Housing for bargee children aged 6 to 18 on Zeeburgereiland in Amsterdam.

'a home without a wheelhouse'

Inland craft with a home on board endlessly ply the canals and rivers. The children who live on these sailing houses see through their bedroom window an endlessly changing horizon.

These children have to go to school, a school standing on piles sunk into the ground. At times the school is 'just round the corner' from their front door, at others it is at the far end of the long canal. Hence this second house for the child's bedroom. The horizon through these bedroom windows stays the same. The cycle of coming and going, the daily rhythm, the different phases of a child's life.

The first six years in the life of a bargee child are spent on board ship. After that, they start going to school ashore. This requires accommodation, namely the child night care centre, housing for bargee children. From their sixth to their eighteenth year they stay during the week at the night care centre, going to a local school during the day. Weekends and holidays are spent with their parents aboard ship.

From a sailing home to a home founded on terra firma, from life in a family to life in a community of children. It is a quest for scale and proportion, public, communal and private, the daily round, the awareness of time and space in the period of growing up. The house itself is at school.

Place of education: AvB Amsterdam | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Micha de Haas, Peter Defeche, Bas Liesker