Shipping & Transport College

Translated from the original report:
This seventy-meter-high tower features a mixed program of educational spaces, offices, and public functions. Various departments connect from the entrance hall to the top floor through escalators. The low-rise section of the building houses specialized facilities - rooms with simulators, a restaurant, a media center, a sports center, and workshops. The cantilevered conference room overlooks the Port of Rotterdam, while the tiered student restaurant on the ground floor allows views of the Maas River. The meandering mass creates a vertical icon of the international maritime science center.

Addition:
Good news for weary crowds: A building straight out of a comic book is back in the world. Again from the workshop of Neutelings Riedijk. On Miller Pier in Rotterdam stands the new building of the International Maritime School, or more precisely, a periscope of an atomic submarine dressed in a blue-and-white naval shirt guarding the largest port in the world *). Naval stripes have replaced squares and the fabric sheet from the scattered containers around. The auditorium is protected from noise by an acoustic lining of red life-saving squares, practical even in the event of the colossal cantilever's collapse into the Maas. It should be noted that the entire cantilever of the auditorium was assembled on the ground, transported by ship, gradually lifted by two super cranes, and installed as a whole. The technological conduits for air conditioning and other networks in the student cafeteria are hidden behind a ceiling of sails tied up with rigging. Generally, the entire building resonates with a maritime theme. Round windows, ship doors, screws, ropes, and sails. You do not walk through the building, but sail on the waves of orange escalators, which are the core of the entire complex. On each floor, you can enjoy the view of the apocalyptic landscape of the Port of Rotterdam. A landscape of waving cranes, intersecting cruisers, and the burning chimneys of African exploiters' refineries.

I believe that most serious architects will consider this periscope to be too literal a metaphor, full of symbolism and simplistic jokes, and that these qualities will not survive the first decade. The associations and metaphors mentioned here are seen through only one pair of eyes and viewed through another pair will yield different perspectives. I believe that the building is perfect as it is. Unattached from the fear hidden under the name seriousness; full of exaggeration, perhaps slightly cynical, naive, and awkward. It does not drown in deep intellectual metaphors yet offers an attractive spatial solution; it is an icon of the Port of Rotterdam, a sculpture whose masses are in mutual harmony. The operation is meticulously thought out. The cantilevered auditorium is almost absolutely utilized for commercial purposes and helps to fund the school's operations. The client is satisfied.

I do not think this path is the correct or the only one, yet it has its place in the field of architecture. It is good that someone can still be a bit naive at 48. Rotterdam is an experimental city, an incredible colorful collage of houses, sculptures, and cultures. The maritime school building is an exemplary addition to this collage.

*) Note: Statistically, Rotterdam competes for first place with Singapore, and in certain values, Singapore is already winning.

Publications:
10+1, Tokyo / 2001 / ed. 22 / p. 096-097 / 'Neutelings Riedijk'
de Architect, the Hague / 2006 / p. 44-51
l'architecture d'aujourd'hui, Paris / 2006 / no. 363 / p. 32-35 / 'Scheepvaart en Transport College, Rotterdam, Pays-Bas'
Architecture Today, London / 2006 / no. 166 / p. 14-19 / 'Rotterdam'
AIT, Leinfelden-Echterdingen / 2006 / no. 5 / p. 104-109 / 'Fort-Building'
arq./a, Lisboa / 2006 / no. 40 / p. 46-49 / Faculdade de Navegacao e Transporte, Roterdao
Bouwen met Staal, Zoetermeer / 2005 / ed. 183 / April / p. 9
Bouwen met Staal, Zoetermeer / 2006 / ed. 192 / October / p. 59
Desino Interior, Madrid / 2006 / ed. 172 / p. 172-179 / 'Neutelings Riedijk Architecten ESCUELA DE ESTUDIOS MARITIMOS'
Harvard Design Magazine, Cambridge / 2004 / Spring-Summer / p. 34 / 'Designers' influence and power'
impulss (Dienas Bizness), Latvia / 2006 / no. 7 / p. 16-19 / 'tu vari pilnigi visu'
ICON, London / 2006 / January / p. 70-77
Kenchiku Bunka, Tokio / 2004 / ed. 671-vol. 59 / June / p. 64 / 'Neutelings Riedijk'
Lifttotaal, Breda / 2006 / no. 1 / p. 2-9 / 'Door oranje op en neer'
Project International Russia, Moscow / 2005 / p. 73-112
Stedenbouw, Nieuwegein / 2005 / ed. 626 / p. 104-105 / 'Baken voor Scheepvaartsonderwijs'
Wallpaper, London / 2005 / January-February / p. 70
World Architecture, Beijing / 2005 / no. 7 / p. 88-92

Books:
Architecture in the Netherlands, Yearbook 2005/06 / 2006 / p. 94-97 / NAI Publishers, Rotterdam
At Work, Neutelings Riedijk Architects / 2004 / 010 Publishers, Rotterdam
Een land van architectuur, Gouden Pyramide 2006, Rijksprijs voor inspirerend opdrachtgeverschap / 2006 / p. 70-77 / 010 Publishers, Rotterdam
NL, Architectuur in Nederland / 2006 / Taschen, Koln / p. 94-97
STC, Baken aan de Maas / 2005 / Publishers: Shipping and Transport College, Rotterdam

Newspapers:
Algemeen Dagblad, Rotterdam / 2005 / October 1st / p. 34 / 'Bliksembezoek van Willem Alexander'
Algemeen Dagblad, Rotterdam / 2005 / October 1st / p. 36-37 / 'De '1' van Rotterdam is open'
Volkskrant, kunstbijlage, Amsterdam