As one ascends to the first floor, there is a perfect transom space that pays ode to the work of Rene Magritte, with a floating train that hangs in the air and runs in a circle through the clouds. Peeking into this space as one walks up the stairs creates a sense of other worldliness.

When one arrives to the first floor, there is special tribute paid to one of the house’s greatest inspirations, Sir John Soane. The room has multiple convex mirrors, a tool used by Soane to distort perspective, and hung in a column of three above the fireplace. Looking into the mirrors, the viewer sees themselves in multiple perspectives simultaneously, all set in a room that has been tirelessly decorated in an exuberant Waverly floral pattern, POM POM. The mind hits a dissociative moment as the viewer no longer recognizes themselves in the room.

Outside of sitting chairs, only glass and transparent furniture has been added to the room so that the eye always sees through to the POM POM wall covering. A full-size office bureau was commissioned in acrylic which has a collection of glass figurines, distorting the floral pattern behind it. It is impossible to focus on the glass figurines and wall covering simultaneously.

Coming back to the hallway, the custom-made cantilevered staircase gives visitors an eye popping 3 story view down to the front door. Don’t look down if you have vertigo, it can be scary. The stairs took 2 years to create as they were developed in a sweeping accordion shape, with each step having a slightly different rise and run. Due to the tight width of Dutch houses, and the elevation in the space, the architect was challenged to create a staircase that did not turn into a ladder. To achieve this there is a gradual increase in the rise of each step as one ascends to the landing on the first floor. It was the most challenging and risky aspect of the build as there is an instinctive step height that people are accustomed to and it was not known until it was placed if it would work. There is a musical grace and beauty to the stairs that is highlighted with the five railing bars that wink at a musical staff and give the sense of a sailing ship.

The top floor is without a doubt the highlight of the building. Once passing through the Harry Potter portal, the architect used a method pulled from Sir John Soane - contraction and expansion. As one moves through the tight space around the staircase they are then blown into a volume that has been created to highlight the work of the famous Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian. The ceiling raises up 4 meters with a Mondrian inspired Tansu staircase emanating from the windows, which cover the entire west facing wall. The Tansu staircase, painted in the style of Mondrian, can be pressed and the doors open to reveal storage space behind. Walking up the Tansu stairs, leads to a perched overhang which is floored with soft carpeted grass so that one can lounge in the painted clouds while appreciating the progressive life’s work of Mondrian. It is the cherry on the top of a building that one cannot imagine would have any more surprises.

The history of the house is just as rich as the experience one has in it. During the American Revolutionary War, the Dutch Ship, Amsterdam’s Welvaren, was captured by a British privateer. One of the owners of that ship was a Quaker named John Warder. When his friends found out that he might benefit from the capture, they were swift to stop him from taking any spoils as it was against their religious beliefs. John swiftly took out insurance on the ship, and not long afterwards, while being repatriated to London to return the captured goods to the rightful owners, it sank in a storm. A hand drawn animation commemorates this history: youtu.be/7fI...

In time that insurance money was given to a Swiss Quaker who founded the first kindergarten in the Netherlands, naming it after the sunken ship, Amsterdam’s Welvaren. To recognize this nautical history, there are several elements in the house. The subterranean area has been dedicated to the sunken ship, which can be seen by the fish that have been hand painted as one descends into the stairwell. Furthermore, the carpentry work throughout the building has all been done as one might see on a ship, with maximization for space and usage. It is the utilitarian to its core, with small doors throughout the building to store items from sight.

And last but not least, the façade of the building was done by the well-known Dutch architect P.J. Hamer in the rare Willem II Gothic style. The detailed brickwork is woven like a tapestry, creating something that amounts to a standing art work. To amplify the history of the building P. J. Hamer, adorned the Amsterdam’s Welvaren ship above the front door in painted bas relief stucco and in crafted copper/bronze at the very top.

This building has touched the lives of thousands of children and its history continues today, used more recently as a retreat center for executives from around the globe to catch a wind of inspiration as they face challenging life decisions. The space rekindles the childhood wonder that takes one back to a time when life felt open to opportunity.