Manifesto for a balanced city @2018
Status: intiative
Design: Monolab
Team: Jan Willem van Kuilenburg with Chiara Bertossi, Filippo Cattano, Erika Ferrari, Paola Perazzo

5BRIDGES4ROTTERDAM

…manifesto for a balanced city…

.

Rotterdam is a divided city

The Maas River divides the city into a north and a south side. Historically the city core of Rotterdam is situated on the north side. Since the early 1990s hard work on the south side of Rotterdam has resulted in more balance between North and South.

Recent south developments like the Wilhelmina Pier with tall buildings, The Rotterdam and several cultural hotspots, are gradually leveling the programmatic and cultural inequality between North and South.

Jan Willem van Kuilenburg of MONOLAB Architects, a Rotterdam based studio, about their 5 BRIDGES 4 ROTTERDAM initiative:
‘The growing equality between North and South requires more connectivity. However, the number of current connections is dramatically insufficient: one tunnel, one old and one new beautiful bridge and water taxis try to serve the 650.000 citizens, all commuters plus all tourists on top of that. Paris, Hamburg, Venice, Gent and Stockholm are good examples of cities that serve their population much better by many more connections.

5 BRIDGES 4 ROTTERDAM is a manifesto to heal Rotterdam.
The approach consists of five new bridges that will serve its growing population, propel urban, cultural and tourist developments, reduce segregation and will let ships pass.

The designs are both hardcore and poetic, just like Rotterdam itself:
1. ‘Rotterdam Eye’ is a monumental cloud of steelwork that brings people to a skydeck overlooking the city.
2. ‘The Flying Gondola’ is a big suspended gondola that flies over the water.
3. ‘The Pier’ is a programmed steel frame structure with solar panels, a carrier of socio-economic opportunities like little shops and cafes like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, for pedestrians and cyclists.
4. ‘The Catapult’ is a bridge that splits in two directions for pedestrians and cyclists.
5. ‘The Handshake’ connects two attempts from both banks that at first sight seem to miss each other.

All bridges will open for shipping.

We hope that this advise will inspire decision makers and trigger further developments to make our city a better place’.