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...

Homeless City

De-centralised policies and care-focused homeless support in the Netherlands has led to an over-simplified definition of homelessness in Rotterdam, where the gemeente fails to recognise and address some of it’s most vulnerable groups. Through literature reviews, interviews with actors from the homeless sector, and observations and conversations...

The reintroduction of katoenveem complex as an open infrastructure for contemporary culture

In 1920 the architect J. J. Kanters designed the warehouse ‘the Katoenveem’. The building is situated in the Merwe-Vierhavens of the port delta of Rotterdam. It was constructed as a part of the infrastructure that relied on the import and export of Cotton. The position of the Katoenveem in this transit system divines the character of the...

Blik op Buurt: Story-finding of neighborhood problems using local perspectives with data

Many active citizens that work on improving their neighborhoods have in-depth local knowledge (small data), but are oftentimes not directly involved in the decision-making processes of city officials. A top-down push is witnessed to make smart use of open data for the development of social solutions and services. However, this creates a gap for...

Route in het Pleinweg-Zuidplein gebied

Herontwikkeling van het Pleinweg-Zuidpleingebied. Door het plaatsen van elementen in de openbare ruimte wordt een route gevormd. Herontwerp van een hoekpand vormt een onderdeel van deze route en verbindt daarmee verschillende openbare ruimten.

Werken aan de Wielewaalstraat: Transformation and activation of the organic urbanism on Rotterdam South

The principles of organic urbanism, originally applied by J.H. van den Broek in his plans on Rotterdam South, prove to be characteristic locations to propose strategic interventions for municipality and housing corporations to improve neighbourhoods and city districts. In this graduation report, an extensive historical research towards Rotterdam...

Flexibility as foundation of Sustainability: Lifecycle focus as a process approach towards 'Evolving Buildings' in our 'City of Tomorrow

Our society and economy are constantly changing. In spite of this the demands and wishes of users also changes. Most of the current building stock is developed as mono-functional buildings to fulfil the demand at a particular moment. They are not designed for the lifespan in which they are functional. Because of their shortcomings in...