Rotterdam Kop Dakpark (NL)

How can the site contribute to a productive city?

The construction of the Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H) was accompanied by the construction of the working-class neighbourhoods Bospolder to accommodate the dock workers. The initial reciprocity between the port and these neighbourhood has now ceased to exist. In areas like M4H, traditional industry is being replaced by the next economy, while residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods are struggling to keep up. The new building block on the plot at the beginning of the ‘Dakpark’ (=rooftop park) – inserting work-homes for different generations and income brackets – should restore the social and economic connections and become the missing link between the old and the new economy, between blue-collar and white-collar labourers, between living and working.

City strategy

The City of Rotterdam seeks opportunities to accommodate its growth in the existing city. Densification of urban voids, in particular the ones near a public transport hub, with a strategic position in the city is part of this strategy. This type of development is ideally suited to catalyse new interaction milieus, since it offers the opportunity to implement a new work-and-live programme connecting citizens with all sorts of backgrounds, knowledge and skills, various (economic) activities and other ‘resources’ that are already present in the surroundings. Especially urban voids that are at the intersection of multiple neighbourhoods with diverse urban dynamics, like the plot at the beginning of the ‘Dakpark’, offer unorthodox anchors for such productive milieus.

Site definition

The project site is an urban void situated in western Rotterdam next to the Marconiplein, an important public transport hub and gate to the inner city. It is at the intersection of several residential areas originally planned for the working classes – Bospolder, Tussendijken, Spangen and the Witte Dorp – and the port area M4H that is being transformed into an innovative makers district. Between M4H and Bospolder there is the ‘Strip’, an elongated building with a range of large chain stores and a lively communal park on top. The challenge is to develop a radical spatial intervention on this site – meaning a new building with innovative workhome typologies for various generations and income brackets – to create a new centre of activities that restores social and economic connections, revitalizes ground floors with (public) economic activities and fuels the urban dynamics in all neighbouring districts.

How is production inserted in the urban diversity programme?

Rotterdam is growing. The city aims to build 50,000 new homes in the next decade and to vigorously enhance the quality and energy performance of the existing built environment. Rotterdam is looking for ‘good growth’: building a compact, circular, productive, healthy and inclusive city with equal opportunities and high quality of living for everyone. It aims to be a vibrant and welcoming place for people of all walks of life, ages and beliefs, enabling them to prosper. Citizens of Rotterdam should be able to live productive lives by working, learning, caring or in any other way contributing to the development of the city and its narratives. Therefore, it is important to remove barriers, to increase connectivity.
Europan 15 focuses on sites that might catalyse opportunities on multiple levels, places of meaning that might enhance the city’s social resiliency. These are some of the abstract notions rooted in the new Rotterdam vision and regulatory framework on spatial and socioeconomic developments, called the Omgevingsvisie. This framework is currently being drafted by the municipality. It should accelerate innovative spatial solutions and sustainable socioeconomic developments. It is supported by an extensive participatory process and an action research program. The Europan15 sites have been selected to implement this process, through research-by-design and its aim of implementing exemplary projects.

In-between Bospolder & the port area in transition of Merwe-Vierhavens

Perspective of the plot: view towards Marconiplein from Dakpark

The park: in-between Merwe-Vierhavens (left) & Bospolder (right)Perspective of the plot from Marconiplein