Rotterdam South

On the south bank of the Meuse lays an interesting and inherent part of Rotterdam. About the size of a regular Dutch provincial city, this area is full of examples of urban and social-cultural renewal in The Netherlands from the nineteenth century until now. There’s a lot to explore at Zuid, both for Rotterdammers and for (inter)national visitors.

Nineteenth-century harbours and neighbourhoods
Halfway through the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of Rotterdam move southwards. At the island of Feijenoord and around Katendrecht they develop harbours and accompanying neighbourhoods for the dock workers. The city districts like Feijenoord, Afrikaanderwijk, de Kaap, Hillesluis and Bloemhof each have their particular history which is embedded with contemporary themes like gentrification, energy transition and social cohesion.

Garden cities and ‘concrete villages’
Rotterdam-South is the nursery for experimental public housing in The Netherlands. A lot of the neighbourhoods were built in the nineteenth century with new and modern ideas and principles to provide good and affordable housing for the working class. Famous are the garden cities and ‘concrete villages’ like Vreewijk and Heijplaat; Kiefhoek, Stuhlemeijer and the Kossel. About a century later, these neighbourhoods provide a fascinating image of time.

Large-scale projects
To enhance the liveability of Rotterdam-South, large scale projects are being developed at the South bank such as the Stadionpark (Feyenoord City) and Hart van Zuid (Heart of South). In the latter transformation, the new theatre Zuidplein and the first Olympic swimming pool of Rotterdam are being realised. In Charlois, the municipality and various Rotterdam-based education organisations are working on Cultuur&Campus (Culture and Campus), which will open as a new cultural hotspot at the end of this decade.

The optimism of the garden cities after WWII in Rotterdam-South
After World War II, innovative city districts were developed along the outskirts of the city to cover the enormous housing shortage. Modern architects worked under the direction of municipal urban developer Lotte Stam-Beese to design the ideal garden city. Together they developed the ‘wijkgedachte’, in which every neighbourhood within a district has its own facilities to improve social cohesion within the city. Neighbourhoords like Pendrecht, Zuidwijk, Lombardijen and Groot-IJsselmonde are primary examples. While these areas are still open and modern in design, their optimistic character has faded to the background. Nowadays, there are new social and cultural initiatives to reinvent these garden cities in the twenty-first century.

RDM Campus

One of Rotterdam’s most spectacular examples of redeveloping an area is to be found at the Heijplaat. There the hundred-year-old shipyard, one owned by the Rotterdam Dry Dock Company (RDM), was transformed into a dynamic Makers District. The complex, which is stretched out over a pier along the river, is currently used for educational purposes and functions as a place where innovation is stimulated. All this can be seen in a tour by UrbanGuides.

When the RDM was founded in 1902, its employees started living in the nearby factory town, which was specially built for that purpose. Together with the quarantine buildings, this whole area formed a remarkable enclave in the modern harbour city of Rotterdam. Nowadays it can be seen as one of the former harbours with the most important cultural and historical value in town. The old head office, with its most important parts dating back to the 1913 – 1916’s, has been renovated completely. It has a monumental marble floor and a boardroom and supervisory room in Art-Deco style.

Go on a tour with UrbanGuides and experience the dry dock where once the ss Rotterdam was built as the educational campus it is today. Together with an architecture guide, you’ll visit the former machine hall, now known as the Innovation Dock, an industrial dock with a surface of some 23.000 m2 and heights up to 20 meters. Nowadays it is a place where education and entrepreneurs work together on the design of sustainable and innovative solutions in the fields of construction, mobility and energy. They cooperate under the motto Research, Design & Manufacturing (RDM).

During a walk over the Heijplaat, you’ll explore the area together with an architecture guide. Along the way, you’ll get an insight into how, while maintaining the historical atmosphere, the RDM was transformed into the campus of the technical faculties of the Hogeschool Rotterdam, the Albeda College and many innovative companies, from start-ups to big players.
For reservations and more information about the tours, you can contact the RDM information centre via telephone number 0031 10 – 252 44 72 or by sending an e-mail to rondleidingenrdm@portofrotterdam.com.

Museumpark: the creative hub of Rotterdam

For a long time, the Kunsthal was the new eyecatcher among the many cultural institutions at the Museumpark. But since the beginning of 2022, the collection building of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen overtook its spotlight. With this hypermodern building, the city not only has a new architectural highlight, but the building also adds a layer in how art and culture are displayed to its public.

The Museumpark has always been an interesting case in offering a diversity of cultural institutions in exceptional architectural buildings. Ranging from The Natural History Museum, which is housed in the old villa Dijkzicht to Museum Boijmans van Beuningen’s international art collection in its pre-war museum building. The national archive for architecture, and the 3300m2 exhibition space, the Kunsthal by Rem Koolhaas. A modern villa park borders the museum park, with a hypermodern house museum from the 1930s, a rosarium, a sculpture garden and an event terrain.

The Inner City of Rotterdam: from the Markthal to the Laurenskerk

Unfortunately, this program is only available in Dutch.