Assignment: Restructuring 'Crooswijk' at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design

Project Team: in collaboration with Bas Pijl

Tutors: Like Bijlsma and Liesbeth Brink

Location: Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Year: 2010

 

The neighbourhood of Oud Crooswijk in Rotterdam currently acts more as an urban fill-up than it being a proud teamplayer in the city structure . The neighbourhoud has an internalized structure with repetetive small ‘urban islands’ and a confusing street pattern. Oud Crooswijk needs to be re-integrated into the urban fabric. The project repairs connections at three different scales: 1; the neighbourhood with the city, 2; the neighbourhood with its direct surroundings and 3; connections within the neighbourhood itsself. Design details at different parts of the urban plan adapt to the scale level they are assigned to. For example, the living environment becomes more informal as the scale becomes smaller, materials become more ‘soft’ and the envisioned programme becomes more local. Traversing all scales, water is used as an element to connect all three scale levels, as water has always played a key role in the history of Rotterdam. Moreover does the plan respond to the allocated demand for water retention of 25000m3 in 2050.