rotterdam.enz

Schiemond

The square in front of the basischool De Boog

Type : district

Ugly and beautiful, awkward and attractive, Delfshaven is for sure a paradoxical borough. Another demonstration can be seen in one of its district, Schiemond. 

A small area in the south of Delfshaven, stuck between the Maas and a huge boulevard, surrounded on both sides by factories, Schiemond appears firstly on the map like an island, an enclave in the city. In reality, it’s even worse. The Westzeedijk draws a frontier which makes any crossing by foot or bike an adventure. There is therefore a kind of no man’s land between Schiemond and the rest of Delfshaven, but there is no doubt that the park which is beginning to be built will make the area more human-friendly. Finally, the long buildings in which are scattered little gates to go in Schiemond reinforce the impression of a closed area. 

One of the gates to get into Schiemond

After these trials, one has the chance to discover a peaceful area, with its playgrounds, its flowers, its nice little school and its forgettable architecture. But the breathtaking moment is a bit hidden by buildings, straight ahead to the south. Next to the Maas, a long promenade with benches offers a spectacular view on the harbour. The rumbling of the port’s activity constrasts with the apparent immobility of the cranes, while huge ships are appearing every minute, moving slowly on the wide Maas, going to a part of the harbour that one cannot see from here despite the wide angle offered by Schiemond. 

Enjoying port landscapes

Schiedamseweg

Type : street



As Lava Legato is beginning to implement some volunteering activities in the Delfshaven district, let’s have a look on the eastern side of Rotterdam with a charismatic subject: Schiedamseweg. The long street Schiedamseweg is a world in itself, a link between the different faces of the city.  

From the city-center, the first thing you will see in Schiedamseweg is the window open on the Historic Delfshaven, one of the shiniest and most touristic places in Rotterdam. The common commentary about these short channels is the following: “Ha, if only R’dam wouldn’t have been bombed, it would be so beautiful!”. Indeed, this part of the city wasn’t destroyed in 1944 and appears like a strange recollection of the far past in the modern metropolis. So Delfshaven belonged to Delft between the 14th and the 19th century, it constituted the port of Delft (Delfs/haven). In this channel, ships from the Dutch East India Company used to unload their goods two centuries ago.

The old Delfshaven with its windmill

If you go further to the West, the Schiedamseweg becomes the quintessence of the rotterdamer identity: multiculturalism is everywhere. In this street inhabited by a lot of moroccans, you will find thousands of telecom shops, restaurants with chinese, surinaam, moroccan, hungarian, american, croatian food…

Further in Schiedamseweg, the market in Visserijplein

Go a bit further and you enter the suburbs, as close from Rotterdam as from Schiedam. The shape of the buildings around you are changing : the cubes are now dominant, the shop displays are a bit less meticulous, complex buildings show their strange faces. But still, the same lively atmosphere remains, the impression of movements everywhere is strong… You will have to wait for the night if you want to see this street peaceful, when it becomes empty and a bit creepy. 


Maassilo

Type : former industrial building
Architect : Jacobus Pieter Stok (Rotterdam, 1863-1942)
Date : 1902 (current shape : 1951)

Position : Maashaven Zuidzijde 2 (Charlois / Rotterdam)


A concrete titan, a gray mass along the Maas, reminding to all the industrial and port role of the city even though its use has changed, the Maassilo is an icon of the Rotterdam landscape : this is the medieval castle that the city is missing, a huge and unreadable building, and the growing city-center is going to swallow it.

Its current shape is the result of different steps accumulated during the XXth century. In 1906, JP Stok, famous for its modern work in industrial architecture, creates a 20-meters high grain silo, the most important in the whole Europe. Soon, demand is increasing, and so is also the surface area and the height of the building. In 1929, a new 48-meters high silo is added. The last expansion happens in 1951, bringing the storage capacity to 90,000 tons. 

But after that, this great work, completed through the ages, started to become embarassing : the required automation of the silo is difficult to conduct. It finally fell into disuse in 2003. 

Even if this bulding wasn’t easy to renovate in order to change the use, the Maassilo has been living again quite quickly. Nowadays, the floors between the 2nd and the 6th are welcoming offices for start-ups and young creative companies, while the 10th floor is a free space reserved for business events and huge parties on saturday nights.

(From Afrikaanderplein)

Burgemeester Hoffmanplein

The Wilhelminamonument (Henri Evers) 

Type : public space

Position : Noordereiland (Feijenoord) 


Entrance to the Feijenoord district, the small Noordereiland is ending its transformation. The island was still hosting a port activity 20 years ago. Nowadays, it is a residential area, housing 3200 inhabitants, and a unique landscape-supplier : on either side you are, you get a new spectacular view, featuring the Erasmus bridge, so close and so white that it seems surreal, but also the other bridges, the Kop van Zuid towers, the Maas riverfront…

But there’s a place where you can’t see the river and the whole Rotterdam attractions, or at least only intermittently. At the very center of the island, stands the Burgemeester Hoffmanplein, a long and quiet square, named after the mayor of Rotterdam between 1845 and 1866. 


The Stieltjes Memorial (Eugène Lacomblé, Eugen Gugel)


In this square, trees are drawing two parralel lines between which there are playgrounds for children, and also two major monuments dating back over a century. A fountain created in 1898 immortalizes the coronation of the Queen Wilhemina, who ruled the Netherlands for 58 years. For its part, the red column (1884) commemorates Stieltjes, great engineer behind the installation of the ports in Feijenoord in the nineteenth century.

Preserved and welcoming, this area stands out as the center of the “Montmartre an de Maas”. 

De Brug (Unilever Offices)

Type : Office building
Architect : JHK Architect, Utrecht
Date : 2004

Position : Nassaukade 5 (Feijenoord / Rotterdam)



In the north of Feijenoord, next to the Koninginnebrug, a huge glass structure runs to the Maas, above the buildings : this is De Brug, the bridge. 

In this parallelepiped, you can find the offices of the third world-seller of daily products : Unilever, the company that owns the brands Lipton, Axe, Dove or Magnum, has his head office in Rotterdam and in London. And so the head office of Unilever Bestfood Nederland is in Feijenoord. 

Ten years ago, there was only a factory, producing 24 hours a day some margarine and other stuffs.  In order to avoid disrupting the production and saving land, JHK’s Chris de Longe offered to Unilever to use industrial methods of building bridges for these charismatic and aerial offices. The whole structure has been built in a temporary area before being transported and assembled in the Nassaukade.

Based only on three feet, this feat is one of the few trials of hanging architecture, suspended above the existing city, like a premise of the Yona Friedman’s dream : the spatial city (ville spatiale) which unfolds in three dimensions (picture below).

(more about the spatial city ?)

Starting again


Continuing a work started by somebody else is never an easy task, but when this work is about a subject that seems to be infinite, as the Rotterdam architecture is, it is not scaring anymore. 



Classical Rotterdam cityscape, from the Willemsbrug


Romantic and disturbing at the same time, the Rotterdam landscapes are unique. In this city, the extravagant profusion of modern buildings responds to the amount of free spaces in which you have a wide field of vision : in this city, everything is existing only in order to reveal the beauty of the water and the sky. 



From Kralingse Bos


In this american city with an european heart, you ride by bike between the skycrapers and discover the cranes in the horizon, thinking about the fact that what you see now may be completely different in 10 years.



The metro station Blaak and skycrapers, from Binnenrotte


But you also have to open your eyes on the other side of Rotterdam : welcoming people among the poorest of the Netherlands, Rotterdam can also be strange places where you feel lost, red brick cubic quarters, where you can’t see the skycrapers anymore, but where an astonishing mix of cultures and different charms are taking place.

That’s why your new guide, Simon, the trendy-ish frenchman, is going to make you discover and love the different faces of Rotterdam, especially in the Feijenoord district, where I live and do the different activities of my voluntary service. 

Rondje Feijenoord

Before coming to the Netherlands, people always called me crazy when I told them that I would live and work in Feijenoord. The only thing that they connect with the name are the hooligans from Feyenoord Rotterdam and that of course casts a poor light on the district. After living here for 8 months, I can say that I really took it in my heart. I love the variety of buildings and people and the atmosphere you find at different places.
During the last week I was walking around a lot taking pictures of several buildings and spot. Here I’ll present some highlights of my tours…this will maybe change your image of Feijenoord :-)

This building, the ‘Vijf werelddelen’ was originally used as a storehouse for coffee, tea, spices and sugar. Today it serves as a small shopping centre with several shops and restaurants.

This stage is part of the trainstation Rotterdam Zuid. Even if you see that the building is not really up to date, I really like the composition of colours. You can also find it on other public buildings in the district.

Plein Loods 24 is a memorial for the jews from Rotterdam who perished during the 2nd world war. Loods 24 was a registration office and the place from where they were brought to the transit camp Westerbork. A memorial stone reminds of this terrible incidence.

I always thought that these swimming hemispheres belong to the Luxor Theater that is located some metres away from them, but I just found out that they contain a research centre about water, climate and energy…anyway, they are worth to be visited!

Even if I already wrote something about the Peperklip some time ago…I’m so impressed by the building that I have to post another picture!

As I couldn’t take a picture of the Hotel New York that really convinces me, I chose this one as an alternative. You have to see the old office of the Holland America Line with your own eyes! I furthermore quite like the way the Wilhelminapier, where Hotel New York is located, advertises itself.

A little artwork on Nordereiland…there’s no denying that a rose is a rose is a rose is a …

Here you see ‘de Hef’, a disused railroad bridge, and a building that is used to controll the shipping traffic at the Maas.

This is ‘Prehistorisch Rotterdam’, as artist Marc Legersté imagined it to be and an old dockside crane in the background.

Jammer dat het bijna onmogelijk is om informaties over de architectuur van het Zalmhuis te vinden. Nu weet ik heel veel over pinksterarrangementen en het Zalmhuis als huwelijkslocatie, maar dat was eigenlijk niet mijn bedoeling. Een horecabedrijf was ook niet het idee van Adriaan Dekkers, die in 1875 met het bouwen van een hal begon om hier de afslag en verkoop van zalm en andere zeedieren te organiseren. In de jaren erna wordt het de grootste zalmafslag van Nederland. Onder leiding van Jan van den Akker wordt in 1896 een paviljoen in art nouveau stijl bovenop de markthal gebouwd, dat als eetcafdienst doet. In 1955 wordt het oud zalmhuis gesloopt en later opnieuw nagebouwd. Misschien is dat ook de reden waarom ik aan de gebouwen van een attractiepark moest denken toen ik het Zalmhuis voor het eerst zag. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to find information about the architecture of the ‘Zalmhuis’ (Salmonhouse). Now I know quite a lot about pentecost arrangements and the Zalmhuis as a marriage location, but that was actually not my purpose. A catering company was not what Adriaan Dekkers wanted to set up, when he in 1875 started to built a hall to organize auctions and sales of salmon and other sea animals. During the next years, it became the most important point of sale of the Netherlands. A pavilion in art nouveau style was in 1896 under Jan van den Akker’s guidance built on top of the market hall. It was used as a restaurant. In 1955 the old Zalmhuis was knocked down. It was reconstructed later on. Maybe that’s the reason why the buildings of a theme park came to my mind when I saw the building for the first time. Waar?/Where? Schaardijk 396

Jammer dat het bijna onmogelijk is om informaties over de architectuur van het Zalmhuis te vinden. Nu weet ik heel veel over pinksterarrangementen en het Zalmhuis als huwelijkslocatie, maar dat was eigenlijk niet mijn bedoeling.

Een horecabedrijf was ook niet het idee van Adriaan Dekkers, die in 1875 met het bouwen van een hal begon om hier de afslag en verkoop van zalm en andere zeedieren te organiseren. In de jaren erna wordt het de grootste zalmafslag van Nederland.

Onder leiding van Jan van den Akker wordt in 1896 een paviljoen in art nouveau stijl bovenop de markthal gebouwd, dat als eetcafdienst doet.

In 1955 wordt het oud zalmhuis gesloopt en later opnieuw nagebouwd. Misschien is dat ook de reden waarom ik aan de gebouwen van een attractiepark moest denken toen ik het Zalmhuis voor het eerst zag.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to find information about the architecture of the ‘Zalmhuis’ (Salmonhouse). Now I know quite a lot about pentecost arrangements and the Zalmhuis as a marriage location, but that was actually not my purpose.

A catering company was not what Adriaan Dekkers wanted to set up, when he in 1875 started to built a hall to organize auctions and sales of salmon and other sea animals. During the next years, it became the most important point of sale of the Netherlands.

A pavilion in art nouveau style was in 1896 under Jan van den Akker’s guidance built on top of the market hall. It was used as a restaurant.

In 1955 the old Zalmhuis was knocked down. It was reconstructed later on. Maybe that’s the reason why the buildings of a theme park came to my mind when I saw the building for the first time.


Waar?/Where? Schaardijk 396

Deze foto van ‘De Peperklip’ heb ik vlak voor kerst gemaakt voordat ik naar Duitsland ging om kerst te vieren. In de sneeuw lijkt het gebouw aan de Rosestraat in Feijenoord, dat bijna 500m lang is, heel vreedzaam en kalm. Maar het gebouw van architect Carel Weeber heeft een verleden met veel problemen. Dit sociale woningbouwcomplex werd in 1982 opgeleverd. Toen zaten er in de buurt nog geen winkels en andere voorzieningen. Bovendien woonden er veel probleemhuurders die niet echt geinteresseerd waren in een vredige samenleving. In de afgelopen jaren werden er verschillende maatregelen uitgevoerd die de woonsituatie konden verbeteren, zoals de invoering van een floormanager en een vrouwenhuis. Ik hoop in iedere geval dat deze maatregelen slagen, want zo’n zeldzaam gebouw verdient beter… I took this picture of ‘De Peperklip’ in the morning before I went to Germany to celebrate Christmas. In the snow, the almost 500m long bulding on the Rosestraat in Feijenoord, looks very peaceful and quiet. But the building designed by architect Carel Weeber has a history full of problems. The social housing project was finished in 1982. At that time, there were no shops or other facilities in the neigbourhood. Moreover, there were many problematic tenants living there who were not interested in a peaceful living environment. During the last years, several measures such as a floormanager and a refuge for battered women were implemented and they could improve the living situation. I really hope that the measures will also succeed in future, because a unique building like ‘De Peperklip’ has to be protected! Waar?/Where? Oranjeboomstraat in Feijenoord

Deze foto van ‘De Peperklip’ heb ik vlak voor kerst gemaakt voordat ik naar Duitsland ging om kerst te vieren. In de sneeuw lijkt het gebouw aan de Rosestraat in Feijenoord, dat bijna 500m lang is, heel vreedzaam en kalm. Maar het gebouw van architect Carel Weeber heeft een verleden met veel problemen.

Dit sociale woningbouwcomplex werd in 1982 opgeleverd. Toen zaten er in de buurt nog geen winkels en andere voorzieningen. Bovendien woonden er veel probleemhuurders die niet echt geinteresseerd waren in een vredige samenleving.

In de afgelopen jaren werden er verschillende maatregelen uitgevoerd die de woonsituatie konden verbeteren, zoals de invoering van een floormanager en een vrouwenhuis.

Ik hoop in iedere geval dat deze maatregelen slagen, want zo’n zeldzaam gebouw verdient beter…

I took this picture of ‘De Peperklip’ in the morning before I went to Germany to celebrate Christmas. In the snow, the almost 500m long bulding on the Rosestraat in Feijenoord, looks very peaceful and quiet. But the building designed by architect Carel Weeber has a history full of problems.

The social housing project was finished in 1982. At that time, there were no shops or other facilities in the neigbourhood. Moreover, there were many problematic tenants living there who were not interested in a peaceful living environment.

During the last years, several measures such as a floormanager and a refuge for battered women were implemented and they could improve the living situation.

I really hope that the measures will also succeed in future, because a unique building like ‘De Peperklip’ has to be protected!

Waar?/Where? Oranjeboomstraat in Feijenoord

Toen ik de blauwe huizen voor het eerst zag moest ik meteen aan een zwembad denken. Of een speeltuin. Ze lijken een beetje opstandig tussen de oude en statige baksteenhuizen in de Beatrijsstraat. Hoewel men misschien zou denken dat de drie huizen op het dak net zo klein zijn als speelhuizen voor kinderen bieden ze onder andere ruimte voor slaapkamers voor een heel gezin. Op internet heb ik foto’s gevonden die laten zien dat de binnenruimtes met hun beige muren veel ‘volwassener’ lijken. Het architectenbureau MVRDV heeft de verbouwing van het dak uitgevoerd. De architecten noemden de nieuwe daklandschap Didden village, omdat de familie Didden sinds 1995 in het huis de Beatrijsstraat 71 woont en werkt. Ik zou bijna zeggen dat je in je eigen wereld bent als je boven op het dak staat…een eigen wereld met een mooi uitzicht op Rotterdam. When I saw the blue houses for the first time I had to think of a swimming pool. Or a playground. They look a bit rebellious between the old and stately brick houses in the Beatrrijsstraat. Even though one could think that the three houses an the roof are small like play houses for children, they are big enough to provide bedrooms for a whole family. I found pictures in the internet that show that the interor rooms with their beige walls look much more ‘grown-up’. The architecture office MVRDV carried out the modification if the roof. The architects called the new roof scape Didden village, as the Dillen family has lived and worked in the building since 1995. I would almost say that you’re in your own world if you’re standing on top of the roof…you’re own world with a beautiful view over Rotterdam. Waar?/Where? Beatrijsstraat in Delfshaven

Toen ik de blauwe huizen voor het eerst zag moest ik meteen aan een zwembad denken. Of een speeltuin. Ze lijken een beetje opstandig tussen de oude en statige baksteenhuizen in de Beatrijsstraat. Hoewel men misschien zou denken dat de drie huizen op het dak net zo klein zijn als speelhuizen voor kinderen bieden ze onder andere ruimte voor slaapkamers voor een heel gezin. Op internet heb ik foto’s gevonden die laten zien dat de binnenruimtes met hun beige muren veel ‘volwassener’ lijken.

Het architectenbureau MVRDV heeft de verbouwing van het dak uitgevoerd. De architecten noemden de nieuwe daklandschap Didden village, omdat de familie Didden sinds 1995 in het huis de Beatrijsstraat 71 woont en werkt.

Ik zou bijna zeggen dat je in je eigen wereld bent als je boven op het dak staat…een eigen wereld met een mooi uitzicht op Rotterdam.

When I saw the blue houses for the first time I had to think of a swimming pool. Or a playground. They look a bit rebellious between the old and stately brick houses in the Beatrrijsstraat. Even though one could think that the three houses an the roof are small like play houses for children, they are big enough to provide bedrooms for a whole family. I found pictures in the internet that show that the interor rooms with their beige walls look much more ‘grown-up’.

The architecture office MVRDV carried out the modification if the roof. The architects called the new roof scape Didden village, as the Dillen family has lived and worked in the building since 1995.

I would almost say that you’re in your own world if you’re standing on top of the roof…you’re own world with a beautiful view over Rotterdam.

Waar?/Where? Beatrijsstraat in Delfshaven