Rotterdam - DWL / De Esch (Urban Frontiers 127)
Europe, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Kralingen, DWL terrain / De Esch (slightly cut from all sides)
Displayed here is the centre of the Rotterdam 'De Esch' borough - a former water purification facility that's been turned into a housing quarter and a centre for the creative industry. Here's the story.
Until the 19th century the people of Rotterdam got their drinking water from wells, ditches and the river Maas. The quality left much to be desired -in 1866, 1211 residents died of cholera. In 1869 the city council decided to construct a large drinking water purification plant outside the city limits. It was designed by the director of the Municipal Public Works C.B. van der Tak and was put into operation in 1874 as the DWL facilities.
The water was let in from the river Maas to two large settling ponds and then biologically purified in a series of masonry ponds with layers of sand and gravel. After the slow filter process, the water was led through an extensive system of underground pipes, to the water tower (to pressurize the system) and to the water cellars (the storage facility called the ‘reinwater kelders’). Steam-driven pumps were used for this.
Because of the huge growth of water consumption and the Maas river getting more polluted, the town council decided in 1928 to add a modern water filtering facility that worked much faster then the 1869 biologic facility. Iron-sulphate and chlorine were used for the industrial filtering. A set of modernist buildings were designed for this by city architect Van der Steur.
The industrial treatment of the water influenced the taste. The Rotterdam drinking water was infamous for its bad, chlorine taste. And although I didn’t grow up in Rotterdam I know this.
Partly due to this taste and other quality issues in 1965 it was decided to stop using the water from the Maas and use water from the Biesbosch. A new treatment plant was created there (Beerenplaat) and the DWL waterworks were decommissioned in 1977.
Not very long after that the expanding city again needed more space for houses– because of its growth rate and also because of its large scale inner city renovation (‘stadsvernieuwing’) program. And the DWL was chosen to accommodate this and it was redeveloped while respecting / re-using its main structure, buildings and facilities. The urbanistic plan was designed by Elizabeth Poot in cooperation with the Municipal Public Works (Gemeentewerken).
The planning stage: 1979-1985. Buildings stage: 1982-1997. Differentiation:
50% social (affordable) housing, 15% housing for young people 35% private sector (up market housing) . In this day and age – after the government stopped funding social housing and the municipality relinquished much of its planning to the market – a differentiation like this would be unthinkable. Nowadays there’s a great shortage of social / affordable housing in the Netherlands.
Depicted here are from left to right – urban villa’s (1992) at the edge of one of the former settling ponds, the ‘snel filter gebouw’ (1928), a high rise (1994) the water tower (1874), the roofs of social housing which is constructed on top of the ‘reinwater kelders’ (1984) and the pumping sheds of other settling ponds (1874)
For an xcellent description of DWL – De Esch: here
It’s the source of major parts of this text.
Rotterdam - DWL / De Esch (Urban Frontiers 127)
Europe, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Kralingen, DWL terrain / De Esch (slightly cut from all sides)
Displayed here is the centre of the Rotterdam 'De Esch' borough - a former water purification facility that's been turned into a housing quarter and a centre for the creative industry. Here's the story.
Until the 19th century the people of Rotterdam got their drinking water from wells, ditches and the river Maas. The quality left much to be desired -in 1866, 1211 residents died of cholera. In 1869 the city council decided to construct a large drinking water purification plant outside the city limits. It was designed by the director of the Municipal Public Works C.B. van der Tak and was put into operation in 1874 as the DWL facilities.
The water was let in from the river Maas to two large settling ponds and then biologically purified in a series of masonry ponds with layers of sand and gravel. After the slow filter process, the water was led through an extensive system of underground pipes, to the water tower (to pressurize the system) and to the water cellars (the storage facility called the ‘reinwater kelders’). Steam-driven pumps were used for this.
Because of the huge growth of water consumption and the Maas river getting more polluted, the town council decided in 1928 to add a modern water filtering facility that worked much faster then the 1869 biologic facility. Iron-sulphate and chlorine were used for the industrial filtering. A set of modernist buildings were designed for this by city architect Van der Steur.
The industrial treatment of the water influenced the taste. The Rotterdam drinking water was infamous for its bad, chlorine taste. And although I didn’t grow up in Rotterdam I know this.
Partly due to this taste and other quality issues in 1965 it was decided to stop using the water from the Maas and use water from the Biesbosch. A new treatment plant was created there (Beerenplaat) and the DWL waterworks were decommissioned in 1977.
Not very long after that the expanding city again needed more space for houses– because of its growth rate and also because of its large scale inner city renovation (‘stadsvernieuwing’) program. And the DWL was chosen to accommodate this and it was redeveloped while respecting / re-using its main structure, buildings and facilities. The urbanistic plan was designed by Elizabeth Poot in cooperation with the Municipal Public Works (Gemeentewerken).
The planning stage: 1979-1985. Buildings stage: 1982-1997. Differentiation:
50% social (affordable) housing, 15% housing for young people 35% private sector (up market housing) . In this day and age – after the government stopped funding social housing and the municipality relinquished much of its planning to the market – a differentiation like this would be unthinkable. Nowadays there’s a great shortage of social / affordable housing in the Netherlands.
Depicted here are from left to right – urban villa’s (1992) at the edge of one of the former settling ponds, the ‘snel filter gebouw’ (1928), a high rise (1994) the water tower (1874), the roofs of social housing which is constructed on top of the ‘reinwater kelders’ (1984) and the pumping sheds of other settling ponds (1874)
For an xcellent description of DWL – De Esch: here
It’s the source of major parts of this text.