Hallo! Welcome back to day 12 of my blog: one more blog left after this! Today we went to InHolland’s School of Applied Sciences Rotterdam campus. This reminded much more of Pitt than Delft because it was more urban & larger in size. Still, it was confined to a few faculties similar to the Delft campus. It houses the Faculty of Business, Law, and Finance, and we met with staff from the creative business department. They were extremely informative about the city and gave us a tour of Rotterdam, including historical facts and the future of the city in relation to urban planning. They were very passionate about their research at the lab for human urban studies, a hands-on approach to city planning. I found this to be a very different program, engaging students in a new way for this field.

At first impression, I was apprehensive about Rotterdam, still in the dream that was the city of Amsterdam. After this tour, I understand the “why” behind the differences between the two cities, and I have newfound respect for Rotterdam. The most interesting fact I learned was that unlike the red lights in the ground in Amsterdam, the red lights in Rotterdam signify where a bomb was dropped in World War 2. This very sad fact shows just how much destruction this city encountered near the end of the war, destroying 85% of the buildings and killing around 300,000 civilians. This explains why the architecture (especially in the Southern port) is more modern and metropolitan, because it was constructed post-war. 

Throughout the tour, I drew many connections between the city of Rotterdam and Pittsburgh. Both are cities located on a river, with impressive bridges. Additionally, they are both post-industrial cities that shifted to more technological-based business. Both have always been worker-cities, different from cities like New York or Amsterdam. Similar to neighborhoods of Pittsburgh such as East Liberty, new development pressures increase gentrification in certain areas. Lower-class civilians are pushed by developers looking to attract high-class people by adding new businesses, usually large franchises or expensive restaurants. In Rotterdam, our guides told us about a neighborhood that was a lower-class socialist community, but was changed with gentrification, separating children into two separate schools (one more funded school, one less funded). In order to combat these development pressures, our guides explain the concept “place-making,” which refers to working with locals to cater to their needs in a community. This leads to more sustainable development, especially relating to social sustainability in communities. I think a city like Pittsburgh can benefit from placemaking in order to transfer our public spaces to better benefit civilians. 

With regards to concept to consumer ideas, I observed an overall concept of community development and tourism in this area of Rotterdam. The city will be able to successfully implement this concept by placemaking with locals. This is shown with the examples of floating housing structures along the water, which are towable and move with the tides, also addressing the housing crisis. Additionally, the city is building new skyscrapers, furthering the concept of business development. They are also building a public city beach, which has great intentions to benefit locals, but only if the concept is carried out properly. Our tour guides reminded us that success in urban planning is indicated by usage, which will show the success of the beach. The beach will be shadowed by tall buildings, and the climate in this area is always slightly cold and rainy. The skyscrapers may form a barrier between the businesses and the community. The concept of placemaking may have been missed with the urban planners on this site. The city plan also indicates development of public parks, which will be important to create sustainable communities. This will also address the problem of urban heat islands, which cause poor drainage and surface water, especially in rainy areas like Rotterdam. 

After this interesting and informative tour, we headed back for the University to have a presentation about the study abroad program, have lunch, and learn more about the city of Amsterdam through a quiz. The building was very modern and had many resources for students, including a restaurant, study spaces, free latte machines (which everywhere seems to have), and classrooms. The University has small class sizes of around 20 students, around 6500 students, and a bargain of a tuition (regulated by the government) at 2200 euros a year for Dutch students. This practically gave me a heart attack, considering Pitt in state tuition is upwards of 21000 a year. Despite the similarities between Rotterdam and Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh could definitely benefit from giving more cheap tuition to students. They also only go to school 2-3 times a week, which would be a very nice break to have. Lastly, they have an acceptance rate of 100%, making college extremely accessible for all students that have a high school degree. Making these changes in Pittsburgh would be a sustainable decision for students, an action that spoke louder than any word. 

We were reminded of the UN sustainability goals after our tour, which we learned as an intro to this course. They use the phrase “no words but deeds” to accompany these goals, indicating how urban planning can contribute to sustainable communities by making beneficial social planning decisions. The lunch we ate was the classic Dutch lunch, a cheese and egg and cucumber sandwich. I also had another life-changing pear. After lunch, we did a competitive quiz on The Netherlands, which I did not do very well on. I need to brush up on my cultural knowledge. 

After our InHolland visit, a few of us took transit to the Hague, which is the government seat of the Netherlands: where the government and royal family lives. There were many cute shops, restaurants, and beautiful old buildings similar to Amsterdam. I finally got my vintage clothing fix, buying a few high quality items for reasonable prices. I had Turkish food for dinner, and it was very delicious. 

Tomorrow we are headed to The Floating Farm to learn about urban agriculture and to RDM Rotterdam to see the shipyard, followed by a farewell dinner. Until then, Doei!