Figee crane 2868 sat abandoned in Amsterdam’s Eastern Docklands for nearly four decades until a team devoted to boutique apartments rehabbed it into a three-story luxury apartment perched 50 meters (164 feet) above the IJ-River.When containers took over the shipping industry in the 1970s, the cranes on KNSM Island (“Royal Dutch Steamboat Company” island) became obsolete and were demolished save one.
source/image(PrtSc): Kirsten Dirksen
Over three decades later, a local resident rallied to save that remaining crane, eventually finding the developer/rental group Yays who partnered with the city of Amsterdam to create a second life for the industrial monument.
The crane, and the original operators’ huts, was broken down and shipped north where the interior was prefabbed – complete with a large bathtub that had to be dropped in while the roof was open- and sent back to the island as a fully-complete 40-square-meter elevated holiday home.
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Instead of relying on the original vertical ladder for accessing the flat, the team created a spiral staircase to enter the first blue box which houses a living room and kitchen. A tiny staircase leads to the second blue box where one finds a bathroom (with tub/shower) and a bedroom. An exterior ladder leads to the top floor and the original crane operator’s hut which now has a bed and toilet and the original panoramic window once used by the machinist to monitor his work.//Kirsten Dirksen
