TRANSFORMATION OF THE RODEWEESHUISSTRAAT De Zwarte Hond, together with real estate developers MWPO and Beauvast, transforms Rode Weeshuisstraat from a dark back street in the heart of Groningen into a lively part of the inner city. The repurposing of the former V&D building and its distribution warehouse, and the construction of the Mercado market and housing complex will breathe new life into the public domain. The project demonstrates De Zwarte Hond’s expertise in combining and integrating the strengths of architecture and urban design to improve the (inner) city. Figure 2: the Former V&D department store will be transformed into a multi-tenant building with retail, offices, a restaurant with roof terrace and a large bicycle park in the basement
Figure1: Structure within the city
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The northern section of the Grote Markt, Groningen’s main city square, was destroyed in the Second World War. During the post-war reconstruction of the 1950s, large buildings were erected here which radiated the optimism of the era. In one of these, Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) opened a modern
