Students to live in shipping containers

17 December 2003

AMSTERDAM — Faced with a chronic shortage of student accommodation, Amsterdam will use 1,100 shipping containers from 2004-05 as self-contained student rooms.

The Amsterdam executive council — consisting of Mayor Job Cohen and aldermen and women — approved the scheme on Tuesday, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

The scheme will expand the capital’s student accommodation by 15 percent. The new accommodation area will be temporarily located in Watergraafsmeer and the containers can be easily transported to other locations around the city.

The shipping containers will be renovated to student rooms measuring 4.5m by 5m and will cost EUR 250 per month to rent.

Each renovated, well insulated container will have its own kitchen, shower, toilet and heating. They will also have a TV and computer connections. Residents will also be eligible for a rent subsidy. London has also launched a similar project.

The complex may also gain a guarded bike shelter and shopping area and laundrette.

The development and construction of the unique student accommodation will be supervised by Stichting Keetwonen, a foundation working to ease the problems of a lack of student accommodation.

“We have a 10-year agreement with the municipality. The containers will be located for five years on the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg and afterwards the municipality must come up with another location,” a foundation official said.

Building work on the new student complex will start in the Spring of 2004. Housing corporation Intermezzo will manage and rent out the containers. The new student homes are expected to be ready for the new school year starting mid-2004.

More information (in Dutch) can be found at http://www.victoriagifts.nl/kw/index.html.

Subject: Dutch news