From Making to Displaying: The Role of Organizational Space in Showing Creative Coolness at the Volkshotel

Abstract

Although its hip and happening image would not have you suspect it, the roots of the creative Volkshotel in Amsterdam are located in the squatter movement the Dutch capital saw in the 1980s. Originally built as the office for a major Dutch daily newspaper, the large building gained its prominence as a so-called breeding place (broedplaats), an idiosyncrasy of Amsterdam’s creative city policy. Now, the building has become a hotel which still has ninety studio spaces for creative workers, and tries to foster synergies between the creative tenants and hotel guests. Relying on the literature on organizational space, I develop an analysis of the intertwining of organizational practice and space throughout the transition of the Volkshotel from subsidised creative hub to ‘creative’ hotel, and will argue that the underlying goal of the creative hub Volkshotel moved from facilitating creative production, to the display of an image of creativity. I will suggest this shift needs to be contemplated in studying the spacing of creative work in general.