Today, we took a short five-minute walk to Dakakker, a building in the heart of Rotterdam that features a 1000 square meter farm on top of a room, with smart irrigation systems, beehives, and chickens. The building itself used to be an insurance firm, but now is the Center for Environment and Center for Architects. We first took a tour of the surrounding architecture that the collaboration of engineers and creatives submitted to the Rotterdam city initiative from 2012-2014 which was enacted to make the city better.

The first thing we saw were make-shift water basins, which double as basketball and soccer courts when it is not heavily raining. The surrounding area is built in such a way that, during heavy rainfall, water funnels down into the water basins so that the area does not flood, protecting and sustaining the surrounding apartments. We then saw letters spelling out Zoho, which double as rainwater collectors and irrigate the neighboring plants. The letters have a computer hooked up to weather computers which notify the system when heavy rainfall will occur again, signaling the letters to let go of their water and irrigate the plants. Then, we were introduced to the old metro system, which the residents have turned into a small garden and gathering place. The architects built this garden over the first electric metro, which stopped its use in 2010, and now use it as a gathering place for slam poetry and to grow fruits and vegetables.

Finally, we visited the so-called “green roof” on top of the center for architects. The roof itself has four separate layers, consisting of a root resistant material, a recycled plastic part with divots for rainwater, cloth for the soil to lay on top of, and soil made specifically for this purpose. Due to the recycled plastic with divots, the roof also doubles to hold rainwater to prevent flooding and can hold up to 60,000 liters just from this small design. The roof on the restaurant part of the building has 8 cm deep divots as a test, and due to its success is now implemented at a concert hall in Rotterdam. We were then given a tour of the BioLife, which included beehives that can hold anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 bees, chickens which made the owner happy, and their vermiculture farm which produces fertilizer. The farm is very circular and sustainable, using every bit of their building and biproducts for some use.

We then ventured off for a quick walking tour, learning about the sustainability of the buildings which were rebuilt after the Nazi bombing in 1940 which crushed the city, Center. The new and improved buildings implement designs like triple panels, low emissivity window panels, zonal HVAC, and ambient lighting to decrease emissions and increase productivity. The walking tour was very informative and allowed us to explore and contextualize the city we were living in.

Today was great, and I’m sad it’s coming to an end soon.

Goedenavond!