Rotterdam
Neil Leadbeater
R is for Rotterdam. Manhattan on the Meuse.
Blom’s cubic project. Apartments tilted at 45 degrees.
R is for records: Bakeman’s Library
“open, inviting and accessible to everyone”
a waterfall in glass.
R is for restoration, rebuilding and renovation.
Outside De Unie, “a podium for debate,
art and culture”
a saxophonist sounds all the colours of the rainbow.
A standalone piece of the De Stilj movement,
R is for retail: Nan Xavier,
“affordable basics for men and women
by new, talented designers,”
Objet Trouvé for the lost and found.
Rietveld’s classic chairs.
R is for rivers: for the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.
A waterway access to Europe.
R is for Rem Koolhaas.
His Office for Metropolitan Architecture.
A handspan away from its neighbour.
The huge Rotterdam Central Library was designed by Bakema.
De Unie is an iconic De Stijl building destroyed in the bombing of Rotterdam in World War II. It was rebuilt in 1986.
The eclectic Nen Xavier sells "one-of-a-kind" items.
OMA is the firm of Rem Koolhaas, one of the world's greatest architects.
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about the Netherlands.
