With an extremely motivated group of technical advisers and university researchers, Mecanoo has created a comprehensive vision for the new Rotterdam City Hall, Stadstimmerhuis 010. We dreamed about what the new Stadstimmerhuis with the Stadswinkel XL can add to the city, about the added value of combining the historic with the new. How do you create a sustainable building, which is already responding to future technical innovations? And how do you keep housing concepts flexibile for a market that is still in motion? We did not just dream, but also thought about engineering, construction costs, construction logistics and construction planning to make everything as realistic as possible. Because that is Rotterdam: dreams and deeds!
City hall as iconic space
Stadstimmerhuis 010 is not a passage but a destination: a place to be. With the realization of the Stadswinkel XL, the new central office for all municipal services and products, there is a great opportunity to create a public meeting place for Rotterdam where officials, politics, government and the Rotterdam public come together. Stadstimmerhuis 010 provides an impressive hall where Rotterdam citizens not only come to renew or pickup their passports, driving licenses, and birth certificates, but also where Rotterdam itself is experienced and reflects its many colours. The office corridor, more the size of a lobby with meeting spaces, is situated around and features sweeping views of the grand hall below. The city hall is an iconic space that gives the city of Rotterdam an added new public space. The ground floor of the Stadstimmerhuis 010 becomes a great public courtyard for Rotterdam visitors and features a Grand Café on the Rodezand.
Monument and construction
Stadstimmerhuis 010 integrates the historic municipal building of the Reconstruction period with the new building, creating a single urban municipal building. The facade of the building carefully echoes the architectural rhythm of the monument with the use of contemporary materials. All but one facade of the monument is restored and the old gables on the Rodenzand are replaced to subtly bring old and new together. The old roof is replaced and a large roof construction is set atop both the historic and new buildings, forming the grand hall. The new public building will not compete with the existing City Hall or Post Office. This was also the intent of the original architect Koops. The plinth of the historic and new buildings is fully open adding transparency and accessibility to the public space of the city.
The self standing tower has its own private entrance onto the Raamplein. On the roof is the sign 010, implemented as an electrostatic wind converter EWICON, a symbol for Rotterdam’s future: sustainable and innovative.
Rotterdam sustainable and innovative
Rotterdam’s ambitions are high: to design a compact, healthy and inspiring building that is pleasant and productive to work in, inspiring to visit and accommodates meetings. With thoughtful engineering, indoor air quality will be even better than that of the outdoors. Optimal use of daylight through the use of diffuse glass eyes via the mirrored roof construction and ceiling to the grand hall results in low energy consumption. Mirrored balls reflect the daylight to workstations via fibre optic cables. The parking garage is suitable for the use of electric cars. Innovations do not stop, and neither does Stadstimmerhuis 010. We remain alert to respond to developments in sustainable technologies.
Francine Houben Mecanoo architecten in collaboration with Kosmann.deJong, Wubbo Ockels, Royal Haskoning, Corsmit, the TU Delft and Basalt Bouwadvies.