Loods 6 was built in the early 1900s by the Royal Dutch Steamboat Company, the KNSM, and is located on the KNSM Island in Amsterdam. The building was completely renovated in 1997 and has since hosted a wide variety of shops, office spaces, artists and design studios, as well as its monumental Baggage Hall and unique, historic Compass Room.

In the course of the 20th century, Loods 6 served several functions, from transshipment warehouse and customs warehouse to shipyard workshop, passenger terminal, and finally - in the mid-1980s - a multi-purpose location for artists and squatter activists.
Traces of the past are to be found all around and in the building. The warehouse space has maintained its industrial atmosphere, with its concrete floors, concrete columns and old warehouse doors. Original space heaters hang like flying saucers in the air, and are once again in service. The last original harbour crane still stands monumental and proud along the waterfront, maintained and serviced by its former operators.

In 1987, the Kunstwerk Loods 6 Foundation (Artwork Warehouse 6) was established to infuse Loods 6 with new purpose. In the mid-1990s, major renovations were begun. On the ground floor, on the street side of the building, a shopping arcade was completed, and thanks to such trend-setting design stores as Pols Potten, Keet in Huis, Sissy Boy Homeland and Dominio, is now referred to as 'the Netherlands' hippest residential boulevard'. On the water, right on the IJ waterway, large sculpture workshops and studios have been created. On the first floor, which has a 150-metre long terrace overlooking the water, is a variety of office spaces. On the top floor can be found the artists' studios, which like the other spaces, also have 4.5 to 5 metre high ceilings, a luxury no longer found in modern buildings.