A new highlight in Amsterdam: the Beurspassage.

New discovery
One day I was walking through Amsterdam city for some shopping, not expecting anything outrageous, untill my eye fell on the new look of the Beurspassage, a passage from Nieuwendijk to Damrak. This was beautiful to see! I made a couple of photo’s and walked further, happily realizing again there is something amazing to discover in the city center of Amsterdam.

The Beurspassage

Beurspassage: the designers
You can already see it a bit in the photo’s: the looks of this passage are not average, it’s truly an artwork! What you can see there is a mosaic artwork, beautful ornaments and chandeliers. The creators of this artwork called ‘Oersoep‘ (primordial soup) are Arno Coenen, and Iris Roskam, the artists who also designed the artwork ‘Horn of plenty’ in the famous Markthal in Rotterdam! Together with Hans van Benthem who provided the chandeliers, the Beurspassage has gotten it’s complete new look.

The beautiful floor of the Beurspassage

Beurspassage: the artwork
The artwork called Oersoep is a hommage to both the canals of Amsterdam and to the origin of life. For example you will find an umbrella as an ornament, and a bike in the Italian glass mosaic on the ceiling, meant as funny because these are things that are found often in the canals. The floor is also beautiful. It is decorated with Terrazzo and also contains several symbols about the origin of life and the city of Amsterdam. It’s even possible to tap some water from these canals: by a big ornament in the form of a fish you can ’take some mokum with you’ where Mokum is one of the names used for Amsterdam.

’take some Mokum with you’ photo by photographer Kees Hummel.

Practical information
The Beurspassage is easy to find. You can walk from Amsterdam Central Station via Damrak, then you will find it at your right hand at Damrak no. 70 and 80. It is free (yay!) to take a look and to take pictures, and it’s fun to see how many objects you can find in the artwork you recognize as something the canals of Amsterdam contain. Also you can find a nice coffee bar in the Beurspassage, and you can easily combine it with a visit to the Beurs van Berlage and with a visit to Dam square. Do you want to save this information on Pinterest? Here you go: