Juf Nienke officially opened

Apr 20, 2023 - Juf Nienke, the new entrance building of Centrumeiland in Amsterdam, was officially opened yesterday by Reinier van Dantzig from the City of Amsterdam. This building of 61 fully timber rental homes was designed by RAU and SeARCH for Dokvast.

Housing for teachers and families

Residents recently moved into the 61 fully-timber rental homes of Juf Nienke. Half of the homes are for the middle-income rentals and are intended for teachers and other people with a key profession in Amsterdam, and other residents who work in the essential services within Amsterdam, such as healthcare, and the police force. The other 31 apartments are private sector rentals, designed with families in mind.

Peaceful yet lively

For Juf Ilse, Juf Nienke’s first resident, her home here is a winning lottery ticket: “I am really lucky to be able to live here”. The first thing you notice when you enter are the large windows overlooking the canal and residential building De Witte Kaap on Haveneiland. “It’s like a big television where you can see everything. Beautiful cloudy skies, ducks landing on the water and a bit of a buzz on the street below. Nice to look at, that’s how I relax, ’ says Miss Ilse enthusiastically.

Dantzig proudly declared that “Juf Nienke is the most sustainable housing in Amsterdam.

Thanks to the successful collaboration and high ambitions of architects SeARCH and RAU, developer Dokvast and builders Hazenberg and Barli, Juf Nienke has become a circular and nature-inclusive prefabricated timber residential building that fully meets the vision of the municipality of Amsterdam to turn Centrumeiland into a sustainable, circular and energy-neutral island.