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Okay, I am absolutely going to post this today with pictures, DAMMIT.
--
In Rotterdam the matter of how history, town planning, and architecture interlock is really visible.
A great deal of Western Europe was destroyed in the war. Bombed, blitzed, burned, pulverised, flattened. During the rebuild of Europe in the 50s and 60s, a large number of cities chose to rebuild in the same style - the 'traditional' style.
Rotterdam did not.
Instead, the city elders/council/planners of the time opted to go what I'm going to term "full modern". As a result, their architecture is extremely eclectic and varied, and very very modern. Oh, there are some old buildings, of course - churches and town halls and the like - but rather than an entire 'old city' zone that looks like it's a holdover from the 1400s, there are older buildings tucked in amidst the far more modern ones.
It's still not what an American (or even an Australian) might think of as a city: very few skyscrapers, extremely few cement monstrosities, really, a most pitiful business!
(This morning, I read a...well, I guess it was a rant from a Florida Man about how the problem with Europe having bike lanes was because it was too high density and nobody could connect with each other socially... Which, I got a bag full of ellipses right here...
...
...
...
...
I think he was conflating "Europe" with "those northern states", but it was...kind of funny and weirdly disconcerting.)
Anyway, I took an architectural tour through Rotterdam, from Central Station (Rotterdam Centraal) out to the river (Niuewe Maas) passing by a number of different very interesting architectural structures and planning choices.
Starting at Rotterdam Centraal - or their Central station. Trains to and from everywhere, including the Eurostar. Train travel across Europe is *chef's kiss*. If you're accustomed to train travel, it's not difficult to navigate, and the trains come regularly. I can't say about whether they're regularly on time, because I'm not in the timing space.
This is the station at night, I can't quite remember which night it was - I caught the trains back and forth from Rotterdam a number of times, and it was definitely very easy, even the last time when I had to haul luggage up to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
The first building is a church, if you can believe it! Totally not 'church shaped' in the traditional sense. They were doing a fairly brisk work in social work - lots of people come to be feed or get groceries there. Cost of Living (read: corporate greed) is hitting us all everywhere. The second are apartment buildings - 1950s-60s, but with modern murals on them - one of the ways in which Rotterdam (and many other cities in the world) brighten up their urban spaces.
Ljinbaan - a street that got turned into a pedestrian mall (shopping centre, but you can only walk within the precinct unless you're delivering something and I suspect that's very specific times).
I don't remember who this guy was. I didn't take notes on him, dammit. I'm pretty sure it's not Erasmus (who was born in Rotterdam), but I think it might have been some prince who first ruled over this part of the world and gave the city its name?? IDEK.
So, as I said, many of the buildings in Rotterdam are fairly new. However, some are older - ironically, some of the largest/tallest buildings in the city weren't bombed, including churches and big halls. The argument goes that they left the taller buildings so that they had markers to identify the landscape afterwards. ie. "We're only at Rotterdam, we already bombed this place, keep flying."
And so a couple of old churches, the old city hall, and a building next to it weren't bombed. At some point in (possibly) the 80s, a McDonalds was installed on a street corner in front of the building next to city hall. It was an eyesore and the locals protested until McDonalds replaced it with something rather nicer.
It doesn't look much in tune with the building in the back though, which I think was some kind of hall of commerce and trade. But the part that caught my eye? Were the carvings around the top of the building. Because usually on buildings like these? There are friezes, statues, carved urns overflowing with produce. Older architecture - particularly greco-roman imitations - were big on the idea of fruitfulness being linked with successful trade and commerce and might have designs that suggest the blessing of deitical entities...
For some reason, whoever did the friezes on the trade hall of Rotterdam, decided that the 'deitical entities' should look like this:
My first thought was "they look like lizards. Like dinosaur people or something!" I can fully imagine that the person doing the carving or design thought something like "people in other far off, foreign, hot-all-the-time weather countries must look strange and not like us, so I shall imagine them as DINOPEOPLE!" I squinted at it, put my glasses on and stared, got my phone and zoomed in, and seriously it didn't make much more sense.
It could be really weirdly stylised female characters, with a hood over their head, breasts out (the nipples are carved in the nearest figure), holding a basket of something, and wearing trousers that come down to the mid-calf on one leg while fully covering the other...but that's almost just as weird!
Anyway. Architectural peculiarities and the way my brain works...
More buildings with drab exteriors and brightly coloured external furnishings and some waterside design. I've forgotten who these were originally built for (I think it was social housing, and some of it has remained social housing), but obviously the area has been since gentrified and now they're very expensive. Housing issues are happening all over the world, certainly, and none of it is a pretty situation.
We passed the Laurenskirk (Lauren's church) and I took a photo or two, but I kind of remembered it from last time and while I'd have liked to go inside a bit, there was something going on within. I'm not even sure it's being used as a church anymore, in fact. We went on to the was the Markthal, which I'd also seen before but I didn't remember the explanation of why it was built. It was supposed to be both housing and a social space, but kind of turned into a 90s modern-style version of your apartment block built over a shopping centre/shopping mall, although in this case the shopping centre is more of a food court.
I mean, I got lunch there - a duck burger - and it was gooooood!
This pic has the Markthal in the background - the arch between the two buildings:
The Markthal is on this big wide open avenue, about 30m wide and probably 500m long. There's buildings up and down it, and the open avenue features a market on certain days - there'd been one the day before, I think. Anyway, down the south end of that avenue is a bunch of buildings including the Markthal, the Central Library, the Tree Houses, the Blaaktoren (or Black Tower), and a couple of sculptures.
Unfortunately there was way too much for me to remember considering it was over a month ago and like an idiot, I didn't write anything down...
Anyway, this is the Centrale Bibliotheek - or Central Library. It's also the Netherlands' answer to the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Apparently that's awful to keep clean and maintained, so they're slowly converting all the stuff in those ducts back to inside again!
This is the Blaaktoren, or Black Tower, designed by a Dutch architect:
It is, of course, affectionately known as 'Potlood' or "the pencil". And with the curve of the Markthal right across from it...the Markthal is known as the 'pencil sharpener'...
Said architect also did a set of "tree Houses' (as he called them) in the same area, which I didn't photograph. While he calls them "tree houses" they have, of course, acquired the nickname "the cube houses" and are referenced as such everywhere you look.
Past the Bibliotheek, Blaaktoren, Markthal, and Kubuswoning was Blaak station and a road that led across a couple of ordinary bridges with some interesting architectural work that the guide didn't even mention. Not sure why.
Instead, she took us to a building which was made famous for a Jackie Chan movie where he slides down that incline to get to the car park that's just on the right of the picture, not quite in view.
The interesting building designs which the guide didn't mention at all:
We finished up at the edge of the Nieuwe Maas, directly opposite a little island that was used by the Germans as a landing point to get into Rotterdam. I didn't take a pic of the island, I believe it's a pretty fancy precinct these days. And it was right there that the guide announced the end to the tour. A little abruptly, I think; with not really any way except back the way we'd came. Overall, a good tour, but a little disappointing in the ending - I would have expected us to go back across the bridge towards Blaak Station and the Markthal, talking about the buildings either side of the river, and then ending up back in an area from which there was a lot of public transport and many options for heading whichever way you wanted.
Anyway, on the walk back, what caught my eye was this!
I have no idea what it is, and I can't even, but it was quirkily delightful and the nice finish I needed for the architectural tour!
--
In Rotterdam the matter of how history, town planning, and architecture interlock is really visible.
A great deal of Western Europe was destroyed in the war. Bombed, blitzed, burned, pulverised, flattened. During the rebuild of Europe in the 50s and 60s, a large number of cities chose to rebuild in the same style - the 'traditional' style.
Rotterdam did not.
Instead, the city elders/council/planners of the time opted to go what I'm going to term "full modern". As a result, their architecture is extremely eclectic and varied, and very very modern. Oh, there are some old buildings, of course - churches and town halls and the like - but rather than an entire 'old city' zone that looks like it's a holdover from the 1400s, there are older buildings tucked in amidst the far more modern ones.
It's still not what an American (or even an Australian) might think of as a city: very few skyscrapers, extremely few cement monstrosities, really, a most pitiful business!
(This morning, I read a...well, I guess it was a rant from a Florida Man about how the problem with Europe having bike lanes was because it was too high density and nobody could connect with each other socially... Which, I got a bag full of ellipses right here...
...
...
...
...
I think he was conflating "Europe" with "those northern states", but it was...kind of funny and weirdly disconcerting.)
Anyway, I took an architectural tour through Rotterdam, from Central Station (Rotterdam Centraal) out to the river (Niuewe Maas) passing by a number of different very interesting architectural structures and planning choices.
Starting at Rotterdam Centraal - or their Central station. Trains to and from everywhere, including the Eurostar. Train travel across Europe is *chef's kiss*. If you're accustomed to train travel, it's not difficult to navigate, and the trains come regularly. I can't say about whether they're regularly on time, because I'm not in the timing space.
This is the station at night, I can't quite remember which night it was - I caught the trains back and forth from Rotterdam a number of times, and it was definitely very easy, even the last time when I had to haul luggage up to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
The first building is a church, if you can believe it! Totally not 'church shaped' in the traditional sense. They were doing a fairly brisk work in social work - lots of people come to be feed or get groceries there. Cost of Living (read: corporate greed) is hitting us all everywhere. The second are apartment buildings - 1950s-60s, but with modern murals on them - one of the ways in which Rotterdam (and many other cities in the world) brighten up their urban spaces.
Ljinbaan - a street that got turned into a pedestrian mall (shopping centre, but you can only walk within the precinct unless you're delivering something and I suspect that's very specific times).
I don't remember who this guy was. I didn't take notes on him, dammit. I'm pretty sure it's not Erasmus (who was born in Rotterdam), but I think it might have been some prince who first ruled over this part of the world and gave the city its name?? IDEK.
So, as I said, many of the buildings in Rotterdam are fairly new. However, some are older - ironically, some of the largest/tallest buildings in the city weren't bombed, including churches and big halls. The argument goes that they left the taller buildings so that they had markers to identify the landscape afterwards. ie. "We're only at Rotterdam, we already bombed this place, keep flying."
And so a couple of old churches, the old city hall, and a building next to it weren't bombed. At some point in (possibly) the 80s, a McDonalds was installed on a street corner in front of the building next to city hall. It was an eyesore and the locals protested until McDonalds replaced it with something rather nicer.
It doesn't look much in tune with the building in the back though, which I think was some kind of hall of commerce and trade. But the part that caught my eye? Were the carvings around the top of the building. Because usually on buildings like these? There are friezes, statues, carved urns overflowing with produce. Older architecture - particularly greco-roman imitations - were big on the idea of fruitfulness being linked with successful trade and commerce and might have designs that suggest the blessing of deitical entities...
For some reason, whoever did the friezes on the trade hall of Rotterdam, decided that the 'deitical entities' should look like this:
My first thought was "they look like lizards. Like dinosaur people or something!" I can fully imagine that the person doing the carving or design thought something like "people in other far off, foreign, hot-all-the-time weather countries must look strange and not like us, so I shall imagine them as DINOPEOPLE!" I squinted at it, put my glasses on and stared, got my phone and zoomed in, and seriously it didn't make much more sense.
It could be really weirdly stylised female characters, with a hood over their head, breasts out (the nipples are carved in the nearest figure), holding a basket of something, and wearing trousers that come down to the mid-calf on one leg while fully covering the other...but that's almost just as weird!
Anyway. Architectural peculiarities and the way my brain works...
More buildings with drab exteriors and brightly coloured external furnishings and some waterside design. I've forgotten who these were originally built for (I think it was social housing, and some of it has remained social housing), but obviously the area has been since gentrified and now they're very expensive. Housing issues are happening all over the world, certainly, and none of it is a pretty situation.
We passed the Laurenskirk (Lauren's church) and I took a photo or two, but I kind of remembered it from last time and while I'd have liked to go inside a bit, there was something going on within. I'm not even sure it's being used as a church anymore, in fact. We went on to the was the Markthal, which I'd also seen before but I didn't remember the explanation of why it was built. It was supposed to be both housing and a social space, but kind of turned into a 90s modern-style version of your apartment block built over a shopping centre/shopping mall, although in this case the shopping centre is more of a food court.
I mean, I got lunch there - a duck burger - and it was gooooood!
This pic has the Markthal in the background - the arch between the two buildings:
The Markthal is on this big wide open avenue, about 30m wide and probably 500m long. There's buildings up and down it, and the open avenue features a market on certain days - there'd been one the day before, I think. Anyway, down the south end of that avenue is a bunch of buildings including the Markthal, the Central Library, the Tree Houses, the Blaaktoren (or Black Tower), and a couple of sculptures.
Unfortunately there was way too much for me to remember considering it was over a month ago and like an idiot, I didn't write anything down...
Anyway, this is the Centrale Bibliotheek - or Central Library. It's also the Netherlands' answer to the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Apparently that's awful to keep clean and maintained, so they're slowly converting all the stuff in those ducts back to inside again!
This is the Blaaktoren, or Black Tower, designed by a Dutch architect:
It is, of course, affectionately known as 'Potlood' or "the pencil". And with the curve of the Markthal right across from it...the Markthal is known as the 'pencil sharpener'...
Said architect also did a set of "tree Houses' (as he called them) in the same area, which I didn't photograph. While he calls them "tree houses" they have, of course, acquired the nickname "the cube houses" and are referenced as such everywhere you look.
Past the Bibliotheek, Blaaktoren, Markthal, and Kubuswoning was Blaak station and a road that led across a couple of ordinary bridges with some interesting architectural work that the guide didn't even mention. Not sure why.
Instead, she took us to a building which was made famous for a Jackie Chan movie where he slides down that incline to get to the car park that's just on the right of the picture, not quite in view.
The interesting building designs which the guide didn't mention at all:
We finished up at the edge of the Nieuwe Maas, directly opposite a little island that was used by the Germans as a landing point to get into Rotterdam. I didn't take a pic of the island, I believe it's a pretty fancy precinct these days. And it was right there that the guide announced the end to the tour. A little abruptly, I think; with not really any way except back the way we'd came. Overall, a good tour, but a little disappointing in the ending - I would have expected us to go back across the bridge towards Blaak Station and the Markthal, talking about the buildings either side of the river, and then ending up back in an area from which there was a lot of public transport and many options for heading whichever way you wanted.
Anyway, on the walk back, what caught my eye was this!
I have no idea what it is, and I can't even, but it was quirkily delightful and the nice finish I needed for the architectural tour!
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(And yes, it was very cool! 0-5C! BRRRRRRR!!!)
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