Korean Canal Project - part 2 - Rotterdam Waterfront city

Let us see some other example of waterfront project. Rotterdam is one of the famous waterfront project. Picture below represent the picture from the air of Rotterdam city. 'From world port city to a fully connected European city as part of the developing Delta Metropolis'. That is in a nutshell the goal of the transformation of Rotterdam and its waterfront. The year of 2001, in which Rotterdam is Cultural Capital of Europe, is being used to pursue this goal. In order to generate ideas and inspiration, residents and users of the waterfront as well as developers are being consulted; London, Baltimore, Hamburg and Barcelona have also been invited to supply ideas


There are two backdrops against which the debate about the Rotterdam Waterfront can be placed. One is the scenario of optimum investment in the leisure industry and the other is the realisation of a sustainable development of the city on the water. These scenarios, and everything associated with them, are regarded as building blocks about which at the end of the year a debate will be conducted. The objective is to provide inspiration, to seek a common objective and to find an answer to the question how the enormous wealth of ideas for the Rotterdam Waterfront can converge into a development vision for the coming 15 years.

The city concept is to make the rotterdammers enjoy being the citizen of this city. The urban planning and design, such as Willemsbrug bridge, the first city bridge in this waterfront is still under designed. The study area covers part of the railway tunnel route and covers the Oudehaven, the Willemsbrug, the Noordereiland and the 'Vrij Entrepot'. Making use of different scenarios a study was carried out into whether and under what conditions coherent development is possible, whereby on this side of the central area too a cross-river structure with associated programmes can emerge. A project comparable to the city axis (large-scale, formal, representative, fixed in a complete infrastructure and strong routing), but also complementary in character (small-scale, informal, unusual everyday, regarded as a collage, a series of urban land uses and areas).
Other hypothesis is toward the dimension of use. The popularity of living and working in offices by the river is now rather evident. It is an area with fantastic panoramic views that no other Dutch city can match. Culture and leisure and entertainment as a specific expression of urban living are another story. There is not so much to do or see. The task is to give the city an opportunity as a centre of urban culture, leisure and entertainment, also on the waterfront.This dimension relates directly to one of the four themes of the Biennial: Global Forces. The hypothesis to be tested in the context of this task is that urban culture, leisure and entertainment (in addition to housing and employment) can determine the new relevance of the waterfront. An important question is to what extent the waterfront of the city can and must develop in a specific/local or generic/global way.

Other issues remained is how further the idea and study can be integrated into the implementation. No environmental issues related on this development study. Korean canal still remains many debate , especially toward environmental problem and other reconstruction that inflict a financial loss in some economic community in South Korea.

(source : http://www.planum.net/4bie/main/m-4bie-rotterdam-ci.htm)