FILLING THE VOID:
FROM LEFTOVER TO PLACE Borja & Muxí (2000), said “in the city, first the streets and squares, the collective spaces, only later the buildings and the roads will come”. Out of scale elements in a city ignore the basic human needs of space, therefore people avoid using this areas of the built environment and they can be interpreted as spatial voids. Monolithic buildings and high traffic roads have created a spatial structure that has disconnected socially and visually, people from people and from place (Salirangos, 2001). The area of Rotterdam South contains facilities that have an important role in the city, such as the Ahoy Convention Center, the Zuidplein Mall and Metro Station and the Hospital. These large scale facilities occupy an important area of the neighbourhood, however, some of these areas are not used by the inhabitants, mainly by visitors outside the site. In addition to this, residential streets are absent of actors, there is not a collective life and no interior-exterior relation. These spaces, the ones not used by residents, create ‘negative’ spaces in the neighbourhood. The project focuses on the Metroplein strip to connect the local theatre with Ahoy Rotterdam and transforming the residual areas of the station’s traffic machinery. It consists of waiting areas for the different transportation systems, shops,eating and resting spaces, along with promenade to link cultural anchors of the area.
MSc Urbanism Individual Project Rotterdam South, The Netherlands MSc1 - 2nd Quarter [November 2016-February 2017] TU DELFT
| 32 | Academic Research
