Imaging new locations
The Municipality of Rotterdam initialized an ideas competition for the New City Hall Rotterdam. With our contribution for this competition we questioned the proposed location for the new building in the heart of Rotterdam and advocated for 'Kop van Zuid' as the ideal location for such a development.
+++ Looking at historic predecessors in Rotterdam, municipal developments always took place on parts of the city with great new potential for developments. The Kop van Zuid, a former port area on the South Bank, seemed us to be the most suitable place for the new city hall. The Erasmus Bridge, a cable stayed bridge across the Nieuwe Maas river, is linking after its completion in 1996 the northern and southern halves of the city of Rotterdam. Our competition entry showed on a strategic level how the municipality may concentrate their many office complexes in a single new building on Kop van Zuid, emphasizing the location as the new focus of Rotterdam.
+++ With the move of municipal back offices to Kop van Zuid the metropolitan backdrop on the location of the old City Hall may expose new activity. The existing Town Hall transforms into a City Palace with representing facilities and hotel accommodations for official guests, a contemporary 'Hôtel de Ville'. Furthermore we imagine a new covered market hall in the adjacent waste post office.
+++ The jury, with architect Wiel Arets as jury leader, honored our entry with the first prize. The planners and Local Authority of Rotterdam took over and researched the feasibility of a City Hall on Kop van Zuid.
+++ The discussion, initialized by this project, on a municipal building on Kop van Zuid was hold idle when new political parties came into power after local elections. More recently, serious plans habe been lauched by the local authority to replace its administrative departments on Kop van Zuid.
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