In Amsterdam-North, Europe's "most sustainable floating residential neighborhood" is taking shape. Schoonschip is an initiative of a group of young, environmentally conscious, highly educated Amsterdam residents. 'This will be a green village in the middle of the city.'

Was her future in this desolate environment? Marjan de Blok (41) almost got depressed when, about five years ago, she looked out over the drab waters of the Johan van Hasselt Canal from the Ridderspoor bridge in Amsterdam-Noord. The dilapidated industrial buildings along its banks were a reminder of the past industrial history of the Buiksloterham polder. Although the municipality had earmarked this location for the establishment of a floating residential district, it certainly did not seem an attractive place for this, in the midst of the economic recession.

But the raw polder has since transformed itself at breakneck speed into a hip developing urban district, with sustainability as its main feature. The drastic metamorphosis that is intended to turn the area into a "circular" city district for living and working is visible everywhere. And so the Johan van Hasselt Canal suddenly did become the perfect location for Schoonschip, the dream of a group of environmentally conscious, young Amsterdammers to create "the most sustainable floating residential neighborhood in Europe.

After more than a decade, the dream of De Blok and her supporters is about to come true. Ten years of thinking, planning, meetings, consultations with the municipality and agencies, development, applying for grants, discussions with architects and all those other time- and energy-consuming activities that accompany an innovative civic initiative like Clean Ship. "We had to invent almost everything ourselves," says documentary filmmaker De Blok, who was inspired when she made a film about the geWoonboot, an energy-efficient houseboat at the former NDSM wharf.

With like-minded friends (and friends of friends), she gradually gave shape to the initially vague ideas about sustainable living on the water. Where people dropped out along the way, others quickly took their place. Now they form a close-knit group of future residents, who have united in a foundation and are determined to make a success of Schoonschip.

Own energy

Schoonschip will be a sustainable floating neighborhood of thirty houseboats, which together will house 46 homes and house about a hundred people. The residents will provide entirely for their own energy needs. With five hundred solar panels they generate their own electricity. Heat pumps extract heat from four meters deep from the water of the canal to heat their perfectly insulated homes. Solar water heaters provide hot tap water. Water-saving showers and toilets separate waste water and also convert it into energy.

"The EPC value (Energy Performance Coefficient, ed.) of the homes is virtually zero," says Sascha Glasl (41) of Space&Matter, which guided the residents through the development and construction process from the beginning. His architectural firm specializes in the development of circular residential environments. The architect also secured a home in Schoonschip himself at the last minute via lottery. "I thought it was such a great project that I wanted to live here myself with my girlfriend and little daughter," he said.

Schoonschip largely uses existing techniques, Glasl says. "The real innovation is in combining these techniques in a new, experimental way." For example, there is only one connection to the power grid for the entire neighborhood, and all the homes are connected by a "smartgrid," a closed network of power lines. "Smart software arranges that you can use part of my generated electricity at the time when I use little electricity and you need a lot of electricity. So we share jointly the generated power and that is unique."

De Blok adds: "That's officially not allowed. You can only use your self-generated electricity yourself or feed it back to the grid. But we have, as an experiment, received permission." 'Excess' power is stored in batteries.

More experiments are in the pipeline. Waternet, the government organization responsible for drinking water, sewerage and water management in Amsterdam, has plans to build a biocentre in the Johan van Hasselt Canal. This should convert the waste streams from Schoonschip, as well as those from surrounding homes and businesses, into clean energy.

No own car

But Schoonschip's sustainability goes beyond the energy supply and recycling of waste streams. For example, residents have promised to refrain from buying their own cars. If they need a car, they can use one of the shared electric cars. Furthermore, the project will have its own currency, the Jouliette, which residents can use not only to pay for their mutual electricity consumption, but also to pay at some of the stores and restaurants in the neighborhood.

The homes in Schoonschip cost between three and eight tons, including all (technical) amenities. "Much more than we originally had in mind," says Glasl. "But since the economy has picked up, the prices of labor and materials have skyrocketed." That investment, he expects, will pay for itself in part because the residents will have barely any energy costs. "But, of course, it still has to prove itself."

What is striking: the residents of Schoonschip - who present themselves in words and pictures on the project's website - are all white, relatively young, highly educated and, like initiator De Blok, working in creative or liberal professions. Schoonschip is, De Blok acknowledges, therefore primarily a project by and for the happy few. "Very unfortunate," she thinks. "We would have liked to offer space for social housing as well, so that a more mixed group of residents would have been created. But we entered into talks with the housing corporation too late. They wanted to use an entire scaffolding for social housing. But our plans were already too advanced, there was no more room."

The entry of the first houseboats, last December, was an emotional moment for the initiators, says De Blok. "We stood on the quay and watched the boats moor. My own home won't arrive for a few weeks, yet I suddenly realized: now it's real!"

Still the area around Schoonschip looks barren and somewhat grim. Not all dilapidated commercial buildings have been demolished or refurbished and the water of the Johan van Hasselt Canal is as gray as ever on this chilly February day. But as she looks out over the canal, De Blok envisions what it will be like soon, when it is summer. She describes, "A lively, green neighborhood, with the residents enjoying themselves on terraces in front of their boats. The children canoeing and swimming in the canal, among the floating gardens. And over the jetties walk the walkers who come to enjoy this peaceful, beautiful spot. Schoonschip will be a green oasis, a village in the middle of the city."

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