To all of our dear followers that were eagerly awaiting updates: apologies for the long time since the previous post.

After the analysis we made a masterplan, mostly based on the first part of the analysis (that you can read a few posts back). Keypoints in the plan are the many connections with the area west of the Stadiumpark, that is now completely blocked out by the infrastructure. The public parts of the stadium will mainly be oriented towards the west.



After a lot (!) of discussion and sketches on how to proceed, we decided to go with a very literal interpretation of the masterplan. The housing structure of Rotterdam-Zuid will be continued towards the stadium (see masterplan), and then wrapped around it. The stadium becomes a social housing project. A very literal continuing of the urban fabric. We believe that thit is a clear statement, after all design is politics.




The square opens up towards the stadium, and the space underneath the overarching twists is a very interesting public space. When there is no match going on, the space under the stands is part of a connection between east and west. There can even be a bicycle-path.

Because the curved shape is quite complex, we decided to split it up in 3 parts: the ends ("slabs"), the twist, and the vertical housing. In the curvature they form an unity, but thus far during the progress we treated them more or less seperately.

The slabs consist out of a high-density low-rise social housing complex. It is three layers of housing, and it is one of the subjects for the computational design (later more on this subject). Bottom-line is that it should be as dense as possible, with as much daylight in the bottomlevel as possible, with as much coherence with the rest of the "ribbon" as possible. These are two of a few partly parametric, partly random determined (density, size, number of subdivisions) configurations of the dwellings. The reference from Madrid (couple of posts down) may be more clear now.



The twist is a transition area that is a real challenge. The architectural language of the twist, combined with the slab is quite strong, and we don't want to do too much concessions. Horizontal floors are mandatory, but by creating curved facades, it is in our opinion possible to keep the twisting lines in. Here is an visualization of the twist and the slab+twist seen from the waterside.


The third part is important. It is where the conflict between the different scale (housing and stadium) is most evident. For the largest part we want to seperate the trafficflows. Only some big plaza's are cut out of the housing skin. During matchtime (approx. 3% of the time) are these plaza's closed down for the 'villagers'. Or, what is more appropriate: The village is closed down for the hooligans.



Potential problems:

- The roofstructure, on which we did not yet decide :x The support can ruin our cavity, or can penetrate the unity of the facade. The longer we postpone decisions about the roof, the more it will be problematic later on.
- The twist. We have a clear visual in mind. Chances are that we need to do concessions. It is such an unconvenient form for a building, that our layout of this area should be really well done.
- The daylight in the housing zone. High density does usually not compute with this.
- The acoustics and the vibrating and trembling of the stadium in relation to the housing.
- ...enough more. There is a lot of things to be solved. But we feel like we are getting somewhere.

Thoughts on Rotterdam-Zuid Part 2

Image source: De Urbanisten, De veilige en goed ingepaste hoofdwaterkering in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is split in two halves by the Maas. This river is not only a big source of income for the city, it is also a threat. The Global Warming is causing a rapidly raising waterlevel, that, according to some experts, will threat the city with floods. Rotterdam is protected by the Maeslantkering, a big reconfigurable structure that closes during heavy springtides. Recently has been concluded that this structure has a pretty big fall-out percentage. This is an extra danger for the city. The dikes are not on the edges of the Maas. Big pieces of land that are outside the dikes are used for industry, agriculture, housing or whatever functions.

1. Doklaan
2. Hilledijk
3. Stadionpark

Due to the rising waterlevel, an advise has been given to raise the dikes. This is quite a big intervention. A dike a little bit like an iceberg: the biggest part is underneath the surface. To raise the dike, the slope of the structure has to stay the same, so the amount of volume that has to be added is more than it seems at the first sight. With the raising the dike, there also arises a physical barrier. Currently there is a project going on in Rotterdam to create multifunctional dykes, the so called 'trapdijk' (terrace dyke).
The stadium has to be built next to the dike. It can be used as a dyke, or be built on the dike. When the whole stadium is designed as a ringdike (left), the barrier towards the sportpark is removed. However, the barrier towards the surrounding neigbourhoods is a potential danger. Another option is to raise the current dyke and incorporate it in the stadium