Maassilo as a transshipment society

Abstract

Today, the re-introduction of industrial heritage into the contemporary city, requires a parallel design process that equally involves thorough value assessments and addressing current social necessities. Looking at historic ports, the way this approach can consciously establish a long term impact for the city has been tested in cases such as the Hafencity in Hamburg and the port of Marseille, and still remains an intriguing question for a lot of European harbor areas.

In such settings of a previously unconditional functional context, the act of re-programming is catalyst and can guide the new architectural language. As a major example of such a post-industrial context, the Maassilo in Rotterdam Zuid provides a protagonist scenario of how to deal with social diversity by re-establishing historical identity.

Caught at the edge of a major infrastructural border between two disparate entities: the future gentrified area of Katendrecht and the inert, working class neighborhoods of Tarwewijk and Bloemhof, the Maassilo carries an inescapable mediating role between north and south.On the other hand its extreme physicality, and the possibilities provided by the load bearing capacity of the silos, create a guiding force on their own.

Addressing the historic aspect of the Maassilo as a a major instrument in the context of transshipment, the programme proposes the relocation of the existing central office for the Rhine & inland navigation (CBRB) inside the building.Taking advantage of the conceiled central part of silos, this also involves the ‘curving-out’ of conference rooms and auditoriums, for meetings with the rest of the European board members and commissions

Operating as a ‘transshippment society’, the project aims to investigate how such an official European network of
gathering and knowledge, can commemorate the building’s historical importance for Rotterdam while also assuming a
public character towards the surrounding districts.