Set beneath the centre of Rotterdam, 'Boring Possibilities' combines a one-kilometre-long urban corridor linked to an infernal traffic machine boasting twelve 600-metre-long platforms for HST, train and underground, a parking colossus for 20,000 cars, a taxi rank for 100 taxis, a bus station for 75 local and regional lines and 150 localities for heroin-addicted prostitutes to ply their trade. Above all this is a sheltered exposition area covering two hectares, one hectare of indoor sports facilities, a slab containing 25 kilometres of office space, and thirteen residential towers each managing 35 storeys of 1266.12 m2. The facades of the thirteen towers together comprise 27.3 hectares of billboard.

By the above means, the scheme fully exploits the potential of the ring road and the centre, successfully reversing the tendency whereby the periphery along the system of orbital roads pulls in all the activity, leaving the centre a non-functioning fossil. In this scheme the centre, a superposition of city and periphery, is scaled quite out of proportion. Inner city locations are exposed to a new urban dynamic, generating peripheral conditions within the existing ring road and enhancing the capacities of both city and ring road. Now that the Antwerp-Hague motorway crosses the Paris-Schiphol rail link, the basis is there for an exponential growth of floor surface area.

Place of education: TU Delft
Tutors: Carel Weeber, Wim van den Bergh, Arie Krijgsman & Henk Mihl
Specialization: architecture.