The Bijlmer bajes was a prison in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The official name is Penitentiaire Inrichting Over-Amstel. The building was designed as a humane prison without bars over the windows and was opened in 1978. However it turned out that the glass of the windows was not completely unbreakable, so bars were retrospectively fitted.The complex consists of six towers each with different types of prisoners and functions. Each tower has 14 floors and is connected via the 260 m. long central corridor named Kalverstraat. Each department or pavilion has two floors connected via open stairs. Two large lifts where used by the prisoners and a special small lift was only available for staff. Staff and inmates never shared a lift. Emergency stairs where provided on two locations: one set next to the lifts and another shaft was built on the other end of each tower. Many activities took place on the remaining four floors, away from the pavilions. Examples where: working in the workshops on the ground-floor, library, training or education, yard-time, doctors office etc. The total floorspace of the complex is 84.860 m2 was a home for refugees since July 2016 and got demolished in Ocktober 2018.
I feel lucky to have explored this one before it was to late, not much decay but abandoned for sure.
Published.
Be First to Comment