Museum Het Schip

Museum Het Schip stands in Amsterdam’s Spaarndammerbuurt, inside a red-brick social housing complex designed by Michel de Klerk. Its expressionist forms resemble a ship, with decorative brickwork and crafted details shaping both the exterior and interior. The 1919 complex still contains social housing, alongside a former school, a post office and a small meeting hall.

Inside, exhibitions trace the Amsterdam School’s union of art, architecture, craftsmanship and social ideals. Displays compare a pre-housing-law slum dwelling with a worker’s home from the period that followed. The permanent collection presents artists’ and designers’ work, including examples of the Gesamtkunstwerk, where architecture, art and design form one complete work. Guided tours connect the three buildings with the history of social housing and the movement’s influence across the Netherlands. Other exhibitions explore garden cities, villages and the Amsterdam School’s social, political and artistic setting.

More than one hundred homes for working-class families remain part of the complex. Nearby, Westerpark and Haarlemmerdijk extend the neighbourhood’s architectural and urban character. Workshops, excursions, bicycle trips and boat journeys follow other Amsterdam School buildings through the city.