This building was once a sludge return pumping station, which formed a part of the Amsterdam East water purification plant that covered the island. Working together with the three silos that tower above the houses a little further on, the last phase of the water purification process took place beneath this small building. Clean water was then pumped from the pumping station on to the canal on the west side of the island.
The water treatment plant, built in the 1970s, was then dismantled in 2006 because of the city’s greater need for housing. The two remaining pumping stations we see today were designed almost identically. The first, which is across the street is now the coffee house De Espressofabriek. In 2018 our team began the second reconstruction to form the vondice hotel, which opened in January 2021.
