Met als bijlage: A0 poster. Rotterdam is reorganizing. Rebuild after the war with a modernist approach, the city finds itself today unable to compete with large cities like Amsterdam and Utrecht. A new vision concentrates on intensifying dwelling in the center and making this center grow with new public buildings at its borders. In between the Westblaak street and the Witte de With street the transition between city scale and small town scale is abruptly made. Different sides have very different identities. The horizontal movement of the heavy traffic on the Westblaak contradicts the lounging public on the Witte de With. The small bars and exhibition spaces at this street ask for contemplation while the offices on Westblaak regulate a 9-5 efficiency of haste and appointments.

Choosing practically dissociated but socially related functions to be combined in one building that connects both worlds is a design study on new public domain in direct relation to architecture. The E&ZO twists from plan to section, from rigid to spacial, from a supported facade to a supporting facade. The center of this twist is formed by a public passage where all functions meet, where design approaches twine, where new public domain is stimulated. Sections show the identities of the different design approaches on the building and details tell the story of E&ZO. Every design approach starts on the smallest scale. This way the idea of a facade that is first supported by the building but in other places supports the building itself can be elaborated tectonically. Another example is the main auditiorium which extends outside the building. A moving facade opens the building and expands its space, connecting inside and outside. E&ZO stimulates new public domain with a twist.