ROTTERDAM SOUTH BANK
FROM BOERENZIJ TO TESTING GROUND (2017)

Marinke Steenhuis

compiled and directed by: BuroB, Perry Boomsluiter and Eelco Romeijn

commissioned by: municipality of Rotterdam, Conservation Department

In this film, Marinke Steenhuis tells the story of Rotterdam South Bank as a testing ground for social and spatial concepts. A story about the origins and the historical meaning in the present time, and consequently also a story about pride, identity and long-term sustainability of this part of the city. The film was made to share the insights from our six cultural heritage assessments of neighbourhoods in Rotterdam South Bank with residents and a larger audience. In addition to this overarching film, there are six separate neighbourhood films. In the meadows, a patchwork of neighbourhoods arose for the rapidly growing population. Tarwewijk, Bloemhof, Hillesluis and other districts served as a laboratory for experiments in the field of public housing and urban development. The level of ambition was high; the South Bank was to become a city with its own facilities and its own centre. In the decades to follow, Rotterdam South Bank expanded and was repeatedly faced with new challenges. Right up to the present, because even now, through the National Programme Rotterdam South Bank, much effort is being put into achieving social progress and physical innovations.

Watch the film