Interview with Gerben In ‘t Hout and Kay Schellen from Woonstad, affiliate of Europan NL 15.
The five Dutch sites selected for Europan’s 2019 design competition are all located in Rotterdam. Each one presents unique challenges, and has stakeholders dedicated to its development. While six private parties have been involved in the competition working alongside creative teams to bring their solutions to life, so has one of Rotterdam’s most celebrated social housing corporations, Woonstad, in an affiliated role. AIR interviews Kay Schellen, Director of Portefeuillemanagement Management, and Gerben In ’t Hout, Asset Manager, to understand their thoughts on the site development potential proposed by winning teams, and how these benefit the city, and improve the availability of both attractive, and affordable, housing stock.
Building high quality homes for social rent is quite a challenging business case, because of money of course, and the low benefits, or return on financial investment. Making beautiful things is a challenge, and the Europan competition gives young architects a chance to develop this skill alongside influential partners. Woonstad undertakes many projects every year, and for many of these – like Margrietflat – we engage the services of young bureaus, both to give them an opportunity to develop their work, and to bring new life to the city.
In ‘t Hout: The Europan competition allows for free thinking, speculation and maximum creativity on the one hand, as well as carefully chosen real assignments on real sites. The winning proposals produced highly rationalized design concepts and offered real insights on the sites we’re interested in.
How do you see Woonstad’s role in the competition, as a housing corporation in search of high quality social housing, in a city such as Rotterdam?
Schellen: Woonstad is a housing corporation based in Rotterdam, and we only build for Rotterdam, for social groups in this city. So, we’re obviously very focused on Rotterdam. What we see is that there are increasingly fewer and fewer social housing units, and in spite of many new developments, there will be fewer in future. In our role, we aim to produce enough different kinds of housing stock, to enable access to high quality housing for individuals and families in the city that have less opportunities. There are many challenges in accomplishing this in Rotterdam, as it is now, and many risks if this goal is not met. The Europan competition process allows us to think freely and to discover new perspectives on sites and in areas we’re already working on, like Kop Dakpark and Merwevierhavens (M4H).
Understanding that Woonstad might be part of the development of social housing on Kop Dakpark, what have you learned from winning proposals and what could be valuable to apply in the approach to this development?
In ‘t Hout: Kop Dakpark’s a difficult and interesting location, immediately in front of the traffic square, and sitting between two completely different areas (Bospolder Tussendijken (BoTu) and M4H). The challenge is combining these two areas and inserting social housing, as well as an iconic form. We’re very interested in this spot and the winning Europan team – office H30 from Barcelona – has made a very interesting design, with a compelling green infrastructure. We also see some good ideas in the other plans, and when we are allowed to, hope to generate an integrated response.
Schellen: We’re particularly interested in Kop Dakpark’s position between a diverse existing neighbourhood BoTu and the new development of M4H, and making a connection between the two. It’s very important to make a connection. It’s not so difficult to design a building, but it’s difficult to design a connection. The winning proposal does this very well by continuing the park, both on the ground floor as in the building itself.
In ‘t Hout: M4H has to grow, and foster new development. There is of course a lot already happening, but also a lot still to happen. By bringing in the right qualities, you make more than a connection between the two sites, more than a bridge. The development of Kop Dakpark could be exemplary for the level of ambition in the larger area surrounding it.
Understanding that Woonstad might also develop social housing in M4H, what surprising new insights have you gained from the selected Europan proposals Makers’ Maze or Platform of Commons?
Schellen: In other projects, we’ve observed that it’s key to understand when the right moment is to bring social housing in an area in transition. In the case of M4H, it’s interesting and inspiring now, but not ready yet for housing. Kop Dakpark and M4H are no longer the “end of the city” of Rotterdam. They’re something in between. It is not clear yet how and when Woonstad will actually get involved in the development of M4H, but a phased development of a series of smaller mixed-use ‘neighborhoods’ as presented by the winning team in their proposal Makers’ Maze, seems an interesting approach. 
Photo: Fred Ernst, Gerben In’t Hout kneeling to evaluate Europan submissions.
Woonstad is working alongside Europan winners to bring projects closer to realisation
Gerben, you’ve been particularly involved in the competition so far, can you comment on your experience with the Europan process, given the fact that you’ve taken part in almost all sessions AIR and Europan have organised, and were involved in the technical committee?
In ‘t Hout: We’re normally just building houses, but with the Europan process we’ve been working with people from other organisations. There’s really an inspiring network of people gathered around the competition. The sessions with these other partners including the City of Rotterdam, the technical committee, with the jury members, and with the winning teams have been very insightful in terms of conversations about what kind of city is being, or should be created. I’ve seen fresh ideas, new thoughts on the city of Rotterdam, and have seen new perspectives on the locations.
Edward van Dongen (from ERA Contour, one of the E15 partners) mentioned that he was surprised by the broad scope of young architects now approaching the design assignments, specifically that the young architectural teams seem to be able to address spatial and socioeconomic issues simultaneously. What did Woonstad learn about the next generation of young architects through Europan?
Schellen: The young architecture offices approach the design assignment from a different and often surprising angle. For example, they perceive the concept of icon differently. The winners see Kop Dakpark as a green, climate-adaptive icon in a busy place in the city, with a building that has a second green shell.
Are there any specific lessons that Woonstad has learned in general from this experience?
Schellen: It’s quite exciting for us to work with young architects from all over Europe who have taken this opportunity to express themselves in this competition, and put forward new statements about new perspectives on city development.
What do you hope that Europan brings to Rotterdam?
In ‘t Hout: I hope that Europan brings some new perspectives and ideas to the city as it develops over the next 20 years, some fresh new views.
Schellen: I hope that it provides some inspiration for both architects and for the other parties involved, and when we come to realizing projects, I hope that these will really be something else, some beautiful buildings that look adventurous, and are beautiful now and in the future, but also offer affordable high quality spaces to live. We’re positive we will have some nice results that serve occupants and the people of Rotterdam.
In ‘t Hout: We hope that some plans will be realised and come to be, some are quite abstract, but they present a real chance to make a better community. The next step will be challenging in terms of coming back to reality, without losing the charm and uniqueness of the original ideas.
Schellen: We’re kind of an atypical party, as a housing corporation, and occupy a special position in the competition. The insight we offer concern different qualities that are of value, for our customers, and for the communities. So, we hope this is an opportunity to ensure this. This is our chief objective
