The B Tower is located in the centre of Rotterdam, immediately adjacent to the Bijenkorf department store designed by Marcel Breuer in the late 1950s. Because of its commercial context the site below the Bijenkorf’s roofline is to be fully occupied, while above it, just thirty per cent of the lot towards the sunken shopping mall Beurstraverse, has been released to build a high-rise tower. In order to avoid splitting the project into a basement and a tower, the design stacks three volumes of similar height. The ground-related volume contains a fashion store, The Sting, and a car park; the two upper volumes contain apartments.
Rotterdam is Europe’s main port, the port area stretches along the Rhine from the city centre towards the sea, its industries and cranes are the icons of the port city. The north east of Rotterdam is a sharp contrast to the general image of the city dominated by industrial activity and modern architecture: a green suburban area of great natural beauty. The historic neighbourhood of Kralingen, parklands, the river Rotte and a series of lakes with riparian leisure facilities such as yacht harbours mark this affluent part of the city. The area would be a real oasis in the dense urban fabric but it is brutally split by a motorway and train rail. The main artery of the Benelux, a motorway which connects the 3 main ports and generates constant traffic and pollution, cuts through this green area. The main eastern train lines run next to the motorway. Crouched against the infrastructure a series of industries are located, in a strange paradox surrounded by the nicest parks of the city.
This house takes part of a program of the congregation Rotterdam who wanted to revitalize disadvantaged neighbourhoods by selling metier houses to private persons.
These homes have in common that they are neglected the last few years and have to be refreshed. The buildings usually consist of several small apartments, one per layer. The purpose of the municipality by selling the buildings is to attract inhabitants with more carrying-capacity. Condition of sale is that the property will be restored within a specified period and will transformed into one house. This causes less, but larger houses. This is the opposite trend to what happens in many inner cities where larger houses are divided into several small apartments.
Rotterdam is Europe’s main port, the port area stretches along the Rhine from the city centre towards the sea, its industries and cranes are the icons of the port city. The north east of Rotterdam is a sharp contrast to the general image of the city dominated by industrial activity and modern architecture: a green suburban area of great natural beauty. The historic neighbourhood of Kralingen, parklands, the river Rotte and a series of lakes with riparian leisure facilities such as yacht harbours mark this affluent part of the city. The area would be a real oasis in the dense urban fabric but it is brutally split by a motorway and train rail. The main artery of the Benelux, a motorway which connects the 3 main ports and generates constant traffic and pollution, cuts through this green area. The main eastern train lines run next to the motorway. Crouched against the infrastructure a series of industries are located, in a strange paradox surrounded by the nicest parks of the city.
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