rotterdam’s architectural legacy

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6 2014 at 12:15 AM Updated Jun 6 2014 at 5:08 AM

otterdam’s architectural legacy

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Robert Bevan

tterdam’s citizens, it’s said, buy their shirts with the sleeves already rolled up in

eparation for some hard toil. And never have Rotterdammers worked harder than

he clear-up after the Luftwaffe’s bombardment of the city in May 1940.

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e German blitz on Rotterdam created a deadly !restorm that burned for days and

stroyed the historic core of the city in almost its entirety. Instead of recreating the

dieval centre post-war, as happened elsewhere, the city fathers in go-ahead

tterdam, still Europe’s largest and busiest port, dreamed of the future and set about

aping it. Only six damaged buildings in the central area were restored.

ople who want their Dutchness to come complete with tulips and windmills might

nt to head elsewhere but Rotterdam’s resurrection has left a remarkable legacy for

dern architecture and design buffs. And the city is still dynamically reshaping

elf even as it exports its adventurous ideas to the world.

mong the latest offerings is the Der Rotterdam complex, by Rotterdam-based

hitects OMA. It is a glittering “vertical city" contained in three interlinked towers

the regenerating harbourside. On its upper "oors is the new Nhow hotel that offers

h-rise panoramas over the city and port from its boutique dining room, bar and

drooms.

most complete is a radical new market hall by fellow locals MVRDV. The Markthal

lding is shaped like a horseshoe standing on its points and has 200 apartmentslt into its walls and roof – some of which will have windows angling down on the

dies shopping and eating in the footie-pitch-sized market below.

uth be told, some in this innovative city had already been pushing for a new

hitectural order even before the war, !lling in canals to create new boulevards and

lding avant-garde structures that, being mostly outside the city centre, survived

!restorm. Among them, the 1898 White House that claims the title of Europe’s

t skyscraper and is shaped like a French chateau stretched skywards. There is a

wing platform on its roof.

en in 1933 along came the Van Nelle tobacco and coffee factory that, like Sydney’s

era House, is among the very few modernist buildings that have been World

ritage listed. A delicate grid of glass and concrete, the two parts of the Van Nelle

mplex are connected by dynamic, angular bridges. It in"uenced factory design

rldwide and now houses creative industries and art fairs.

ose angles were trendsetting because Rotterdam is a city that loves its cantilevers,

ver happier than when its buildings appear to defy gravity. Near the Old Harbour

the Cube Houses, shaped like boxes balanced on their corners; then there are

nzo Piano’s KPN Telecom building and JHK’s headquarters for Unilever – both glass

xes teetering on stilts. And of course there is the soaring 139-metre-high Erasmus

dge, cantilevering over the New Maas river from the city centre to the southern

cks. Since it opened in 1996, it has become a symbol of Rotterdam’s latest wave of

eneration.

EEPING THE SEA AT BAY

night, and especially when viewed from the Nhow Hotel, all these structures are lit

with neon, coloured "uorescents and LEDs re"ected in the choppy waters of the

ny waterways. Perhaps all these gymnastics are symptomatic of the low-lying

therlands’ determination to defy nature – keeping the sea at bay and raising a !nger

he tack "at landscape.

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ongside the design, Rotterdam has art – acres of it. The granddaddy of the scene

ng the charming Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum – showing everything from

uegel’s Tower of Babel to contemporary decorative arts. The collection and its

dens form one side of the Museum Park on whose south side is Rem Koolhaas’s

st-modern Kunsthal built to house temporary exhibitions. To the north is Het

euwe Instituut (The New Institute) for architecture exhibitions and a run of !ne

er-war modernist villas (some reconstructed). All these museums are housed in

igorating buildings from the 1930s to the 1990s. MVRDV is also about to start work

an extension to the Boijmans Van Beuningen with a building that will be just about

tinguishable from a giant chrome fruit bowl.

uth of the river, meanwhile, former warehouses at Kop van Zuid have been

nverted to more galleries including the Netherlands Photo Museum, created out of

workshop for the Holland America Line that once shipped European emigrants to

New World in vast numbers.

owledgeable insiders from Archiguides (www.rotterdam-archiguides.nl) can steer

u to the best buildings or you can spread out on the city’s excellent public transport

m the folded steel and glass of Central Station that opened in March.

art from its rollicking industrial-techno nightclubs (that until recently included the

rld’s !rst sustainable club WATT where moves on the dance "oor generate

ctricity) Rotterdam is not known as a party town – its streets are subdued after

m. This may be that work ethic again but could also be a product of the inability of

ban planners and architects to create truly vibrant night-time economies in

ntemporary environments – perhaps a necessary messiness is missing. Rotterdam’s

eliest street is Witte De Withstraat, a former red light district linking the Museum

rk with the centre that survived the bombing and, these days, is a not-so-edgy

trict of boutiques, cafés and bars including stylish Hopper and Dertien (both

und the corner on Schiedamse Vest).

l, Rotterdam is a civilised and urbane place. For design junkies a good time to visit

he International Architecture Biennale (until August 24). Design professionals can

to stay in the stylish homes of local architects through the city’s Wake Up in

chitecture program, while others have a wealth of options including the Nhow, the

wly opened Citizen M hotel in the city centre or to take a water taxi to the

rmanently moored SS Rotterdam, a veteran cruise liner restored to its mid-century ry.

d for those visitors who really are needing a !x of old Holland, pretty Delfshaven in

west of the city has narrow brick canal houses and a working windmill slowly

ning its sails in the breeze. Rotterdam may be a city that likes a good night’s sleep

t that means, come morning, it’s up and at ’em. It never stands still for long.

Australian Financial Review

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