Hi guys!
Today’s video is a city tour or guide of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
I feel like cities are a little bit like people.
Sometimes they’re shy, a bit reserved, it’s a little bit harder,
takes more effort to get to know them.
Sometimes people just stick their hand out and give you a firm handshake
and you get this immediate sense of exactly who they are.
I feel like Rotterdam is definitely in the latter category.
The word that I think of when I picture the city of Rotterdam is vision.
Above all, the city has vision.
It knows what it wants to be and how it wants to be perceived.
And when you look to its history and the photos of the past
you see that during the Second World War Rotterdam was completely destroyed.
And the city used that absolute devastation as an opportunity
to rebuild something new, something different.
Really like a phoenix just rising from the ashes of war.
It was a tabula rasa - a completely blank canvas - for architects and artists
and they took advantage of that opportunity.
When you’re walking around the streets of Rotterdam,
to me, there’s a very clear choice that you see all around you.
This was a city that was levelled by war - absolute devastation -
and there’s a choice to rebuild something new, something modern
and that choice is all around you and that’s why I find Rotterdam inspiring.
Because you see the future, and hope for the future, everywhere you look.
For me, the perfect symbol for Rotterdam is the Floating Forest.
It’s the first of its kind anywhere in the world
and it consists of 20 floating trees in the harbour.
It calls attention to art, innovation, and sustainability
which are all things that Rotterdam cultivates.
And one of Rotterdam’s defining features is its harbour.
It’s the largest harbour in Europe and you honestly can’t talk about Rotterdam without mentioning the water.
And these 20 live trees are bobbing around on the water in old sea buoys.
The trees themselves are also recycled in a way because they come from the city’s tree bank.
So there are 20 trees out on the water and a 21st tree is located on the land
so that you can look at it up close.
And the artists, Jorge Bakker, hopes that the forest will raise questions
about the relationship between the city dweller and nature.
And I think, in this time of climate change, this is not only relevant to Rotterdam
but to the entire world.
The water is such an important feature of Rotterdam
and so is the Erasmus Bridge or, in Dutch, the Erasmusbrug.
It separates northern and southern Rotterdam.
It’s a suspension bridge built from light blue steel and it’s 800 metres long.
It has 40 large steel cables and, at its highest point, it reaches a height of 139 metres.
It has this lovely nickname ‘the swan’ and people in Rotterdam love this bridge.
Whenever I asked a local person what I should not miss out on in the city,
everyone said the Erasmusbrug.
And I can see the swan but, to me, it actually looks more like one of those Egyptian dogs
with the pointy ears that kind of sit like this.
I don’t know if it’s just me but from certain angles you can see the posture and the silhouette so-
I see the dog but I can also see the swan.
And, if you can believe it, in 2005 as part of the Red Bull Air Race
some planes actually flew underneath the bridge so-
very talented pilots.
Not far from the Erasmus Bridge is the former head office of the Holland America Line
and now it is Hotel New York.
The Holland America Line was founded as a shipping and passenger line
and what’s interesting about this is it was actually
the first connection between the Netherlands and the United States
and the first connection between the two continents.
It stopped operating as a Dutch line in 1989
when it was purchased by Carnival Cruise Lines for a cool 530 million Euro.
The Market Hall or Markthal is another example of totally unique architecture in the city of Rotterdam
and it’s the first covered market in all of the Netherlands.
And why was it built?
Why did they need a covered market?
Because of stricter European regulations on selling produce like fish and meat and cheese in the open air.
And, as usual - I love this - the city of Rotterdam saw this limitation as an opportunity.
A challenge to innovate and they set about to build a market
that would not only adhere to the new regulations
but would be a mind-blowing example of architecture and multi-use space.
So not only is this hall complete with food vendors and shops and restaurants,
it’s also a residential space.
There are 230 apartments,
many of which have windows that face into the hall.
You can see people cooking or doing their laundry
and it also includes underground parking for 1200 cars in downtown Rotterdam.
It opened in October 2014 after five years of construction
and it’s built nearby where Rotterdam was founded in 1270.
So there were a lot of medieval objects that were found during the construction
like vases and tools and canon balls.
The exterior is covered with grey natural stone
and it’s the same as what you’ll find on the Rotterdam pavement on the streets.
So all of the focus is drawn to the interior.
And, my god, what an interior it is.
All of the attention is drawn to the roof of the Markthal.
It’s a painting by an artist named Arno Coenen.
It’s called the Horn of Plenty and it’s been called the world’s largest painting.
It covers 11,000 square metres.
It’s huge.
It’s bright and colourful and now it’s called the Sistine Chapel of Rotterdam.
Just across the square from the Market Hall are the iconic cube houses.
These were conceived and designed by an architect named Piet Blom in the 1970s
and he was given the task by urban planners in Rotterdam
to solve the dilemma of building housing on top of a pedestrian bridge.
Aside from the uniqueness of the asymmetrical design,
the cube houses are meant to represent an abstract forest.
Floating forest, abstract forest, rebirth, growth -
I hope you’re getting the theme of Rotterdam here.
Structurally, the cubes sit tilted on a hexagonal pole
and completing that tilted design the walls and windows are all angled at 54.7 degrees.
So it gives excellent views of all the surrounding area.
But although the houses optimize the space on the outside,
unfortunately the same can’t be said for the inside.
The drawback, which is kind of ironic, is that, despite a total area of 100 square metres,
the angled structure means that only a quarter of that space inside is actually usable.
I was extra excited to see these cube houses because in Toronto,
where I lived before becoming a nomad, they also have cube houses.
And I didn’t realize until visiting Rotterdam that that’s what they were inspired by.
And I guess in Toronto the plan was always to build more but, in the end, Toronto only has three.
I really enjoyed visiting Rotterdam and I hope that you enjoyed seeing these highlights as well.
Leave a comment down below.
Tell me what your favourite part of Rotterdam is
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and I’ll see you in my next one.
Bye!
A great big bridge!
The water dam is such an important part…
The water dam?