Learning About the Amsterdam School Movement...

Our destination that afternoon was a museum that somehow I had never visited: Het Schip (The Ship). Shaped like a ship, it actually is an entire building complex built in 1919 for the working class. Since 2001, the school and post office have operated as a museum about the architectural style of the Amsterdam School, a movement from 1910 until 1930 that was characterized by brick construction with decorative masonry. 

We begun our visit with a tour which started in the old post office, which had a telephone box that the poor had previously had little access to.

The expressionist style was very clear with this forbidden sign. 

Even the urinals in the schoolyard were specially designed. 

This was a recreation of how the typical working class family lived before this complex was built: sharing a single room without electricity or running water.

What a remarkable change it must have been to be lucky enough to be able to move into Het Schip with a real kitchen, flushing toilet, living room and possibly even two bedrooms. 

Nearby were some other buildings built with the style of the Amsterdam School. That evening Bob cooked dinner for me, Jimmy and Lisa. It was great to catch up with them.