Eva de Klerk, Initiator NDSM
Eva de Klerk is a project booster and the author of the book Make Your City The City as a Shell. She is known as the initiator of the redevelopment of the huge Shipbuilding Warehouse at the NDSM-werf (NDSM Shipyard) in the north of Amsterdam. She is also known as a leading advocate of The City as a Shell method for participatory city development. In the Shipbuilding Warehouse (250) users designed built and financed a new built shell in an old shell a city in a Warehouse.
Eva is a frequently asked consultant and speaker in The Netherlands and abroad on the topic of bottom-up development. She is currently a member of the Advisory Council of the Berlin Tempelhof Projekt and Chairman of The Guild of Industrial Buildings upon Het IJ – representing the interest of the (former) users of 24 industrial and monumental buildings in Amsterdam.
Eva has been invited by cities, housing corporations, developers, artists and city makers around the globe to advise or boost regeneration projects such as the deprived residential area Heesterveld in Amsterdam Southeast, Tempelhoferfeld in Berlin, Namura Shipyard in Osaka and Nodeul Island in Seoul. She has lectured in Zagreb, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Moscow, Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo, Sejong, Seoul, Leuven, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Køje, Vienna, München, Berlin, Lund, Winterthur, Glasgow, a.s.o.
Her book Make Your City ‐ The City as a Shell gives a fascinating historical overview of the redevelopment of the NDSM werf and elaborates on the lessons that can be drawn from this. The City as a Shell is a development strategy that regards the city as a place for production and not as a place for consumption only; a strategy that applies an alternative exploitation model for buildings by organizing the creative and financial power of the users; a strategy that makes it possible for a group to have joined ownership of a site, thereby gaining authority and continuity. It is her personal story about organizational processes, ups and downs, and the complex relationship with authorities. However, it is first and foremost a guide to self development in the city.
