Rotterdam Invites the Public to Vote on Designs for New City Hall Extension

The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) recently opened the exhibition of the final designs for the new Rotterdam City Hall Extension. Alderman Hamit Karakus, of the Housing and Planning Department of the Municipality of Rotterdam, presented the models and designs of the five invited architecture firms and invited the public to vote on the proposals.

The five finalists are Claus en Kaan Architecten, Mecanoo Architecten, Meyer en van Schooten Architecten, OMA, and SeARCH.

The review committee led by Ole Bouman, director of the NAi, will the take the public opinion into consideration during the assessment for the final winner. The decision will be announced in October 2009.

The models are exhibited from September 1 to 13 at the NAi, and from September 14 to 20 at Rotterdam City Center. Here you can fill a card through your opinion and your preference for one design known to make. Public voting is also possible on the competition website (in Dutch).

Rotterdam is working hard to becoming a more attractive city. Downtown Rotterdam is planed to make a complete change in the coming years to a place where living, working and leisure time together. The ‘New Office’ is dubbed to be the symbol of this ‘second Reconstruction’. The Old Office housed for years the city administration from which the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War was directed.

The review committee will make its choice based on criteria drawn up by the municipality:

• The Opinion of Rotterdam’s Citizens: Based on voting maps submitted to the NAi and CI.
• Architecture and Functionality: How will visitors, users, residents and passers experience the New Office?
• Urban Integration: Closing the City Office in well with the rest of the town.
• Monument: How does the combination of monuments and construction work?
• Sustainability: The municipality wants the New Office to be the most sustainable building of the Netherlands.

These are the design proposals of the participating firms:

Claus en Kaan Architecten

Mecanoo Architecten (in collaboration with Kossman.deJong and Wubbo Ockels)

Meyer and van Schooten Architecten (in collaboration with architects Fritz)

OMA (in collaboration with abt)

SeARCH (in collaboration with Christian Müller Architects)