Activating the “glass box“: The post-war International style office building’s contribution to the future densification challenges of the city centre of Rotterdam

The project “Activating the glass box” aims to find out how the existing built heritage can be not an obstacle, but the key to the comprehensive dense city of the near future. It showcases the contextual design approach and opportunities for the unlisted 50’s-60’s international style office buildings - “glass boxes”- whose potential is not yet...

Fenix II: A cultural, artistic and culinary hotspot

The Fenix II building, located in the inner city port area of Rotterdam, has been an integral part of the city's history in both architectural and cultural terms. Serving as storage space after the 1920's for the emigrants of the country, and as industrial storage after the 1950's, it becomes today part of the modern redevelopments of the...

The Maassilo: in the Belly of the Beast: Verisimilitude

The Maassilo, an enormous concrete creature, a remnant of the prosperous growth of the Rotterdam harbour, lies unmoved and quenching for thirst on the bare and abandoned quay. Its identity intertwined with Rotterdam’s DNA and its presence is a pure display of structural power. As part of the studio Heritage + Architecture the project...

The Fenix II, From an emigration pioneer to an integration icon

The Fenix II (former San Francisco) warehouse was built in 1922 and commissioned by the ‘Holland America Lijn’. It functioned as a warehouse for household effects for emigrants to the US. This project explores the architectural possibilities for redeveloping the Fenix II building into a public building relating to integration and education.

Connecting the Maassilo

Design for adaptive reuse of the Maassilo in Rotterdam within the graduation studio of Heritage and Architecture. This design focusses on creating physical and social connections with an integrated sustainable design.