Towards a digital 3D narration of the premodern street life in Amsterdam
/“I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square; my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the facade of the cathedral, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my body weight meets the mass of the cathedral door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me.”
– Juhani Pallasmaa
In his book “The Eyes of the Skin”, the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa argues that architecture provides a space, a ground for perception and a horizon of experiencing. He discusses how built environment defines the experiences of human interaction by conceptually creating space for everyday life activities. In my research project, I conceptually approach the historic street in the same manner as Pallasmaa’s spatial discourse, and investigate it as an enhanced place of experience, an interchange environment for its inhabitants and a frame for urban space perception. If the practices, events and occurrences of the inhabitants are shaped and directed by the spatial experience, it is important to think of the historic streets as they were once, by uncovering the past and making the obscured the obvious in the visual realm.
To create the historical visual realm at the Bloemstraat in the Jordaan, we employ the digital medium, as it has proven its strength in visual storytelling and alternative methods of information discovery. Digital technology and visual language determine our perception of space; in particular 3D – one of the most prominent tools of the digital medium – enables us to represent the historical urban space. At present, 3D modelling is the standard practice for ensuring an efficient and accurate visual representation of the historic built environment. Diverse forms of applications provide unrestricted and holistic visualisation options, such as virtual reality, augmented reality and other visual tools, which enable full digital immersion.
3D point cloud of the Bloemstraat by 4D Research lab.
A 3D reconstruction of a historic physical environment is an extensive piece of work requiring the inspection of the building stratigraphy (e.g. the detection of spatial transformations, element alterations and additions). To do so, our collaborators from 4D Research Lab conducted 3D data acquisition at the Bloemstraat by laser scanning – a fast technique for capturing large areas such as building exteriors with high precision – as the primary step. Since then, we have been collaborating on the digital 3D reconstructions of the Bloemstraat and have been tracing each building in turn back in history to determine their 18th century architectural features. Nevertheless, when we enter the 18th century, the idea of a digital 3D reconstruction of a historic street becomes even more challenging, especially for poor and middle-class neighbourhoods, as the physical evidence is not always rich in these streets. In addition, we can rely on neither architectural documentation (e.g. plans, sections, elevations) for these ordinary buildings nor cadastral information, as it was not urban practice at that time.
3D reconstruction progress by 4D Research Lab (left: model with annotations, right: model with degrees of certainty).
Is the 3D reconstruction of the spatial features sufficient to reach a realistic snapshot of the holistic historic urban life as it was experienced? It is surely a big step towards the complete picture – but not enough. To achieve the full picture, we are also working on two other aspects:
First, the changes in the geographical orientation, building elevations and opening elements (e.g. windows, doors) affect the atmosphere within the historic street. For instance, the windows are not sole void spaces placed on the walls but are, rather, an interface between the exterior and interior. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the size and form of windows greatly affected women’s relationship with the street. When we examine the Dutch streetscapes from the end of the 17th century onwards, the emergence of the Dutch window typology, a large sash window with a sliding lower part without shutters, contributes dramatically to the transparency of the houses’ facades. In such an approach, we do not consider the buildings (and their architectural elements) as separators drawing boundaries between public and private worlds, but rather as dominant mediators contributing to the fluidity of the streetscape as it was experienced by the inhabitants, and significant actors in the interplay of shadow and light within the day.
Second, the concept of urban space when considered as an encompassing whole is not complete without its social actors and their actions, interactions and mobility. In this context, the digital opening of the archives and the access to historical information about activities and events is a remarkable achievement and has created a wide range of opportunities for historical research. We are harvesting information on all aspects of street life at the Bloemstraat from a wide range of primary sources such as (i) Notarial depositions made for the chief officer (Amsterdam Project), (ii) merchant registers, which list the goods they were trading and negotiating for and their addresses (Koopmansboekjes), (iii) deeds of transfer and remissions (Transportakten en kwijtscheldingen), (iv) land tax registers (Verpondingregisters), (v) pictorial depiction of the streets by artists and historical maps, and (vi) baptism and marriage records amongst many others.
Some examples of visual and textual information coming from the primary sources.
To do so, we collect names, gender, demographics, occupation titles of the historical actors, their activities and their interrelations. As an example, Personele Quotatie (PQ) offers a glimpse of the urban community within the Bloemstraat in 1742; the cited professions include midwife, butcher, bakery, shopkeeper, church seat caretaker and pin manufacturer. [1] The inspection of archival documents is not always as straightforward as in PQ, in which all the well-to-do people and their trades are listed street by street, plot by plot. We investigate the numerous independent inventories within the archives listed above. [2] From these primary resources, we can learn about the social actors, locations and events. As an example, from a notarial inventory, we discover that Willem Boes who was a master tailor inherited a house on January 18, 1723, located at the Northern side of the Bloemstraat, at the junction with the Eerste Dwarsstraat. [3] From this description, the address points to today’s Bloemstraat 42 or 44. When we conduct a closer reading based on the name and the location, we can even discover that he rented out that house in three parts, as in the following example: it is rented for a year from May 1, 1749, (i) to Andries Kroese, a student (ii) the front room to Mones Kuyper and (iii) the other rooms to Christina Born [4]. Such a resource gives us clues as to the families who lived in/shared buildings at the Bloemstraat. Moreover, we can trace back the events of the historic street as snippets. For this, testimonies in notarial books (sometimes) contain very vibrant records. For instance, a notarial record from 1750, which is transcribed within the framework of the Amsterdam Project, includes witness statements of a criminal event at the Bloemstraat on August 26, 1750, 7 pm, shows us at that very specific day […] the first witness of event, Johanna Margaretha Slikkers, the wife of Jacobus Kruijder, who is living in the 7th house from the Prinsengracht, had been busy cutting beans in the street in front of her house […]. [5]
As the above examples demonstrate, there are numerous digital resources that help us to locate inhabitants and events in the Bloemstraat. However, we do not only closely inspect these primary sources but also overlay them on top of each other in space to get the specific historic snippets. Ultimately, we intend to employ a digital 3D model of the Bloemstraat in the 18th century, a 3D visual realm of historical urban space together with the mapping of the actors, interrelations within the space, and their activities. By doing so, we aim to discover the consequences of the spatial experiences at the Bloemstraat, enabling innovative, historical analyses through the digital medium and shrinking the boundaries between urban history and digital tools.
[1] Partial transcription of the original record: “[…] Rossem Maert. v., vleeschhouwer; Castens Herm., bakker; Bisbink Gesina, plaatsbewaarster; Oostendorp Jac., goudslager; Elsman Jac., rouwwinkel; Berg Jud. v. d. stadsvroedvrouw; Kerkhoff H., kassier, Schreuder Nic., speldenmaker; Fuijter Cath. d., inbrengster; Bro.; Wed. rentenier; Westerman J., glazenmaker […]”
[2] Maroesjka Verhagen, research assistant in the project, conducted a close inspection of the Bloemstraat in the 18th Century using the digital collections available at the Amsterdam City Archives.
[3] Partial transcription of the original record: “Een huijs, en erve, staande en leggende hier ter stede in de Blomstraet, aan de noortzyde, op de hoeck van de Eerste Dwarsstraat, nader beschreven by de twee distincte brieven van quytschelding, de eene van vyff agtste parten int zelve huys en erve in dato, den 7den december 1712, gepasseert ten behoeven van Cornelia Cock, wedue van Gerrit Boes, en de andere van een aghtste en een vierde part, en zulx aghtste parten in t zelve Huys en Erve, in dato, den 18den january 1723, gepasseert ten behoeven van Willem Boes.”
[4] Partial transcription of the original record: “Werdende en zynde voorts verhuurt het boven gedagte eerste huys in de Blomstraat in de navolgende drie partyen…als t huijs aan Andries Kroese, voor een jaar in gaande 1 mey 1749 voor de somma van tweehondert en veertigh gulden in t jaar, te betalen alle vierendeeljaars de geregte vierde part ter somma van t sestigh gulden, op welke huur tot nogh toe niets betaalt is…De voorkamer aan [Mones] Kuyper voor een jaar in gaande 1 mei 1749 voor de somma van veertigh guldens in t jaar, te betalen alle vierendeel jaars de geregt vierde part ter somme van tien gulden. Welke huur is betaalt tot 1 augustus 1749… En de andere kamers aan Christina Born voor een jaar ingaande 1 mey 1749 voor aghtendertigh gulden in t jaar, te betalen alle vierendeel jaars de geregte vierde part ter somma van neegen gulden en tien stuyvers. Welke huur is betaalt tot 1 augustus 1749.”
[5] “[…] keeren dat als de vrouw van Eene Jacobus Kruijder onder de 1e get in het huijs woonagtig haer 1e get bekent en bezig zijnde met boonen te snijden tegens haer 1e get zeijde canailje wij […]”
