Area Manager of the district Middelland Lot Mertens (Municipality of Rotterdam) and head of urban design Mattijs van Ruijven (Municipality of Rotterdam) were with us in late March at the table. The conversation at restaurant Huson, of course, went on various forms of urban development.

Lot calls herself quarter roamer and in that role she had among others an important part in the design of the Spoortuin, Essenburg Park and the project Fine, Beautiful Middelland. Mattijs of Ruijven working for 12 years in the city and has work in all the districts in this time separately. Now he can think about the city as one entity. Lot and Mattijs know the city very well, but working from totally different angles. While Lot seeks to scale up spontaneous development, Mattijs trying to embed the main lines of policy in the district. It either takes a lot of persuasion to bring others in their thinking and acting.

Where do these two different approaches come together? How can they use each other power? These were the main questions of the evening. After such a evening do you believe in a city of spontaneous developments and also in the calculated city.