Today we visited the inHolland Rotterdam campus. We began the morning with a tour around the campus and a portion of Rotterdam. On this tour we learned about the city, including the effect World War Two had on Rotterdam. We learned that 85% of the city was bombed towards the end of the war, and because of such, just about the entire city had to be rebuilt. This makes Rotterdam special, it meant that engineers and architects could design a city with sustainability in mind, whereas a city like Amsterdam built hundreds even thousands of years ago, an architect or an engineer would have to work around the historic sites and buildings to allot the correct space and resources for sustainable building, whereas a more blank canvas like Rotterdam, the opposite. We learned that Rotterdam is based off Manhattan, and a lot of waterfront architecture is being put in place here.

We also learned that because of the housing crisis, Rotterdam specialists are considering all types of housing, including entertaining the idea of living on a floating house in the water, as we saw on the tour. We learned that scientists are trying to develop ways of sustaining a safe and clean water source throughout the many canals that would surround these houses, which would make the option of living in a floating house more appealing to citizens.

After the tour, we received lunch and a presentation about inHolland. A quiz followed this. During the quiz, I learned that of 18 million people in the Netherlands, (all in 40,000 km^2) 2.5 million of those people are foreigners. This shows the diversity of the Netherlands and suggests the magnitude of consideration of so many different cultures, and what it takes the government to sustain so many different wants and needs.

After wrapping up our visit to inHolland, I took the Metro the The Hague (Den Haag if you’re not a tourist I guess) We did some shopping and got some dinner at a streetside restaurant. The day wrapped up with a metro and a tram ride back to the hostel, and a blog post.