Fever in Rotterdam: Timmerhuis

As we have seen so far, the phenomenon of extrastatecraft[2] has been reconfiguring the “urban software” in the national scale of the Netherlands, affecting simultaneously multiple municipal cores with geopolitically background of high importance. In that sense, Rotterdam’s Timmerhuis is subjected to the described reformations that have been arbitrary forcing the metastasis of a FTZ [Free Trade Zone] within the building mixed program, swapping away its public aspects in order to encourage trade and national prosperity[3]. We, as architects, will try to intervene and reshape this intricate fund-scape molded by the sheer force of the unregulated capital. Our approach takes into consideration the needs of the Rotterdamers’ along with the public aspects which have been shaping the Dutch communities throughout the years, leading in various agreements that merged the interests of the people and the state. The proposal for a new social housing block above a free–for-all public plaza will be further implemented in an urban ecology plan that is going to boost the sustainable aspects of the building while reintroducing the starters’ homes concept and the BG openness in parallel. The schedule for the upcoming building of the housing project is supported by the simultaneous empty plan for the Robeco Toren[4] [tower] offices at the banks of the Maas River. The building waste after the destruction of the Wim Quist’s building is capable of supporting the creation of the new apartments, which in turn will “fill the holes” of the existing [under construction] wielded steel skeleton of the Stadskantoor. The apartments are going to be generated after the collaboration with the interested citizens, through a process that resembles those encountered in already described projects, such as the Klushuizen [see: § housing as an asset]. The interested tenants will be given a “toolbox” that will aid them to decide on their own space in relevance to their needs, the money needed and the available material. Ultimately, our theoretical, “what if” statement will be denatured in a collage of unique spaces, materialized from the ruins of another building, which will fill the steel structure and make as rethink of the Timmerhuis in its essence.Design as PoliticsArchitectureArchitecture and The Built Environmen