Intro to Urban Regeneration

Case of study:
Kop van Zuid, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

Leonardo Augusto de Oliveira Moura

Dez/2013

Introduction

Kop van Zuid is new neighbourhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands, located in

the south shore of the river Maas, that area used to important docks, but
was abandoned when the activities were moved down the river in the
1960s and 1970s. That area was largely occupied by warehouses, train
lines and was very badly connected to the city centre. The surrounding
neighbourhood consisted mainly of poor people who used to work in the
pier and in the companies associated to it, the level of education was low
and the unemployment was high. It was marked by a low-quality living
environment and week social-economic structure, making difficult to
attract commercial activities and people to live there.
The Kop van Zuid project appears as a new hope to transform Rotterdam
completely, making the whole city attractive to investments and to people
to live there, this project appears to connect the city centre to an area
where none attention was given after its decadence, if done right the
project not only would connect the city but also open the south side of the
city to the market.
The regeneration of the area is considered a success; it is a mix-used
area, with residential, educational, commercial and leisure uses. New
buildings have been built, changing the landscape, the internal circulation
with the new Erasmus Bridge and its first Metro was upgraded connecting
the south area to the centre, giving to the city a new face and attracting
new people who are needed to modernise the citys economy.

Regeneration of Kop van Zuid (KVZ)

Historical background
Rotterdam is a city located near to the North Sea, the development of the
city has always been connected to the ability to control the waterways,
and take advantage of its privileged location within Europe. All the main
activities of the city were directly connected to the port, the transport,
workers, infra-structure and etc., as the years passed by, and the
relocation of the port downriver, the south of the city was completely
abandoned, and forgot by the city council, many problems affected the
area, such as high level of unemployment, a huge number of workers who
depended of the port lost their jobs with the relocation of the docks, the
education was low, high level of low skill immigrants and violent
environment. With all these problems, the government decided to step in
and try to regenerate the area. But this project was not only important to
Rotterdam, but to Holland itself, the regenerated area would attract
resident of the most populated areas with the possibility of the high
quality of life and jobs opportunities, with this decreasing the density of
the population in the big cities, and at the same time would increase the
local market with new skilled and enthusiastic workers.

The project
The plan to regenerate the Kop van Zuid was audacious; the aims of the
project werent only to change an abandoned port area, but change
Rotterdam as a whole. The goals of the project were strong and clear,
change the Rotterdams face, not only to the outsiders (investors and
enterprising) but change also the image to the existing population. The
river was seen as a repelling part of the city, by its historical background
of unemployment and social problems. To deal with this problems the Kop
van Zuid project intended to solve this issues linking this areas straight to
the city centre, trough the Erasmus Bridge and by the Metro, creating
cultural activities and create multi-uses spaces, invest in high-tech and
quality buildings to change the landscape, giving to the city a modern
face and attracting to attract new investors and qualified workers, re-use
existing buildings where possible to maintain the identity of the local and
develop a programme of mutual-benefit to make sure that the poor
people along the regenerated area would have benefit from it.

Achievements

The new masterplan for Kop van Zuid aimed to create a series of new
buildings and quarters, in order to comport the population and at the
same time create new jobs for those who used to live there. Two university
colleges with 10,000 students were built to increase the use of the land.
The masterplan provides 5,300 houses and 400,000m of offices, business,
educational and leisure facilities. In addition, the transportation and the
access to the south side of the city were increased and lead to a new era
for that area. New investments appeared and people got more confident
about the return that they would have if investing in that area, what would
not have gone ahead without the regeneration project. The project has
also created the feeling of belonging in the residents of the area, and
trough the time will form balanced communities.

Connecting the city

As the area was inaccessible in the past, people were not confident about the
potential of its potential. Some key projects were essential to the success of the
project in its connectivity to the city centre, some of them are: The iconic
Erasmus Bridge, the new Metro station and the redevelopment of the road
connections to the ring road. As the train railway lines are underground, the use
of the surface was greatly increased, connecting the pedestrians path with the
new residential areas, and suburban stations helped to improve the local
accessibility. The Erasmus Bridge is one of the fundamental projects to connect
the city, Kop van Zuid is now well connected to the city centre and to the
southern districts. Those improvements made the population of the north of the
river visit south bank, and brought a lot of investments and increased the need
for stores, supermarkets and entertainment, what generated a lot of new jobs
and opportunities. Allied to this, the emergence of good public transportation,
high quality urban constructions and pedestrians routes has helped to attract
new people to live in that area, the rising prices of the property are encouraging

existing people to stay and becomes a desirable place to live.

Landscape changing

Not only the public architecture was focused, a lot of new buildings
emerged in the area, made by famous architects as Sir Normam Foster,
Renzo Piano and Rem Koolhas. Not only new buildings has been built, old
ones have been restored and now have many different purposes,
combining the past and the future, connecting two different times, and
connecting the city itself. Although some of the activities, as restaurants,
failed as insufficient demand had yet to be built.
The government invested in high urban design, the art is used to connect
the area to its historical background, there is good lightning, good street
furniture, it is a clean area, served by lots of cleaners and there is ample
parking spaces combine with wide tree-lined pavements, which usually
incorporate a cycle lane.

It is densely developed, with high density of activities surrounding the

transport nodes. The residential style follows the Brith standards (three
room flats built by a housing corporation). There is a great variety of
residential buildings, each block is made by a different architect, but there
is a overall design framework, which includes for example, requirement
that each house should have its own outdoor space. Even the public
transportation being good, car park is provided, at least one spot per
house. This means that we can use the underground of some buildings to
car parking, keeping the street frontage for the public use. The constant
view of the river and old docks, along with extensive street trees, and
some small gardens, help people to keep in touch with nature.

Rotterdams new face

As the project it is now stated as a success in terms of mixed-use areas

and connection to city centre, it played a important role in the
regeneration of the city itself, making the city attractive to the investors
and to the people who work in them. In the past, Rotterdam feared that
could never compete with Amsterdam as a office centre, but it is now
happening. The city was recognized as capital of the culture in 2001,
unemployment hs fallen drastically from 17% in 1991 to 6% 2005 and the
population of the city is rising again. What has helped this success is the
new housing, it has attracted new people to live in the city, about 40% of
the residents came from outside the region. This people are attracted by
the prestige, location and facilities offered by the emergent

neighbourhood, furthermore, Amsterdam is becoming more and more

expansive, and it is no supporting the amount of dwellers, so Rotterdam is
becoming the place to creative people to be. This is what the city needed
to be replaced in the global market.

Benefits for all

The immigration of people with low dexterity, associated with the new
market, put a lot of pressure in Rotterdam. While the Kop van Zuid was
being built to repositioning Rotterdam for the future, there was a danger
that the surrounding poor communities stayed the same, unaffected; one
example is the specific area of Feyenoord. Feyenoord is a poor distric with
many problems, such as: high unemployment, low educational
attainment, high crime rate, pollution and a high level of immigrants.
Before the regeneration of the docks started, the city council was
concerned about the danger of built a new modern and luxury enterprise
next to the deprived areas and how it would affect them. It was agreed
that efforts would be made to guarantee that the project also create
benefits for the surrounding. The municipally approved in 1991 the project
Mutual Benefit, the main goal of this project is to use the Redevelopment
of the Kop van Zuid to help improve the socio-economic condition of the
residents of the poor neighbourhoods. The project aimed to employ the
people form the area to the work in the regeneration process and
revitalise and promote small and medium enterprises in the
neighbourhood.

Many different organizations were made to recruit people and help them
to find jobs, however, the number of employees were far less than the
expected.
The Mutual Benefit (Social Return) team sought to create economic
benefits through incentives for private companies to hire local people for
the development and maintenance of Kop van Zuid. They also funded
projects to restructure and upgrade shopping streets, and to establish
educational facilities with capacity for the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Clear guidelines in national urban policy together with financial incentives
for collaboration between the different sectors, should ensure that policies
for social cohesion are turned into results. However the attempt to secure
major spin-offs from the development of Kop van Zuid for local
employment did not work out as intended, particularly as far as
construction jobs were concerned, as companies used their existing work
forces. Nevertheless the efforts were appreciated.(Hoek,pag.26,2008)
Another progreme that aimed to help in the spread of the benefits of the
Kop van Zuid is the Opzoomeren. Since 2000, the Opzoomeren
programme, which started in Hoogliet, has operated successfully in over
700 of some 2,400 streets with 4 staff and 50 others, with a target for
agreeing social contracts in 150 streets by 2006 (Hoek,pag.27,2008). The
program is divided in phases, each phase aims specific results and the
following phase depends of the previous one.
The first part of the program is focused in discover the individuals streets
instead of the wider area. It is focused in the unsafe neighbourhoods. The
program starts with the diagnostic of the area, understanding its problems
and who is living there, and the locals are encouraged to take care of the
place and built relationship with their neighbourhoods. The first step of
this program is making people know each other.
The second stage is called Urban etiquette, basically in this stage
people start to accept the rules for a peaceful coexistence, just some
simple things that can improve the clean and the organization of the
streets. Finally, the community agrees with one social contract that
secures the cooperation. Families who may cause problems are visited
and threatened with sanctions. The program benefits both sides, the city,
as a whole, by keeping the streets clean and safe by its own habitants,
with no need of workers properly, and the community, which receives
investments.
However, the final process takes months and focus in encourage groups to
help keep the contract and improve the community.

The first phase then takes 3-4 months and the result is an agenda from
and for the street. This may, for example, involve activities for children. It
also involves appointments with corporate organisations to get them to
take care of the street provided local people play their part. The final
implementation phase in theory can last for ever. There is a bonus for the
street of 4,500 euros (3,000) to help build civic pride and safety.
(Hoek,pag.27,2008)

Conclusion

Critically analysing the regeneration project and seeing what was exposed
in this study, we can see that the Kop van Zuid can be considered a
success, both economically and socially. The implementation of the new
transportation system and implementation of new way to access the area
were fundamental to development of the housing construction and
establishment of the new economic model. The train and the Erasmus
Bridge now connect the Kop van Zuid and the surrounding to the city
centre in less time and more efficiently. The KVZ changed the Rotterdams
face, turned the city from an obsolete ways of production and no skilled
professionals to a city where the creative people go, more and more
talented and well qualified people come from around the Holland and
world attracted not only for the job offer in the region, but for the quality
of life that now is accessible to the most part of the immigrants. The
house market suffered a boom and with the huge investment in housing
comes the confidence to invest, and the movement of people around the
city and even in the country helped to rebalance the population. This mix
of genders and cultures helped the city to be recognized as a
cosmopolitan city, where people from different backgrounds mix together
and share experiences, ideas and information. All this increasing in the
number of residents brought a demand for local shops and services,
creating jobs and improving the local business and market. In the other
hand, the local people who used to live there were not put apart, the
social programs that came with the project helped the population who
needed more attention, giving to them the opportunity of take care of the
area, increasing the use of the public spaces and keeping them safe and
clean. In general terms, the project was well developed and executed, the
social was much important as the economic, what makes this project a
huge example to be followed, nevertheless, the process of regeneration is
a constant work, the social programs are good, and now depends of the
population make it still working or not.

Bibliography

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Ostendorf,W (2000) URBEX Series, No 6 Comparative Statistical
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Images

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