Waterzuiverende wijk Maashaven, Rotterdam (NL)
Vincent van der Meulen
The location for the Water Purifying Community is an unused harbour (Maashaven) near the city center of Rotterdam (the Netherlands). The plan focuses on densifying the city by using space normally not built on: the water. The public promenade offers the inhabitants access to the communal gardens, play grounds and parking garages. Water, gardens, wind, boats, tide, animals and the seasons all become part again of daily life in this sustainable, self-supporting community, which forms quite a natural, but quite densely built environment.
The buildings are part of the local eco system and offer a sustainable living environment, which provides a natural cycles within an urban setting. It purifies the water, generates energy and stores it. The tides create a continuous changing public realm connected to water. Floating helophyte gardens move with the tides and purify the waste water. The floating parts of the community move up and down 2 metres with the tides. This natural movement is used to pump river water cleaned for consumption into the water towers, from where it a can be distributed into the community: a zero energy and natural way to purify and distribute drinking water. Energy supply is guaranteed by photovoltaic roofs and wind turbines on the water towers.
year
2010 - 2010
client
Central Glass Competition
GFA
30,000 m²
project team
Vincent van der Meulen