Design studio: a vacant church building burns down in Heijplaat. An ignition of reactions, emotions and processes are the start of a posed solution for the ruins and outhouse that are left. The possible interventions on this specific site are a possibility to restore a (former) social monumentality that was present, specifically in its former social center: the Julianakerk. Heijplaat, such as many other ‘company-towns’ went through a phase of heavy (classic) de-industrialization which brought the evident unemployment. Consequences are that the obviousness of the former social structures are no more. In an area such as Heijplaat this is amplified by its small scale and lack of the resilience as the garden city is completely dependent on the ‘company’ (RDM). There are no valuable events taking place on this site anymore.

Research studio: At the moment two churches close their doors per week in the Netherlands alone. These former places of social and spatial centrality left a hole in our cities and neighborhoods. How should these be filled up? Private laws and public laws do not make it easy to make sustainable plans for such objects, which is part of the reason that 600 churches are vacant in the Netherlands at the moment.

‘Een kamer in de wijk’ is een project over het vergroten van de ontwikkelkansen van jongeren en het verminderen van de overlast door jongeren in de wijk Feijenoord in Rotterdam. Aan de hand van literatuurstudies en veldwerk zoals observaties, interviews, en workshops zijn deze onderwerpen verkend en onderzocht. In het onderzoek komt naar voren dat er een conflict is tussen de oplossingen om kansen te vergroten en overlast te verminderen. De conclusie is dat er een balans gezocht moet worden tussen de tegenstrijdige oplossingen die enerzijds bijdragen aan de ontwikkelkansen van jongeren en anderzijds overlast door jongeren verminderen. Dit kan door zogenaamde kamers toe te voegen in het publieke domein van de wijk Feijenoord. Het ontwerp en de patronentaal die zijn ontwikkeld voor het project laten zien hoe met deze kamers kan worden ontworpen om bij te dragen aan de kansen van jongeren en het verminderen van overlast.

The aim of this exploration is to reinterpretate and revitalise underused areas in the modernist urban fabric of Rotterdam. Since Rotterdam was bombed during the Second World War, a whole new modernist city could arise. The Reconstruction plan can still be seen as a manifesto of modern architecture and urbanism. Main focal points were the separation of functions, space for traffic and the suppression of residential functions. The organization of traffic and the aim of separation of functions are in shaping the plan, with main traffic routes, pedestrian shopping streets, mixed traffic/shopping streets and expedition courtyards and streets. The main traffic routes were executed as boulevards, with separate traffic lanes and wide sidewalks.

In the Reconstruction plan of 1946 by Witteveen’s successor Van Traa, the concept of expedition courtyards have been translated in a purely functional manner. The plan is clearly hierarchically set up with main streets, an alley and an expedition street accessible through an entrance gate. Expedition streets and courtyards form an important part of Rotterdam’s reconstruction city. In the centre of Rotterdam they are found in all sorts of sizes. The expedition streets were once the system for supply of shops and companies, whereas they went through change in use over time and this development of the expedition courtyards has resulted in numerous unused spaces.

The inner city of Rotterdam is on a turning point of becoming a more residential place. Converting underused spaces into defined places. Shaping the public space can be conceived as an important contrast be¬tween the traditional European city and the modern city. In the traditional city, the facades of the buildings define the boundaries of the public space and thus become a series of cavities in the urban fabric. While the public space in the modern city becomes an open space with detached objects, modernist buildings. This design proposes a structure in which the public, semi-public, collective and private spaces are shaped. This structure is related to the surrounding modernist building and creates various places with different degrees of publicness.

The following research questions are formulated:
How could the identity of the Rotterdam perimeter expedition block Sint-Janshof be updated in a sustainable way, fulfilling the current demands of densification and qualitative public space?
What are the spatial and functional characteristic qualities of the Reconstruction period?
What is the identity of the expedition building block and what are the potential values of the identity of the Sint-Janshof?

The hypothesis is formulated that a sustainable reinvention is a critical revision of the architectural typology confronted with contemporary programmes and conditions. This approach guarantees the architectural and urban identity will live through.
This design speculates on the future of the Rotterdam expedition building block. The design proposal engages in a retroactive densification of the inner city. A typological study of the expedition streets as urban artefacts has been made.