ABSTRACT
From a distance, the five‐ to seven‐storey wooden buildings seem to fade between their surrounding environment and the clear skies above the river, given the fact that it is structured in and around the lush, green newly planted areas in the western part of Rotterdam. These former ports, terminals, warehouses, and industrial areas, after being neglected for decades have been redeveloped into attractive sections of the city that – to a large extent – are self‐organized and self‐supporting. The entire project, initiated 10 years before by a collaboration of the City of Rotterdam, two architects, and two housing corporations, also serves as, in part, research‐ and, in part, test‐bed project. The City provided and prepared the grounds and designed and managed the infrastructure, the corporations acted as organizing and managing entity between the architects, and builders and the organization to assist assisted inhabitants.
