UvA Buildings I Crea: from ‘forgotten monument’ to polished diamond?
The diamond industry once thrived on Nieuwe Achtergracht. So the UvA’s plan to completely demolish the city's oldest diamond factory some 20 years ago, now home to Crea, was met with considerable resistance. This is part one of a two-part series about Crea.
The façade of the cultural student center Crea still clearly shows the building's former purpose; ‘Diamantslijperij’ is engraved imposingly in natural stone above the door. Next to and below those letters - to the discerning eye - one can also discern ‘NV’ and ‘Maatschappij,’ respectively. These are traces of a past in which Amsterdam's diamond industry, here on Nieuwe Achtergracht, flourished.
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That those letters are still (half) visible today, however, was by no means without a struggle. Initially, the UvA wanted to completely raze the former 1845 diamond-cutting factory. Space had to be made for the new, ultramodern Roeterseiland campus.
But opposition to the building plans flared up. One of the instigators was cultural historian Daniël Metz, together with the Cuypersgenootschap, an association dedicated to heritage preservation, launched a campaign in 2006 to save the factory from demolition.
After all, the factory of the Diamantijslijperij Maatschappij ‘is the most important representative of Amsterdam's diamond industry,’ Metz argues. On top of that, it was the first place where steam energy was applied on a large scale.
The cutting and trading of diamonds took place mainly around the Nieuwe Achtergracht, Metz says on the phone. This was mainly done by people of Jewish descent. That is why the Diamantslijperij Maatschappij, and later many of its branches, settled in neighborhoods where many Jews lived before World War II.
Hidden behind UvA high-rises
Preserving this piece of history was what Metz et al. were all about some 20 years ago. ‘But the problem with the Diamond Cutter Company building was that the Bureau of Monuments & Archaeology (BMA) had forgotten to include it in their valuation,’ Metz explains.
That was due to the building's inconspicuous location: ‘It was hidden behind the UvA's high-rises. They didn't know there were still historically important buildings there.’ But BMA's assessment was necessary to get it onto the Amsterdam monument list. Quick action was therefore crucial. Says Metz: ‘They woke up, and fortunately soon got it right.’
The city council then went into conclave and a compromise followed: roughly half of the old factory could remain. The rest was legitimately demolished. Thus, the first wing of the factory from its founding year of 1845 still stands proudly on the Roeterseiland campus, albeit with a now white-plastered exterior. The front façade with the name of the factory above the door, the wall anchors against the bricks, and the relatively high windows, which were supposed to provide enough light for workers during grinding, have also been preserved.
Visible air circulation installations
Behind the (now) monumental walls, a mix of new construction and renovated parts of the old diamond factory has emerged. The home of the UvA's creative center: Crea. It has become a successful whole, Metz believes.
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The staircase in the void of Crea
Iconic is the open atrium, where a long staircase extends to four floors. On both the left and right sides, large windows provide plenty of light, and on the walls air extraction systems adorn the space. These are for air circulation, certainly, but also to emphasize the building's original, industrial function.
But not everyone finds the building renovation so successful, according to a 2019 interview in Folia with former UvA architectural historian Vincent van Rossem. ‘What a colossal conversion,’ were his unpolished words. He found the layout to be ‘oversized, shabby, and cheap.’
Usurping space
At the time of the new building's completion in 2011, student organizations fought fiercely over that limited space. ‘Usurping space in Crea's new culture factory,’ Folia headlined a year earlier. Student union Asva, the Central Student Council, Intree Committee and International Student Network were given a ‘semi-permanent spot,’ but other organizations had to ‘earn the space every year from now on.’
At the same time, more involvement was expected from student organizations. ‘If you end up in the new stucco (student center, ed.) as a student organization, you have to contribute to social cohesion and thus participate in joint activities,’ said Sjoerd Jans, then director of Crea. Anno 2023, Crea's agenda is full of activities, for and by students.
More information about the history of the diamond industry on the Nieuwe Achtergracht can be found in the book “Diamantgracht,” written by the cultural historian spoken for this piece, Daniël Metz.
