Vierhavensblok – the circular city

The fifth and final public lecture on the five Rotterdam Europan 15 sites was hosted on site at Vierhavensblok’s, Keliepand, by the ‘Keile Collectief’. Representing one of the founding collections of professionals (architects, urbanists, engineers, and makers), Monica Adams of Bekkering Adams architecten welcomed the audience with a few opening comments. In her comments, she underlined the necessity to look to collectivity; to the makers already established in the area. She urged city makers to look to larger movements in energy transition, digitalisation, social investment, and the collective desire to create an attractive city.

If you’re investigating the Vierhavensblok site, or just curious about the area’s future and you missed the lecture, read on.

Before Steven introduced Delva’s vision for the development of Vierhavensblok, he stressed that M4H: Future in the Making must be viewed as a framework. The framework created is the result of a collaboration between the city and harbour working closely together, recognising that they are integral, so the connection between them is foundational to any intervention. He stressed that the framework represents a stage before urban design begins, and that it establishes the ingredients fundamental to the area’s reimagining and repurposing.

These ingredients include: articulating connections between area dikes and the four harbours (and Maas); drawing new lines on existing infrastructure to enhance visual logic in the area and strategically drawing connections to infrastructure hubs (Schiedam Centraal, and Marconi Square); reducing the number of streets and enhancing their hierarchy (ie. the Maker’s Street and Harbourlane); enhancing dominance of cycling paths as a primary means of mobility across and through the site to other city and regional connections (also water bus and water taxi routes); enhanced visual connection to the water; enhanced green spaces with a variety of programmed outdoor spaces for promoting the area’s maker’s activities. The framework also designates key zones with complementary but diverse program, t introducing new typologies within these zones to help define and implant core qualities in coordination with strategically-retained existing buildings. For more details, see the Delva website: https://delva.la/projecten/m4h/

• Integrate existing buildings into the plan, build on top of them – make them relevant
• Take advantage of the ecosystem of makers already active on site
• Create space for start ups and for corporate offices to connect with each other
• Contemplate climate resilience and circularity through the theme of connection (M4H both produces and uses energy, consider the value in residual flows)
• Contemplate the green vision of the whole area
• Use knowledge that already exists in the area
• Need to densify intensely: how do you fit 8,000 living spaces here?
• How do you ensure affordability and mitigate gentrification?

• Old ways, tenders, developers, a top-down approach will not work here
• Need to work in a combination of bottom up, top down coordination
• Slowly implement development by activating, enabling resident makers and pioneers
• Innovation and development must come from the demands / needs of the area (not from the city)
• Scale of the area is equal to that of Rotterdam’s city centre
• Industrial capacity is a key quality of life
• Connection is the most important issue

Steven is the owner and founder of Delva Landscape Architects / Urbanism, the firm responsible for the development of M4H’s framework for development. DELVA’s assignments often revolve around major challenges such as sustainability, infrastructure, recreation, urban development, restructuring, ecology, economy and the changing significance of the public domain–all of which are at play in the development of M4H.

In her presentation, TU Delft professor of Urban Development Management sought to deconstruct circular urban development by asserting from the onset that it is somehow undefinable; and an ideal just out of reach. In the context of investigating the Vierhavenblok site, she encouraged Europan participants to reduce this complex concept to its fundamental parts, and presented the idea that cities are metabolic entities: that consume food, and water and produce waste. By keeping these elements in the systems as long as possible, and maintaining their quality as long as possible we can create circular city systems.

Van Bueren gave several real examples of tangible small and large scale circular city initiatives. One of these was grafting the connection between a blood bank (which needs a lot of cooling capacity) and a main drinking water pipe in close proximity which has a consistent low temperature. Investigations were made and discovered that it is possible to supply the cooling capacity of drinking water to the blood bank. Stakeholders made the business case and the system has been implemented. Drawing out connections like this, will be integral to facilitating a circular economy on the site.

• Close loops at the lowest scale possible in districts
• Consider the business model
• Think both large scale (area heating and cooling exchange) and small scale (kitchen waste initiatives)
• Consider the kind of circular economy that would best suit the area based on its inherent qualities
• How can private-public partnerships facilitate circularity?

• Look at waste / production flows in and around the site
• Study circular districts (Amsterdam)
• Consider many different dimensions… if you look at the problem from a purely technical perspective, the solution will also be one-dimensional
• Upscale what’s been established on a smaller, local scale

Ellen is professor of Urban Development Management at the Faculty of Architecture. The new chair in Urban Development Management develops useful concepts, instruments and principles for an integrated area-oriented approach to contemporary urban challenges.