Last week I visited Amsterdam. I was invited by SBS Broadcasting creative director Leo Noordergraaf to give a talk about TV Identity and talk about Rudd Studio’s work in the UK with Channel 4 and ITV. I had a great day with Leo and his team. Rather than working in the SBS offices, we spent the day at Lab111, an old pathology lab in Oud-West, now a cinema and restaurant/bar. Some original lamps remind you of the building’s history.
![lab111_cafe](/app/uploads/2015/07/lab111_cafe.jpg)
After my time with the SBS team I became a tourist for a couple of days. The 35 degrees C temperature meant that I did things at a leisurely pace, with stops in canal-side cafés. My first call was the Rijksmuseum, which only re-opened 2 years ago after a 10 year renovation. An amazing building, housing works of Rembrandt, Vermeer and other big hitters from the region.
![The Rijksmuseum from the Museumplein](/app/uploads/2015/07/DSC_5252_1500px-1170x781.jpg)
Leo and I caught up on the Friday evening and he very kindly gave me a tour of his home neighbourhood, a quite astonishing new archipelago, the IJburg: a bold engineering and housing program, where ten new residential islands are being built in the IJmeer. So far, six of the total ten planned islands are complete.
![The islands of IJburg](/app/uploads/2015/07/The-islands-of-IJburg_2.png)
The islands have been covered with a mix of low and medium rise housing, with self-build plots and some floating homes. There is a varied selection of really exciting modern architecture. I loved it. I found myself again asking why new housing in the UK is often so uninspiring.
![Each floating home in this part of the Ijburg has been uniquely designed](/app/uploads/2015/07/House_boats2_sfw-1170x374.jpg)
Leo further helped to shape my unconventional experience of Amsterdam by recommending a visit to the Eye Film Institute, which occupies an incredible building, designed by Austrian Architects – Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and opened in 2012. You get there on a quick ferry from Centraal Station.
![Eye Film Institute](/app/uploads/2015/07/DSC_5255_1500px-1170x781.jpg)
![View from terrace towards Centraal Station](/app/uploads/2015/07/Eye_cafe_sfw-1170x258.jpg)
Although the building rather stole the limelight for me, I really enjoyed a 45 metre long video frieze made specially for EYE by South African artist William Kentridge, called More Sweetly Play the Dance. A mesmerising combo of dance, music, drawing, painting and animation.
![More Sweetly Play the Dance by William Kentridge](/app/uploads/2015/07/Kentridge_sfw-1170x253.jpg)
Thanks very much to Leo Noordergraaf for an inspiring few days in tropical Amsterdam.