Day 3 of the field trip focused on Rotterdam (previous blog posts: Day 1 and Day 2).
The student report on the morning of Day 3:
9h30 - Van Nelle Factory – guided by Jorien Cousijn
The buildings were designed by Leendert van der Vlugt and built between 1925 and 1931. In the 20th century it was a factory, processing coffee, tea and tobacco and later on additional chewing gum, cigarettes, instant pudding and rice. The operation stopped in 1996. The factory closed because they moved to another place. In 2014 in became a UNESCO building.
After the renovation, in 2015, it was known as the Van Nelle Design Factory, and nowadays it is used by a wide variety of companies and a co-working space. There are also areas that can be rented as meeting, conventions and events rooms. It was nice to see that what we saw in the Heijmans presentation, about reinventing the building was applied here in a successful way.
The building shows a typical Bauhaus architecture style, which is from Germany during the same period of this building construction, and consists in geometric forms, flat roofs, modern material for the time (steel, glass and concrete), and simplified colours. This style was kept, and it still works for the new uses.
11:00 – Museumpark and Boijmans Museum Archive Depot
This is the Museum Archive building, this explain a bit why the façade was designed without any window, but visiting this site a lot of questions started popping up, as why the façade is made of mirrors? Why so high? Why in this shape? So, as architects we felt like non-architects for a bit with a lot of questions in our mind, but in the end of the day all these questions got an answer with the presentation of the project by MRVDV.
- Van Nelle Factory (a UNESCO world heritage site)
- The tram stop at Willemsplein - for a guided walk around the city of Rotterdam
- The Zalmhaven Toren - to meet the BAM Logistics Manager (and find out more about the project)
- Museumpark area to look at building projects: Boijmants Museum Archive Depot, Kunsthal and Nieuwe Institute
- Markthal - for a walking tour which included the Cube Houses
The student report on the morning of Day 3:
9h30 - Van Nelle Factory – guided by Jorien Cousijn
The buildings were designed by Leendert van der Vlugt and built between 1925 and 1931. In the 20th century it was a factory, processing coffee, tea and tobacco and later on additional chewing gum, cigarettes, instant pudding and rice. The operation stopped in 1996. The factory closed because they moved to another place. In 2014 in became a UNESCO building.
After the renovation, in 2015, it was known as the Van Nelle Design Factory, and nowadays it is used by a wide variety of companies and a co-working space. There are also areas that can be rented as meeting, conventions and events rooms. It was nice to see that what we saw in the Heijmans presentation, about reinventing the building was applied here in a successful way.
The building shows a typical Bauhaus architecture style, which is from Germany during the same period of this building construction, and consists in geometric forms, flat roofs, modern material for the time (steel, glass and concrete), and simplified colours. This style was kept, and it still works for the new uses.
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| Van Nelle Factory – Ana Elisa Linardi, Nafees Mohammad, Dhouha Touibi, Aditi Jain, Jorien Cousija and Utkarsh Parshionikar |
Centraal Station – guided by Jorien Cousijn
The current building started in 2007 and was concluded in 2014, nicknamed as aluminium foil lunch box, the central station is the centre of the city. It was designed to receive the high-speed trains, metro and trams. The station has an unique format made of glass, stainless steel and wood ceiling, it doesn’t look big from the outside, because of the high building on the surroundings, but from the inside it is massive, and wide open to receive all the public.
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| Rotterdam Centraal Station - Dhouha Touibi, Nafees Mohammad, Ana Elisa Linardi, Aditi Jain and Utkarsh Parshionikar |
10h30 – Stadswandelingen – walking tour guided by Jorien Cousija
The second largest city in the Netherlands, it´s considered an industrial city, as it is the major logistic and economic centre and is the largest seaport in Europe. The city centre was completely destroyed in the World War III, a bomb had been destroyed it in 15 minutes, named as the Rotterdam Blitz . But as a result, the Dutch people wanted to demonstrate that everything was gone, but a better life was coming. Therefore, the city today counts with a varied architectural landscape, including nominated architects skyscrapers (not common on other Dutch cities), as Rem Koolhaas, Ben van Berkel, Foster + Partner and Renzo Piano. This area is called the “Manhattan at the Meuse”. This is such a really interesting view from the story of the city and the people that live there, unfortunately it was not possible to see this view on the day we were there, but for sure I want to see that one day.
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| Erasmus Bridge (Ben van Berkel), Toren op Zuid (Renzo Piano), De Rotterdam ( OMA – Rem Koolhaas), Montevideo (Mecanoo), World Port Center (Foster + Partners). This picture was taken from Google Street View. |
10h45 – Zalmanhaventoren project – BAM meeting with Wouter Van der Zwan and Nadia
Future 3 towers building, one with 215 meters high residential building with 242 apartments and restaurants, and 2 others 70 meters high with 196 apartments and car parking. BAM is the responsible company for the construction, and there no wet concrete on the site, everything is prefabricated and then brought to the site according to the schedule. Every element is tagged with a QR code, that is scanned when gets to the site, this QR code inform where it should be discharged and where this element should be placed, it was possible to check from the outside of the site that it looks very organized and clean on the inside. It would be better if we could get to the site office to check the surroundings at least.
In order to increase the construction cycle, it was necessary to construct a lifting shed around the level under construction, with a crane to locate the prefabricated elements. In our point of view, this environment increases the quality, working conditions for the people involved, speed and safety, because it is a closed area which avoid any falling object.
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| Zalmanhaventoren project - Ana Elisa Linardi, Utkarsh Parshionikar, Dhouha Touibi, Nadia, Wouter Van der Zwan, Nafees Mohammad and Aditi Jain |
This is the Museum Archive building, this explain a bit why the façade was designed without any window, but visiting this site a lot of questions started popping up, as why the façade is made of mirrors? Why so high? Why in this shape? So, as architects we felt like non-architects for a bit with a lot of questions in our mind, but in the end of the day all these questions got an answer with the presentation of the project by MRVDV.
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| Boijmans Museum Archive Depot |
And the afternoon of Day 3 by: Dallamy Laith, Gray Alessandra, Ramashadran Rithika, Oliver Thomas and Vasilaki Evangelia...
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| Group photo at MVRDV offices: from R to L Thomas Oliver, Alessandra Gray, Laith Dallamy, Evangelia Vasilaki and Rithika Ramashadran |
The History:
The city of Rotterdam had been an established and prosperous seaport of the Netherlands since the medieval era. However, Nazi Germany invaded the country on 10th May 1940 but were met with unexpected fierce resistance from Dutch forces. As a result, Adolf Hitler ordered the bombing of Rotterdam on 14th May. Over one night the heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Some 80,000 civilians were made homeless and 900 were killed. One of the few buildings to survive the bombing was the City Hall.
The city of Rotterdam had been an established and prosperous seaport of the Netherlands since the medieval era. However, Nazi Germany invaded the country on 10th May 1940 but were met with unexpected fierce resistance from Dutch forces. As a result, Adolf Hitler ordered the bombing of Rotterdam on 14th May. Over one night the heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Some 80,000 civilians were made homeless and 900 were killed. One of the few buildings to survive the bombing was the City Hall.
Rotterdam was gradually rebuilt from the 1950s through to the 1970s. It remained quite windy and open until the city councils from the 1980s on began developing an active architectural policy. Daring and new styles of apartments, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more 'livable' city centre with a new skyline. In the 1990s, the Kop van Zuid was built on the south bank of the river as a new business centre. Rotterdam was voted 2015 European City of the Year by the Academy of Urbanism.
Rotterdam has become world famous because of its modern and ground-breaking architecture. Throughout the years the city has been nicknamed Manhattan at the Meuse and The architectural capital of the Netherlands both for its skyline and because it is home to internationally leading architectural firms involved in the design of famous buildings and bridges in other big cities. Examples include OMA (Rem Koolhaas), Neutelings & Riedijk and Erick van Egeraat. The city has 38 skyscrapers and 352 high-rises and has many skyscrapers planned or under construction. The top 5 of highest buildings in the Netherlands consists entirely of buildings in Rotterdam. It is home to the tallest building in the Netherlands, the Maastoren with a height of 165 meters. In 2021, the Zalmhaven Tower will be completed with a height of 215 meters, which will become the new tallest building in the Netherlands.
Markthal
Walking around on a foggy afternoon in Rotterdam, it was a welcome change to step into the warmth Markthal had to offer, amidst different aromas of food and fresh produce. Set in the vicinity of Binnenrotte, Blaak Station, Markthal had been envisioned by MVRDV and Provast to break away from dingy traditional European market places, and also stay in line with European rule of The product was a quirky building, conforming to a semi-open plan which attempted to intergrated its surrounding, and be an anchor in the urban planning fabric of Rotterdam. The design includes an interesting take on visual and physical accessibility, all the while maintaining an interoperability of all its users. The architects touted Markthal as ‘a building without a backside’, having made accessible doors, windows for the entire supply of hall, shops and restaurants. The spaces are as such: a large indoor market square complete with an inviting mural on the inner facade, depicting fresh produce; apartments with 6 different elevator entrances for inhabitants; underground tunnel for the supply of goods to the stores; basement parking and an outer facade resembling that of a tennis racket, the largest of its kind, to showcase the inner dynamics of the market hall into its exterior surroundings. The shape of the building in terms of design was fitted to a very construction friendly outlook; it could easily accommodate the traditional elevator cores, and by adding the more spaces to the foot of the structure, the entire volume could have been raised to 120 m tall, 70 m wide, and 40 m high.
Rotterdam has become world famous because of its modern and ground-breaking architecture. Throughout the years the city has been nicknamed Manhattan at the Meuse and The architectural capital of the Netherlands both for its skyline and because it is home to internationally leading architectural firms involved in the design of famous buildings and bridges in other big cities. Examples include OMA (Rem Koolhaas), Neutelings & Riedijk and Erick van Egeraat. The city has 38 skyscrapers and 352 high-rises and has many skyscrapers planned or under construction. The top 5 of highest buildings in the Netherlands consists entirely of buildings in Rotterdam. It is home to the tallest building in the Netherlands, the Maastoren with a height of 165 meters. In 2021, the Zalmhaven Tower will be completed with a height of 215 meters, which will become the new tallest building in the Netherlands.
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| The Markthal |
Walking around on a foggy afternoon in Rotterdam, it was a welcome change to step into the warmth Markthal had to offer, amidst different aromas of food and fresh produce. Set in the vicinity of Binnenrotte, Blaak Station, Markthal had been envisioned by MVRDV and Provast to break away from dingy traditional European market places, and also stay in line with European rule of The product was a quirky building, conforming to a semi-open plan which attempted to intergrated its surrounding, and be an anchor in the urban planning fabric of Rotterdam. The design includes an interesting take on visual and physical accessibility, all the while maintaining an interoperability of all its users. The architects touted Markthal as ‘a building without a backside’, having made accessible doors, windows for the entire supply of hall, shops and restaurants. The spaces are as such: a large indoor market square complete with an inviting mural on the inner facade, depicting fresh produce; apartments with 6 different elevator entrances for inhabitants; underground tunnel for the supply of goods to the stores; basement parking and an outer facade resembling that of a tennis racket, the largest of its kind, to showcase the inner dynamics of the market hall into its exterior surroundings. The shape of the building in terms of design was fitted to a very construction friendly outlook; it could easily accommodate the traditional elevator cores, and by adding the more spaces to the foot of the structure, the entire volume could have been raised to 120 m tall, 70 m wide, and 40 m high.
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| Interior mural facade |
The building is anointed with a BREEAM very good certificate, having a regulated interior climate with natural ventilation. The space program of housing, shopping centres, and market hall make the installation technology of ventilation, heating and central exchanges very efficient. The central monitoring system of the building exchanges hear and cool exchange to reduce the number of installation monitoring. A panel stationed within the market garners awareness on the energy use and CO2 savings of the building. It also provides a gateway to keep its surrounding buildings cool, and consists of a sanitation system designed to save water. Additionally, all the tenants of the residential units subscribe to the Green Lease Agreement so that there is sustainable ambitions of the building is well regulated by all users.
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| The Cube Houses |
The cube houses located centrally in Rotterdam are just a stone’s throw away from the famous Markthal and centrally located library and are an eye-catching architectural development. The bright yellow exterior of the 45 degree angle houses was without doubt one of the most unique and puzzling architectural developments we saw not only in Rotterdam but in the entirety of the Netherlands.
Initially all puzzled at the feasibility and usability of such houses, by the experimental Dutch architect Piet Bloom, the 70’s built cubes slowly indicated their abstract representations the more we looked up at the urban canopy. The cube houses are known to represent a forest, with each house resembling a singular tree, although in this case an urban one. Containing 38 small cube houses and 2 ‘super’ cubes, the houses were created through the use of a tilted timber cube where one point is anchored in a hexagonal concrete core. Such structures have allowed for the representation of this core as a tree trunk, where the entrances and stairs to the houses are placed. Consisting of three floors, firstly containing a ‘street house’ floor, where a living room and kitchen are present. Above this, the second floor known as a ‘sky house’ where the two bedrooms and bathroom reside, and the ‘tree-top house’ at the apex. Having only just vertical walls in the core, every other wall in the houses are angular, with the most prominent being at the apex, where the cubic nature is most apparent.
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| Ground view of the cube houses urban forest canopy |
When walking amongst the ‘urban forest’ it was apparent the houses bring with them a sense of serenity and calm, although placed upon one of the busiest road routes in Rotterdam. Not only however, do the houses act as a natural walkway and bridge over this road, but they also connect the modernist Markethal architecture to the old harbour of Rotterdam, with many of the cubes overlooking this. Therefore, evoking in myself and other students, a sense of connection between old and new. Visiting the cube houses I believe was a big highlight in the trip to Rotterdam, seeing the conceptual visualisations of an architect put into practice. Which create, not only connections between different time periods, but also attempt to re-connect nature into urban spaces. To see the new uses of some the houses as museums and hostels, I found to be interesting, as it highlights the curiosity by the general public in these unique architectural buildings. Further promoting how architecture has the ability to attract varieties of people and influence modern lifestyles.
MVRDV Visit
Founded in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, MVRDV is an architectural firm based in Rotterdam and are highly distinguishable all across the globe due to their urban structures. The work carried out by MVRDV is not only exhibited across the world but is also held in high regard receiving numerous international awards along with being very published. With around 250 architects and designers serving as the brainchild for MVRDV, projects are carried out in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative design process that involves rigorous technical and creative investigation. MVRDV works with BIM and has official in-house BREEAM and LEED assessors. The firm values the collaborative workspace that has been built up over the years and pride themselves on having the ‘uniquely creative’ workspace. The undertaking of their design method involves clients, stakeholders, and experts from a wide range of fields from early on in the creative process. The results are exemplary, outspoken projects that enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.
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| Boijmans Extension in context with the old building and existing plaza. |
Het Depot Boijmans
One of the currently most famous MVRDV projects is the Het Depot Bojimans located in Rotterdam. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is the first art storage facility in the world that offers access to a museum’s complete collection. The Depot has a different dynamic to that of the museum: there are no exhibitions, but people will be able to browse amongst 151,000 artworks, alone or with a guide, and get behind-the-scenes glimpses of - among other things - conservation and restoration.
A sight visit combined with a presentation at the company’s offices gave the students a clear understanding of the idea, purpose and the special features of this project. While the new building is located a previously park area, the main idea of its sustainable design was to reduce its volume and vision by minimizing the footprint and maximizing the roof. This result succeeds according to the rounded shape of the structure and the mirror effect that is given to it aiming the reflection of the surrounding park. The special reflecting effect of the park and city this building offer is given from 6,609 square meter mirror panels which originate from China.
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| Reflective curved panel to project the Rotterdam Skyline on the building. |
The building is made of concrete and it’s floor area is 15,000 m2. It has six floors and is 39.5 meters high,iIts footprint is 40 meters in diameter, which cantilevers out to a diameter of 60 meters. The ground floor consists of a welcoming entrance area with 6 meters height doors, with a coffee corner available to visitors. On this floor there are also areas for art handling: packaging, atmosphere conditioning, quarantine, loading and unloading. The upper storeys contain all repositories, exhibition spaces, the expertise centre and a cinema, located around the central atrium. The atrium gallery, with glass roof, is filled with works from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection. The storeys are connected by suspended staircases, which have something of the feel of the breathtaking sketches by the eighteenth-century Italian architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
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| Museum Boijmans - exterior view. |
A panoramic roof terrace is going to be formed that will be accessible freely by every visitor who wants to enjoy the wonderful view of Rotterdam from above. 75 birch trees will be placed on the roof. The full of green designed terrace will reinforce the sustainable character of this building, and give the idea of a continuous park lifted off the ground. All the above are forming a very unique structure, which will lead to a new cultural monument at Rotterdam.
In conclusion, Rotterdam is a city that keeps evolving and surprises its visitors and habitants continuously with its innovative character. It will have much interest to follow the future plans of this city.
Report on Day 4 and Day 5 will follow...
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