Afrikaanderplein is a large open space in the middle of multi-ethnic Feijenoord in Rotterdam South. This park, the size of several blocks, lies at the centre of the neighbourhood but had fallen into disrepair and had become a place of street crime and. In response several user groups had created their own defended ‘territories’ leading to an on-going feeling of tension with a sense that no-one was really caring for the overall welfare of the space. Redevelopment, at a cost of €5 million, took place over a four year period, allowing time for the development of a close communication and understanding between authorities, designers, constructors and over 20 user and interest groups. In design terms the space is now extremely flexible, able to cater for a weekly market, organised sports, informal leisure use including barbecues, cultural festivals as well as a contemplative area incorporating water. Excellent lighting also makes the space welcoming at night.
Meanwhile there has been much clever and sensitive work in managing the local economy to ensure that the space enhances the neighbourhood in becoming more self-sufficient and much less dependent upon welfare or illicit earnings. The organisation Freehouse is working with traders in and around the marketplace. Here you can find stalls specialising in food and goods from north and west Africa, Turkey, Surinam and the Antilles, China and Indonesia, but many have in the past felt the pressure from a combination of supermarkets and heavy-handed regulation. Freehouse helps the stall-holders to keep their distinctiveness but make themselves more competitive by connecting them to a range of creative services, and artists, designers, branding advisers have come in with lots of ideas. Freehouse has also helped with many of the empty of under-performing shops in adjacent streets like the Wijk Winkel (district shop) where many local designers and makers can display and sell their work. It is run by a co-operative of mainly Moroccan women and the place hums with the buzz of sewing machines as they manufacture a range of designer products.
Local agency Bureau M.E.S.T. has created a pop-up hotel on the top floor of a shopping street and had been lying empty. Under a scheme called Kus & Sloop, MEST persuades owners to let them have these spaces on short lets and they are then decorated in minimalist but charming style by the ladies of Wijk Winkel.
This emphasises that public space cannot be considered in isolation from the micro economies and ecologies of the surrounding buildings.
