Updated 19 September 2026
The Amsterdam School is the style of curved facades, decorative brickwork, turrets, stained glass and sculpture in brick. It emerged around 1910 and shaped large parts of the city until well into the 1930s, above all in housing. For anyone interested in design, this is where design moved out onto the street.
Three architects
The leading architects of the movement were Jo van der Mey, Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer. All three had worked at the office of Eduard Cuypers. When Van der Mey received the commission for the Scheepvaarthuis around 1910, he brought in his former colleagues De Klerk and Kramer. In 1916 De Klerk criticised the working methods of Berlage, the great architect of the previous generation, making clear how the younger architects wanted to distinguish themselves: less rational, more expressive and more rooted in craft.
The Scheepvaarthuis
The Scheepvaarthuis on Prins Hendrikkade was built from 1913 as a joint office for six Amsterdam shipping companies. It is regarded as the first building entirely in the Amsterdam School style. The first part was taken into use between 1914 and 1916, and the extension followed between 1926 and 1928. The bricks for both phases were fired at the same time to avoid differences in colour. The facades are full of references to the sea and shipping. The building is now a hotel, so the interior with its staircase and stained glass can in principle be seen.
The Spaarndammerbuurt and Het Schip
The best-known housing of the movement is in the Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam-West. Around Spaarndammerplantsoen, Michel de Klerk designed three blocks of workers' housing, built between 1914 and 1921. The most striking block, with a pointed tower and undulating facades, was nicknamed Het Schip, the ship. It was housing for workers, built with a care previously reserved for villas and offices.
Since 2001 one of the blocks has housed Museum Het Schip, the museum of the Amsterdam School. It shows, among other things, a restored worker's home and the former post office in the block, and organises walks through the neighbourhood. This is the place to start for anyone wanting to understand the style.
Bridges by Piet Kramer
Piet Kramer worked for many years as an architect at the city's Public Works department and was responsible for some two hundred Amsterdam bridges. The Leidsebrug is considered a textbook example. His bridges can be recognised by their brick, natural stone, cast-iron railings and sculpture. Cycling through Zuid means crossing dozens of them without noticing.
Plan Zuid
A large part of the Amsterdam School is found in Zuid, in the districts built according to Berlage's expansion plan. Long closed blocks with rounded corners, porches and turrets define the streetscape there. Many of the homes were built by housing associations, which explains why the style appears mainly in ordinary residential streets rather than in monumental buildings.
Seeing it
A good first walk starts at the Scheepvaarthuis near Centraal Station and then heads to the Spaarndammerbuurt and Museum Het Schip. From there the Jordaan is a short bike ride away. A second route runs through Zuid, from De Pijp to the Rivierenbuurt; the portrait of De Pijp describes the start of that route.
For later design, from posters to furniture, the Stedelijk Museum is the place; newer media are covered in the overview of design and media art.
Source: Museum Het Schip