Zuidpleinflat Rotterdam

Willem van Tijen met/with Jaap Bakema, Hugh Maaskant & Ernest Groosman

Authors

  • Frederique van Andel TU Delft, Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

After the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940 Willem van Tijen was commissioned to design one of five planned high-rises on the Zuidplein (Extension Plan Zuid, 1938). The first design phase coincided with the work on the Studie Woonmogelijkheden in het nieuwe Rotterdam (Study on housing options in the new Rotterdam), a joint venture between Van Tijen and the architecture firm Brinkman & Van den Broek and Maaskant. ‘In 1940, deeply impressed by the violence and destruction and the immense threat to our identity, we tried to put this out of our minds by trying to form a picture of what would have to be built after the war’ (Van Tijen,1970). The study was supposed to produce a sample of housing solutions that were effective on both a planning and an engineering level. Among the models that were developed was ‘the tall housing block’ in the form of a preliminary design for the Zuidpleinflat. It accommodated five dwelling types, including large-family homes. Van Tijen’s initial idea, that high-rises were unsuitable for families with children, was superseded by the special circumstances (housing shortage). Early in 1941, when the design was ready for tender, the German occupier called a building freeze and the preparations were discontinued.

Author Biography

Frederique van Andel, TU Delft, Architecture and the Built Environment

Frederique van Andel holds a Master’s degree in both urban planning and architecture from Delft University of Technology. She worked for Mecanoo architecten and DP6 architectuurstudio in Delft, and lived in Barcelona where she worked with architect Toni Gironès. Since 2006, Frederique is a researcher and lecturer in the Global Housing research group of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft. Her main topic of interest is affordable housing for growing cities in the Global South. Frederique curated the exhibition ‘Global Housing – Affordable Dwellings for Growing Cities’ (2016) with venues in Delft and Addis Ababa. She is editor of the book series DASH (Delft Architectural Studies on Housing) and coordinates and edits the online Platform for Affordable Dwelling (PAD). Frederique teaches Master courses on Global Housing Design and Bachelor courses on Plan Analysis. She is project manager for the research project ‘Addis Ababa Living Lab: Creating Resilient Dwelling Clusters for Urban Resettlement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’, funded by the Dutch Research Council and TU Delft (2019-2023).

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Published

2018-06-01

How to Cite

van Andel, F. (2018). Zuidpleinflat Rotterdam: Willem van Tijen met/with Jaap Bakema, Hugh Maaskant & Ernest Groosman. DASH | Delft Architectural Studies on Housing, 3(04), 82–89. Retrieved from https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/dash/article/view/4627

Issue

No. 04 (2011): The Residential Floor Plan: Standard and ideal

Section

Case Studies