14 BRIDGES FOR HOUTHAVEN | ERIDANOS

The Oostertoegang, also known as bridge no. 276, was built in 1930 to a design by architect Piet Kramer. Today, bridge no. 276 marks the “eastern entrance” to Houthavens. Despite the robust functionality of the four lift towers, the design is in keeping with the expressionist style of the Amsterdam School, of which Piet Kramer was a leading representative. The Oostertoegangsbrug thus forms a symbolic link between the stylish architecture of the Spaarndammerbuurt and the functional design of the former Houthavens.

For this reason, the 14 new bridges for Houthavens must combine sober functionality with stylish design, with an eye for detail and a sense of materiality, intimacy and atmosphere.

Inspired by the classic Kramer bridges, the heads of the low pillars that adorn 11 of the 14 bridges are decorated with ornaments. These ornaments are in turn inspired by the works of sculptor Hildo Krop, with whom Kramer collaborated extensively. As a logical continuation of the architectural language of the pillars, the ornaments are faceted and diamond-shaped.

Art in public space
Artworks in public spaces must be inextricably linked to their location and the underlying landscape in terms of their layering and meaning.
The 14 bridges in Houthaven are named after port cities around the Baltic Sea and the Baltic Sea. In the 17th and 18th centuries, tree trunks were brought here to be used as piles for the major expansion of the city. In Houthaven, the logs were “watered” and thus preserved to serve as piles for the 19th-century expansion of the city.

ERIDANOS
This was the Greek mythological name for a river in the area of the present-day Baltic Sea.Amber is fossilised resin that “bled” from coniferous trees millions of years ago, including in the area around the Baltic Sea. During the Ice Age, the land ice that moved from the Baltic Sea area to the southwest certainly carried pieces of amber with it. This ice sheet therefore also deposited amber in the soil around Amsterdam. The tree trunks that were transported from the Baltic Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Houthavens in the 19th and early 20th centuries are therefore distant relatives of the trees from which the resin bled long ago.