De Walvis: The Whale of Sporenburg
Why is it significant?
There it is, rising above the low houses like an animal surfacing from the water: a huge block whose roof swells up and then dips, and whose corners are lifted high off the ground. Amsterdammers call it De Walvis, the Whale, and once you have seen it, you cannot unsee the shape.
Key Facts
| Place | De Walvis: The Whale of Sporenburg |
|---|---|
| Address | Panamakade, 1019 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.37290, 4.94460 |
| Part of Walk | Ships, Silos and a Red Python: Modern Architecture of Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands |
| Generated | Generated |
There it is, rising above the low houses like an animal surfacing from the water: a huge block whose roof swells up and then dips, and whose corners are lifted high off the ground. Amsterdammers call it De Walvis, the Whale, and once you have seen it, you cannot unsee the shape.
It was completed in 2000, designed by Frits van Dongen of the firm de Architekten Cie. Van Dongen later became the Dutch government's chief architect, the same post Jo Coenen had held, so two national chief architects have left their mark on this one walk. It is one of the few large buildings that West 8's plan deliberately dropped into the sea of small houses on Sporenburg and Borneo, like a landmark you can steer by. Inside, the apartments wrap around a big communal courtyard garden.
The clever part is the lift. Because the block rises at both ends, sunlight can slip underneath and reach the courtyard, which in an ordinary closed block would sit in shadow most of the day. And from the street you can look in under the raised corners and catch a glimpse of green, so a private garden still gives something to the people passing by.
It is also a sculpture at the scale of a city block. The roofline slopes and swells, the walls lean, and from different directions the building looks completely different, sometimes like a whale, sometimes like an upturned boat, sometimes like a wave about to break. Few buildings in the city have earned a nickname so quickly.
Think back to the station where you started, a palace that turned the city away from the water. A hundred years later, buildings like this one are doing the opposite, pulling people back to the harbour. Now walk on to the edge of the dock, where a bright red bridge leaps across the water towards Borneo.