De Warren
Developing together, living together
The story of Wooncoöperatie De Warren
‘It started off as the party we most wanted to go’, says Kim when I ask her to tell how the idea of De Warren came about. ‘Now it is a building for 50 adults, four children, two cats and dogs, and many flowers, insects and a magpie family.’ Kim is initiator from the first hour and now proud resident of one of the 36 houses that have been completed this year. ‘After six years of developing we have managed to realise our own building as a cooperative project developer. It has been a dream coming true to create a home for our community’, she says.
We sit together in the large common living room on the ground floor, also named the wooden cathedral. Being involved with De Warren, I have been poring over drawings and floor maps for years. To actually sit here now, a few months after we moved, still feels slightly unreal. Kim talks about the moment we all of this began. ‘Well, actually the roots of our community lie within the collective KONIJN. For ten years we have been organizing creative events, such as small festivals, and in 2014 we set up a permaculture farm in Portugal. Coming back home, after a month building on that hill together, it felt cold and odd not to continue making beautiful things, cooking and dining together. That is why a part of the KONIJN crew tarted a community in a cultural breeding ground in Surinameplein (a.k.a. ‘Suri’), where we were living with 14 people on the fourth floor, like a true family of friends. Cooking for the group once per two weeks, organizing parties together, movie nights, a listening ear for each other or inspiring each other to set up new projects.’
One of these projects, thus, was De Warren. We were living barely two years in Suri and Kim was already thinking about the next place, initiating a first meet up. ‘We had to, because we knew that Suri would not be forever, as it was a temporary property.’ The building would actually be demolished after a few years, so we had to look for a permanent place for our community. Then I invited anyone I knew wanting to live differently for an information evening in Suri and we started brainstorming about our communal living dream.’ Kim looks at me with twinkling eyes when she reveals the original living dream again. ‘We wanted a large building, a sort of castle, in greenery, adjacent to the water, near the mountains, at a maximum of thirty minutes from a medium-sized city full of culture.’ She chuckles. ‘Actually, we wanted everything!’
Eventually, the development of that living dream lasted about six years, counting from that first info meeting in 2016. It was right after the summer of 2017 that we really took off. We heard about a tender for the first pilot living cooperations in Amsterdam. This was the chance for our community to build a permanent home within the city. Kim tells about the bizarre months that followed: ‘We came together multiple evenings a week to write down our plan. We had information afternoons for people who wanted to join in, dreamed our dream house together, thought about the money, looked into sustainability and how we would organize the process. In November we heard we made it to the next round and in April of 2018, we heard we had won the tender and signed the option agreement with the councillor. That’s when we got hold of our own piece of land!’
Then the real work started and it wasn’t peanuts, because we were the first in Amsterdam, basically the second in The Netherlands, who went to develop real estate as a housing cooperation. We really had to pioneer and figure it out ourselves. We were responsible for everything: the legal structure, the sustainability measures, designing the building with 50 people, and -mega important- the finances. ‘When people ask about it, I just say that we have an enormous fan of financing, and I keep from sharing details’, says Jacob-Jan, the treasurer who bestirred our money during the whole developing period. I talk with him in his home, sitting one floor under my own. Would he still, by exception, like to give some details, for the readers of this text? Hij laughs, nods and continues:
‘When we had won the tender, in April 2018, we were immediately bankrupt.’ He puts a long face, but his eyes smile and he explains: ‘Right away, we had to pay for the option agreement on the land, en after that for the costs of the architect, the installation- and construction advise, the permit fees, you name it. A project developer has that money laying around, we do not, of course, we were broke.’ Jacob thinks back of the time that we found a solution. ‘Fortunately, we could get a loan from the province of North-Holland for collective self-building(1) and with sustainability subsidies from the municipality we could bridge that first periode.’ But yeah, then we were far from being there, because you’re talking about only five per cent of the total amount of founding costs, coming down to 8 million euros.’
‘We passed through both town and country, wrote all the well-known banks, and I expected Triodos to be interested in our sustainable project. That was rather disappointing. In the end it was the German GLS which made us a good offer. With that, still only around 75% was covered, so we had to continue searching to bring in our money ourselves.’ Jacob starts to count on his fingers and the fan takes form. ‘In the end, we closed the business case by issuing obligations to more than a hundred people, we received a loan from the Participatiefonds Duurzame Economie of North-Holland, a second mortgage from GLS, a sustainability loan from the municipality and we could make a claim to the housing cooperation fund that was founded during the period we were building.’
Even though I know the story all too well, when I hear it again I understand why Jacob sometimes settles for the denomination ‘enormous fan’ and refrains from sharing too many details. ‘Actually, I had no experience at all with real estate development, none of us did, but we did learn, with perseverance and intensive collaboration. But you should see the business case Excel!
By the way, I had to make a total of around 50 versions of that one, every time something shifted in the revenues and expenses, as a proof to all the financers, and on top of that in German for the bank!’
Jacob can laugh about it now, but the development of De Warren has taken its toll. It was true pioneering and I found out that creating a better negotiating position means you simply have to put more time in it than the other party. This lead to excess fatigue, burn-out complaints and dropouts. ‘But the enormous safety net we had around us, that community we do this with, it got us through’, Kim explains. ‘Since we had been organizing together for so many years, the group enjoyed a strong foundation. One of trust and caring for each other. Without that strong basis we wouldn’t have made it successfully through all those years.’
In the five years the development lasted we, together with our architect Natrufied Architecture, a battery of advisors and the contractor, designed and built a building that came very close to the one of our initial dreams. With a lot of wood, both in the structure of the building and our green exterior façade, for which we used circular wood from old fenders and mooring posts, making it a home for many different types of plants, insects and birds. We had our own thermal system built through energy poles and almost 200 solar panels, contributing to a energy positive building. Our building now consists of 36 houses, spread over five living groups, and many general spaces, among which are a makerspace, children place area, theatre room, office space, washing room, living room, rooftop terrace and a garden. Together this makes for 30%, or 800 m2 of shared spaces. ‘We truly designed with and for the community,’ Kim explains, ‘so that we could create space for that collectivity. The kitchens of every living group are the heart of every floor. We are not only each other’s neighbours, but a family as well.
We are our own landlord and we rent from ourselves, so we will never increase the rent more than necessary.
‘What makes De Warren unique, is that the building is now owned by the housing ccoperation itself, and that the members decide everything.’ Jacob elaborates on the structure of De Warren and what makes it special, mainly in times of housing crises and ever raising living costs. ‘Nobody can sell De Warren. We are our own landlord and we rent from ourselves, so we will never increase the rent more than necessary. We now have exclusively social and middle income rents, but on the long run it will only get more affordable because there is no speculation with the land or the building. You have to imagine that in about 30 or 40 years, when all the loans have been paid off, you will only be left with the maintenance of the building. And with regard to the investments in sustainability, all the stimuli are in the right place. After all, better isolation means less monthly charges for ourselves. In that respect, it is wonderful that the municipality of Amsterdam pushes through with this policy. This way, she can issue the plots to the housing cooperations in all confidence. These groups will always devote their energy to affordability, sustainability and living quality, because they build for themselves.’
When I ask Kim and Jacob whether it was all worth it in the end, they both nod heartily. ‘Nowhere is a place where you can live together with your best friends, that certainly makes it worth it’, says Jacob with a bright smile on his face. Kim can only affirm: ‘ Now we have founded a place where we can be together, where can offer a home to our community and keep this for the future.’
I walk up the big central staircase, back to my own floor. I wave to somebody in the office and see a lunch being prepared for the homeworkers and the parents taking care of the kids today. In the distance I see Pampus lying in the sparkling green-blue waters of the Markermeer. From the original living dream we actually only had to let go of the mountains, but for the rest it has nicely come true.
(1) This loan from the province of North-Holland no longer exists. The municipality of Amsterdam did establish a fund to stimulate housing cooperations, also during the planning phase