Municipal offices Rotterdam

• Program
  Offices with public counters, ceremonial auditoria, birth clinic, crematorium, party centre, hotel, shops, restaurants
• Client
  City of Rotterdam, Urban Planning and Public Housing Department
• Team
  Marco Vermeulen
  Theo Hauben
  Stefan Fremouw
  Jaap Bekkers
  
• Location
  Rotterdam, Rodezand
• Area
  53000 m2
• Date
  2001-12-01

The era of secularisation is characterised by a quest for ceremonial proceedings that can replace religious rites. The church is reduced to a nostalgic decor that at the very most looks good in the wedding photographs. Because the house of worship is losing its value, there is growing demand for a meaningful visit to the town hall, where a number of important moments in a human life are formalised. The proposal is the expansion of the official machine of the municipal offices with ceremonial facilities, a party centre and a hotel. The information function is retained and the citizen him or herself can determine whether and in what way the formal events are inaugurated. Any address by a civil servant and the signing of the documents can, if so desired, be followed by a reception or conclude with a large party in one of the halls of the adjoining party centre. Party-goers who do not wish to travel afterwards or who are unable to do so can walk directly to the hotel. The civil servant, the ceremonial facilities, the reception room and the hotel suite can be selected in advance on the basis of the programmed sequence and theme.

Every citizen of Rotterdam derives his or her identity to a greater or lesser extent from being a citizen of Rotterdam. The town hall is a place which Rotterdam's citizens have to visit a number of times in their lives and where citizenship is recorded. Can Rotterdam therefore be the umbilicus where new citizens are born under the gaze of their native city? And may genuine citizens of Rotterdam finally be transformed into smoke and have their ashes placed in the skyline? The programme selected not only fulfils a role in a horizontal succession for the purpose of the municipal ceremonies. The various components can be read vertically as autonomous buildings that can also be visited as such. In addition to a car park, the programme is horizontally scanned by a restaurant/canteen and bordered by specific services and shops (ritual retail) that are situated in the Stadstimmershuis. In addition to the vertical access, various types of lifts form the horizontal link between the four components. The lifts that connect the municipal offices with the ceremonial facilities can themselves form part of a ritual.