yesterday the office for metropolitan architecture (OMA) and dutch development company, multi vastgoed presented ‘the coolsingel’ a design concept for a mixed-use building situated in the heart of rotterdam’s shopping district.

following text from OMA:

the project is triggered by two strong observations of site and height. the site is positioned in what
is regarded as the true centre of rotterdam, where the city’s most important streets: coolsingel,
lijnbaan, binnenweg and beurstraverse merge. the second observation is on rotterdam’s current
construction development that almost entirely consists of tower projects. this can create an
impressive skyline, but limited functionality and lack of engagement with the surrounding public can
fail to enhance or enliven the centre‘.

OMA: coolsingel project

‘rather than a tower project competing for height, this design aims to change the identity of the city centre by inserting the pure form of a cube into existing buildings. voids within the cube introduce configurations that bring daylight into the cube whilst providing views to the surroundings’.‘the base of the cube will consist of 5 floors of retail space and within these floors connections are made to the streets of lijnbaan, binnenwegplein, coolsingel, beurstraverse, with the potential to connect to an existing underground station. parking for both residents and offices will be situated below the retail floors‘.the rotterdam project is led by OMA partners floris alkemade and rem koolhaas in collaboration with project leader mark veldman. read more

the office for metropolitan architecture: http://oma.eu multi vastgoed: http://www.multivastgoed.nl