MVRDV - KM3

The enormous production of built ‘matter' -houses, warehouses, factories, offices- in the last decade has consumed space and leads sometimes to limited availability of space. It results in higher ground prices and demands for stronger investments. Is an ultra dense city already payable? How much space does a city of one million inhabitants require in flat 2d circumstances and in compact 3d circumstances? How much do both cities cost both in space, in economical and in ecological terms? Can it imply for another urbanism? Can it result in a city in which 2 dimensional planning is replaced by a 3d one? Can it cause an urbanism that generates space instead of consuming it? This suggestion demands for another perspective in urban planning: ‘below' and ‘above' are as important as behind, beside or in front. It no longer matters where zero level is, since it is everywhere. Squares will be replaced by ‘connections', parks will be altered into ‘stacks', ‘far away' will be transferred into ‘proximity', ‘order' will be replaced by ‘simultaneity'.

Three sites have been explored on their technical and spatial potential for the 3d city.

AMSTERDAM DAM SQUARE
The Amsterdam historical city is dominated by an urge or even a syndrome to retain its monumental character. This has resulted in a protected legal status with requirements that limit modern programs. It has lead to an exodus of programmes which can no longer be accommodated for reasons of scale or style, while they might have enriched urban life. It turns this city into a museum for tourist purposes only. Can we stop this exodus without violating the monumental appearance? Can we imagine a city underneath the current one, liberated from the aesthetic burden of the upper world? By putting retaining walls around the buildings, the current streets can be dug out and the existing volumes can be extruded downwards. It will become possible to ring at a door in an alley and to enter a 100,000 m2 head-quarter building. Retaining the existing tramways in the streets and walkways along the facades, it turns Amsterdam into Gotham city.

ROTTERDAM WEENA
The involuntary absence of a 16th or 17th century layer seems to liberate the Rotterdam city centre from a moral dilemma towards densification. By adding up infrastructure, ‘city-ness' can be combined with accessibility. These three dimensional addresses allow for additional programmes. They are positioned in small left over plots. The bigness of the possible programmes forces to widen themselves in higher altitudes and make connections to neighbouring programs. In order to avoid the building from buckling, support have to be searched for at the neighbours. It creates a three dimensional district.

A20 MOTORWAY ROTTERDAM
It is striking to see how relatively unused the zones are around the current highways that surround the cities. In spite of its extreme accessibility, so far nothing more than relatively cheap and unattractive areas have resulted. Can we not use these city-corridors for further densification? This is possible by increasing the number of addresses along such a corridor. By developing a series of parallel roads at lower speeds the interval between off ramps is reduced and approaches the plotsize of possible programmes. This leads to enormous ‘branchings off', stacked where necessary, that allows for a massive city with infrastructural erosion.

Research and design : MVRDV, Rotterdam: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries
with : Rene Marey, Christoph Schindler, Kersten Nabielek, Margarita Salméron Espinosa, Gabriela Bojalil, Mathurin Hardel, Ronald Wall and Ballast Nedam Engineering, Amsterdam, Wim Snelders and Marco Lub
Made possible by : BNE and Centrum Ondergronds Bouwen, Gouda and Stimuleringsfonds Rotterdam
First shown : Biennale di Venezia, June 2000