De Bundel is a housing cooperative project in Amsterdam Nieuw-West that aims to create an affordable, self-managed apartment complex close to August Allebéplein. Planned on a vacant municipal plot in Overtoomse Veld, the project will comprise around 130–132 apartments, selected by the City of Amsterdam as the winning proposal from several competing plans. It is conceived as a long-term, non-speculative alternative to conventional development, with rents kept low and stable through cooperative ownership and collective management.
The initiative began in 2021 with a small group of Amsterdam residents who struggled to find secure and affordable housing and were concerned about the displacement effects of gentrification in Nieuw-West. They organised as a democratic association of future tenants, expanded rapidly through neighborhood meetings and street outreach, and positioned De Bundel as a tool to keep local communities together by prioritising residents from the surrounding area and organizing internal solidarity between different income groups.
De Bundel is being developed by Wooncoöperatie De Bundel itself, acting as both client and long-term steward of the building. The architecture and project development are handled in close collaboration with the Amsterdam-based practice Time to Access, a firm specialised in cooperative and community-led housing. Time to Access supports the cooperative in translating its social ambitions into a dense, mixed housing complex with generous communal spaces, shared facilities, and participatory design processes, embedding the project in broader movements in Amsterdam for cooperative housing and resistance to speculative urban development.