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Rotterdam Architecture and Art
From:
Rotterdam Travel Guide
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ABOVE: In Rotterdam, even the trailers used by
city work crews may be decorated with murals. INSET BELOW: New housing near the
Rotterdam Cruise Terminal, the "Cube Houses," the Erasmus Bridge, the kitchen of
NAI's Sonneveld House, a multiseat bicycle outside Studio Hergrebruik, and a billboard sponsored by the
letter "F."
Architecture
Much
of Rotterdam's city center was destroyed by German bombs in 1940. Some older
buildings were salvaged or rebuilt after World War II, but for the most part,
city planners looked toward the future instead trying to replicate the past. In
the intervening decades, Rotterdam has evolved into a hotbed of modern
architecture, where skyscrapers, low-rise housing, antique harbors filled with
old boats, and surviving prewar neighborhoods have coalesced into a melting pot
of urban design.
The
most famous examples of Rotterdam architecture are the
Kubuswoningen or "Cube
Houses," which look as novel today as they did when they were built in the
1980s. (You can visit a "Show Cube" to see what it's like to live in a townhouse
with tilted walls and windows.)
Next door are the Central Library, also
from the 1980s, and the Blaaktoren (nicknamed the "Pencil Tower) by Piet
Blom, the architect who designed the Cube Houses. The eye-popping
Markthal or Market Hall (see inset photo), which
opened in 2014, is especially popular with shoppers, tourists, and visiting
urbanists.
The
Eramusbrug, or Erasmus Bridge, spans the Nieuwe Maas River from the city
center to Wilhelminaplein (next to the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal). It was built
in 1996 and has a drawbridge section for large ships.
Allow time to visit Het Nieuwe
Institut at Museumpark 25. The architectural institute and museum also operates
Sonneveld House, a
"hypermodern house" from the 1930s with many innovations (such as hidden hi-fi
speakers) that were considered state-of-the-art at the time. (Borrow an
English-language audioguide at the Sonneveld House's ticket desk.)
The
City of Rotterdam's Informatiecentrum, or Information Center, has many
photos, models, and exhibits about Rotterdam architecture and urban-development
projects. Admission is free, and the building is easy to find: It's in the
Coolsingel shopping district.
Finally, if you'd like a tour of Rotterdam's architectural
points of interest on foot, by bike, or in a bus, check
UrbanGuides to see what programs are available at the
time of your visit.
Art
We'll
talk about art museums on our Rotterdam Museums
page, but there's more to the Rotterdam art scene than museums and galleries. As
you walk around Rotterdam, you'll see many different examples of "everyday art,"
such as the city maintenance trailer at the top of the page, the multiseat
bicycle in the inset photo at right, or trompe l'oeil paintings on utility
boxes.
Art
Rotterdam, which bills itself as "The International Art Fair of the
Netherlands," takes place each February in the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal and
features work from scores of galleries in Europe, the United States, and China.
The juried competition's winner receives a €10.000 euro Illy Prize.
Next page:
Sightseeing, attractions
2nd inset photo: Lya Cattell.
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