Make Rotterdam More Beautiful!

When
August 2007 – March 2008
Client
Dutch Architecture Institute (NAi)
Website
Mooierdan.nai.nl
Brief
To organise a youth debate with architecture and problem neighbourhoods in Rotterdam as the theme. We thought we could make this much more exciting and so developed a design competition for secondary school children. The competition allowed us to realise the NAi’s objectives much more effectively: getting young people to think more about their neighbourhood and the architecture in that neighbourhood.

Elements: free publicity, organisation of the competition, organisation of the event, design and editing of the website, editing and production of a film.

The competition
Five secondary schools took part in Make Rotterdam More Beautiful! Led by community workers, architects, students and other experts, the schools put their own neighbourhood under the microscope and came up with a proposal for how it could be improved. A dreary square could be done up, the local sports complex could be renovated, a dilapidated swimming pool could be turned into a modern mosque. Everything was possible as long as it improved the area.

The preparation period lasted three weeks. Accompanied by an architect and a community worker, the five groups conducted research in their neighbourhood. A week later an architect gave them a lesson at school. And lastly, the intricate process of making an architectural model was explained to them in the famous Van Nelle factory.

Then it was time for each team to get to work, with the help of their teacher and an architecture student. They were given three months to make an innovative design for their area. All the designs were eventually gathered together in the NAi.

The award ceremony
On 13 March 2008, the final of Make Rotterdam More Beautiful! took place in the NAi. All the designs were exhibited in the NAi foyer and the teams were introduced in a short film. Led by presenter John Buijsman, the different teams and their supporters took part in the award ceremony programme, which included the Big Neighbourhood Debate, the Architecture Quiz and performances by local rappers RMB & Dion. The teams also presented their designs to the expert jury (which was made up of architect Robert Winkel and the youth mayor of Rotterdam Andrea Moreiro Santos, among others).

At the end of the afternoon, the minister of Housing, Neighbourhoods and Integration, accompanied by the councillor for Culture and Participation, announced the winner: Hugo de Groot with their design ‘Hassan and Gretel’.

> See the winning design

BKB’s role
BKB came up with the concept for Make Rotterdam More Beautiful!, wrote up a plan for the project and realised it in cooperation with the NAi. We wrote to schools, contacted community workers and architects, built a website and edited the content on it, managed the design of posters, invited guests and jury members for the award ceremony and so on. Throughout the entire process, we also made sure the different schools were updated on the latest developments.

What’s next?
Make Rotterdam More Beautiful! 2007-2008 was so successful that we are working on a follow-up for 2009. In addition, the concept can be applied to other cities. We hope in the future to be able to organise Make Arnhem More Beautiful! or Make Amsterdam More Beautiful!