Layering of time in the police headquarters of Rotterdam

Abstract

The deficit of suitable housing in the Netherlands is increasing, while the vacancy rate of office buildings and other non-residential buildings is high.
Transforming these vacant buildings is a sustainable and smart method to meet the housing demand. In order to transform buildings properly, their values need to be taken into account. In heritage preservation, a continuous and recurring question is how to determine values worth preserving. This paper focusses specifically on the valuation of layering of time and the importance of this valuation related to the preservation of heritage. Using the police headquarters in Rotterdam as a case study to provide a framework for future use to value the layering of time in heritage buildings. Answering the research question: How does the layering of time express itself in the facades of the police headquarters in Rotterdam, and how does it influence the perception of the building?
The tangible layering of time from the van der Steur period is only still visible in the proportions of the facades. The tangible layering of time of the redesign from Struijs are mostly valued by their concepts. The intangible layering of time is only made tangible in the current building in the memorial points. There is an opportunity to make the intangible layering of time more tangible in a new intervention to the building, using the valuation of this paper.