Rotterdam: Port and the City, Heart of Innovation

Rotterdam: Port and the City, Heart of Innovation
Waterfront regeneration projects in Rotterdam strive for a more equitable distribution of goods and services for people in the surrounding areas. In many port cities, such regeneration leads to the development of high-end housing with complementary infrastructure and commercial development, often at the expense of social housing. However, the projects at Rotterdam aimed to initiate redevelopment of the new area before it became completely derelict and devalued (Figure 1).

“Research, Design and Manufacturing” (RDM) Rotterdam
The Port Authority and Municipality developed a cluster of innovative production industries to encourage new economic activities in Heijplaat through knowledge exchange. The former Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (Rotterdam Dry Dock Corporation) hosts a combination of business, education and space for events within its space.

The RDM Campus in Heijplaat is an example of successful redevelopment. The RDM Campus was originally built for workers of the RDM shipping wharf, which following the wharf’s closure, became an affordable housing site for low-income groups. Today, the RDM Campus is approximately 90% occupied with industry and research institutions participating in unique experiments. The University of Rotterdam operates three schools on the facilities (Figure 3): Engineering; Industrial product design; and Architecture. These schools form a Community of Practice (COP) together with other educational institutes such as TU Delft to research hydropower, renewable energy, industrial glue, etc. The COP also includes businesses such as Siemens and Shell, which provide research materials, giving students the opportunity to work on real applied industrial projects. In addition, educational programmes taught by former employees of the shipyard ensure the systematic transference of tacit knowledge.

The Innovation Dock shares the former RDM site with the RDM campus. Within the Innovation Dock, the Rotterdam Makerspace provides machines and training for start-ups to manufacture prototypes. For a small fee, members are able to learn how to operate and utilise manufacturing technologies such as wood and metalworking machines and 3D printers. The Innovation Dock also houses an Aqua Dock to allow for the testing of floating projects, and an Internet of Things lab, which has developed a dyke sensor to replace manual inspection.

Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H)
The M4H area (1,600ha) is significantly larger than RDM Rotterdam (100ha) with a focus on attracting new innovative industries and businesses in high tech manufacturing (Figure 4). The area is traditionally home to “fruit terminals” (companies dealing with logistics of fruit) and still features prominent on its active harbour sites. However, the departure of fruit and juice companies has opened up vacant spots at M4H.

In the redevelopment of the M4H area, zones for exploratory zones/spontaneous development were created. Areas marked for redevelopment or have undergone adaptive reuse include disused warehouses (previously owned by housing corporation); soundport (refurbished industrial building to a music studio), art and heritage areas; portXL (startup accelerator); and Uit Je Eigen Stad, an urban farm and fish farm, where food grown is sold to supermarket and also distributed to the low-income (Figure 5).

DakPark is located on top of the roof of a shopping boulevard in an old railway yard at M4H, which doubles as a 1km long and 85m wide park and storm water defence structure. Increasingly, the city authority and relevant development agencies adapted water defences for multifunctional uses and greater integration into surrounding areas. Residents were involved in the planning process of DakPark and were primarily concerned with issues of usability. Municipal, project developer and residents organised joint experiences via excursions to other roofparks and a co-financed trip to roofparks in Paris. After a comprehensive engagement, viewpoints from all parties were translated into eight principles, which led to the innovative use of “stacking” different functions such as shopping, parking, a playground, a resident’s garden and a greenhouse.

Reflections and Concluding Remarks
The redevelopment projects highlighted in this report illustrate the changing relationship between city and port. As Rotterdam port moves further west, the port functions become further from the sights and minds of Rotterdam citizens. While redesigning old port areas, careful considerations were made by the Municipality and Port Authority to maintain certain port functions as seen in RDM, while also increasing the quality of life in accessible public spaces as seen in M4H. Both areas also serve to reinforce Rotterdam’s new identity as an innovative city as new economic activities are explored.

As Singapore looks to free up prime land when leases for the city terminals at Tanjong Pagar expire in 2027 and consolidate main port activities at Tuas, lessons learnt from Rotterdam could be useful case studies.

CLC expert Wong Kai Yeng and CLC researcher Michelle Chng visited Rotterdam where they presented “Singapore, a port city: The case of port development and its impact on the city” at the 15th AIVP World Conference.

About the Writer

Michelle Chng Wei Ping

Michelle Chng is a researcher from the Centre for Liveable Cities and manages key international partnerships in the water and energy sectors. Her current research areas include port and the city development, coastal management, biodiversity and climate change.