Along the motorways in the Rotterdam area you can see strips of no man's land, indeterminate areas giving passing motorists a flash of the city's rear.

By treating the indeterminacy of these places as a positive quality, the city can put on a brave face and gradually claim these empty strips as its own.

I have commandeered one such strip between Schiedam rail station and the A20 for a music complex. This public facility is too big and noisy to fit into the present-day centre of Schiedam. A large hall for amplified music where dances, concerts and DJ sessions can be held, will act as a magnet for the entire region. Neighbouring districts can profit from a disco, practice rooms, studios and a skate park. Visitors could park their cars in the zone directly abutting the motorway.

In this environment, where the human scale loses out to that of major infrastructure, the design calls for coarse materials and large surfaces. The basic shape housing the rehearsal centre and the ground floor is expressed as rough asphalt surfaces and a grassy slope. Above it, the portion containing the main auditorium and the foyers is trained on passing motorists and turns their movement along the motorway to its advantage. Large tracts of translucent plastic are to be seen when the building is approached head-on; observed from the side there is a minimal play of lines.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Micha de Haas, Bas Gremmen, George Hotze