TRIPTYCH

Triptych

Cultural project
Status: complete
Program: Exhibition, Lectures, academic program
Total area: N/A
Location: Worldwide
Time: 2012-2015

After the “ Palazzi of Rotterdam” research project, concluded in 2013, NAUTA worked on the cultural dissemination of the results trough an articulated communication project. This presentation includes three visual products: a map of the Rotterdam post war office vacancy, based on the model of the Nolli map of Rome from 1748; a movie that summarizes the work of NAUTA during almost two years and some models of the key projects produced at the end of the study.
These three visual products are part of the project ‘Triptych”; it includes an itinerant exhibition, lectures and academic programs. The event took place in Rotterdam, Shenzhen, Barcelona and Nantes and it became an academic program with a design course led by Maurizio Scarciglia during the spring 2015, at the Amsterdam Academy of architecture. The course investigated the potential of post war office buildings to be transformed in the most actual functional mixes, suitable the contemporary architecture market.
Abstract from the project synopsis:
On the 14th of May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II, Rotterdam was almost razed to the ground. The reconstruction period started intensively and never stopped, making Rotterdam a symbol of progress, among other European cities.
At the end of the first decade of 2000, the World economical crisis affected the Dutch real estate market. The inner city of Rotterdam, populated by many office headquarters, suffered progressive vacancy.
By drawing a map of the vacant office buildings, we realized that the scale of the problem is so vast that it becomes systemic. The ‘office building’ is nowadays for Rotterdam an urban typology that organically affects the quality of its urban space.
By searching a similar case in which the office building played a radical role in the development of the city, we found a precedent in the Italian renaissance: Florence.
Here the ‘Palazzo’ is still considered one of the most recognizable building types, integral part of the cultural and historical values of the city.
What if all the post war office buildings in Rotterdam could rise in dignity and become a recognizable layer of its urban history? And what if their strategic re-use could transform them into platforms for an architectural reinvention, free from the preservation constraints that heritage buildings have in other cities?
Then tourists could have as well a ‘Palazzi of Rotterdam’ tour!
Does it still make sense to keep re-building or does it make more sense to reuse the vacant properties? Re-use costs in principle 30% less than new construction. How could we develop a method capable of helping the stakeholders to afford with confidence a renovation project and ensure its valuable investment through time?
On this base, we started a “design by research” process that brought us to sustainable design proposals.
The research project was supported by the Stimuleringfonds voor de Creative Industrie and developed in cooperation with the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Delft University of Technology and several stakeholders, owners of the vacant properties.
NAUTA developed an evaluation process capable to distill all data into a real ‘ID for renovation’, selecting among all vacant properties only the ones not affected by speculation, situated on portions of the city not destined to densification.
NAUTA translated the results of the research into real pilot projects, studying the business agenda of the investors and finding tailor made solutions to transform shabby office buildings into new ‘jewels of architecture’. The surrounding public space rejuvenates, bringing new life into the city, while avoiding the complete stall of the real estate market.