MAAK Haarlem

Hidden in Haarlem, MAAK Haarlem awaits discovery. MAAK Haarlem isn’t just a place. It’s a vibrant community. It’s a hub for innovative and circular manufacturing. The history of MAAK Haarlem is intertwined with the Waarder- en Veerpolder. These polders lie east of Zuid-Kennemerland. They sit on the banks of the Spaarne and Liede rivers. This area forms a transition between the beach ridges and the peatlands. Originally, this was a high peat area. Drainage and reclamation transformed it into low peat. This then required diking and drainage for water management. Dikes were raised in the early 17th century. The Hoogheemraadschap Rijnland owned the area. Before 1594, the city of Amsterdam owned this marshy area. The now-vanished Vuilrak once connected the Spaarne with the Binnenliede. It drained the Waarderpolder to the north and the Veerpolder to the south. West of the Spaarne, the land was primarily farmland on the beach ridge. East of the Spaarne, the peat area served as grassland. Only two farms remain from this agricultural period. Industrial activity began early in this area. A lime kiln operated in the early stages. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, several mills appeared, including sawmills. The Haarlem electricity and gas factory developed the southwestern area around 1902. The striking hall of the Figee machine factory rose in the southwest corner starting in 1913. Just north of the farm, Hilarius wire industry emerged in the 1920s. This foreshadowed further industrialization. In the 1930s, the municipal cleaning services moved to the Oudeweg. A waste incineration plant was built northeast of the city center to carry the smoke away from the city with the prevailing southwest wind. Storage sheds, workshops, and offices followed. The municipal cleaning site was built in phases but with a symmetrical design. The office buildings on the south side feature simple brick architecture. Two caretaker’s houses sit at either end of the office buildings. Although now offices, the houses are still recognizable in their interior layout. Workshops with distinctive shed roofs and large steel sliding doors flank the offices. These workshops share the same sober 1930s brick architecture. A large car workshop stands in the center of the site. It’s a relatively low hall built with the same brick as the other buildings, topped by a steel frame and a broad saddle roof. The roof ridge has a lantern for extra daylight. A large chimney rises on the southwest side. This belonged to the oil boiler in the basement that heated all the buildings. The car workshop, the workshops with shed roofs, and the offices enclose a courtyard. This courtyard has always been preserved and has even been expanded with matching workshops. Originally, a dock on the Vuilrak served the site with a waste incineration plant. Besides incineration, waste was also transported away on barges via this dock. A bomb destroyed the incinerator during World War II, and the dock was filled in this century. Other buildings in the same style, like the now-demolished disinfection building, stood between the incinerator and the main building complex. In 1966, a waste grinding plant was built because Haarlem could no longer use Amsterdam’s landfill. Garbage trucks drove up a concrete ramp to dump the waste into the grinder. The grinding plant is gone, but the concrete ramp remains. The space underneath housed various municipal vehicles. The former recycling center was located between the concrete ramp and the main car workshop. Garage boxes, a canteen, and staff changing rooms were also here. In 2005, the municipal cleaning and technical services became Spaarnelanden n.v. In 2013, Spaarnelanden moved, and the site transformed into MAAK Haarlem. MAAK Haarlem stands as a testament to the ingenuity and resilience of Haarlem’s past.