We have moved our office to 'Huis de Pinto' at the Sint Antoniesbreestraat in Amsterdam, named after a wealthy Portuguese-Jewish family of merchants. With this step we returned to the Nieuwmarkt area, close to our other building de Waag, the base for our events, the Makers Guild, Fablab Amsterdam and the Open Wetlab.
With this move we left a relative young industrial monument Pakhuis de Zwijger for a much older one. But one can find a remarkable parallel between the two monuments: both buildings were once destined to be demolished, but saved by activist citizens. And both buildings have housed squatters for a period of time. The Pinto house has been restored lately by Stadsherstel, that also renovated Pakhuis de Zwijger eight years ago.
The Pinto house was owned by the Amsterdam Monuments Trust, and functioned as a public library until was closed in 2012. Citizens in the neighbourhood, united in the foundation Huis De Pinto, have since called for the preservation of the reading room as a cultural-literary meeting place. And with success: the ground floor will be available again for the community.
Waag is housed at the upper floors using them as office space.