Line and Form: linear, areal, inclusive and accessible public spaces. Hoofbogen in Rotterdam

Abstract

In the contemporary city places more and more lose their character of physical stock and became space of flow; the city isn’t characterized by its immobile uniqueness, but is modified and reassembled at the rate of circulation in it comes to life. Today the city is presented as a set of discontinuous fragments, which return an image of plural spaces, places and non-places, past and present. Disappearing borders, perimeters, which marked the places, neighborhoods are uncommon spaces, undefined areas between built and unbuilt. The square is the gap in the building density; it has lost its significance as a place of socialization.

The recent planning instruments (plans and programs) that belong to the city of Rotterdam are geared to transform the city into a “child-friendly city" (city suitable for children), the city attracts young couples and middle-class families just for the fact that the city is distancing itself from the modernist planning based on the zoning and is encouraging the mix of urban functions; particular emphasis in this phase of planning and urban design is given by the statement of the urban Vision Rotterdam 2030. The case dealt with in the article is related to the area of ​​Bergpolder, in the north of Rotterdam, an area affected by a strong identity disposed element, a railway viaduct, and is characterized by a strong strategic value for the location and proximity with the urban center and is affected by both social and economic problem due to the insufficiency of public spaces, the use of spaces and public facilities, to the social mixité, characterized by the mixture of different ethnic groups.