Wine or Water

In 2005 terrace restaurant Wijn of Water (Wine or Water) in the Lloyd-quarter in Rotterdam opened its doors. The restaurant is a composition with sea-containers. The building is temporary, this or next year the restaurant will be housed in the Sint Jobsveem warehouse, 250 meters away. Because of this temporaryness, there was a limited budget. The restaurant was brought up from scratch to completion in just half a year. The principal himself took care of the construction. 

The chosen building blocks are nine second hand 40 feet containers, measuring 12,2 meters and making a section of 2,5 x 2,9 meters. All the installations are placed on the outside, giving it an extra utilitarian touch. Towards the city the composition forms a wall, here two containers are stacked. On the first floor they contain an office and a room for the installations. 

After entering the restaurant opens up, facing the Maas canal. On one side the terrace is embraced by a single laying container. A smaller one is placed in line with the large volume, this makes, in combination with the tower placed container, two terraces. The erected container is a such a marker for the restaurant and also forms a compositoric counterbalance for the large wall. On a practical level its a storage place. 

Some of the doors of the containers are opened and filled with a film of glass. An much to ordinary radiator brakes the visual nice gesture of openness. The long sides of the containers, facing the terraces are opened up and filled with huge glass windows. The work and office spaces have smaller windows. Inside the restaurant there are smaller boxes to host toilets and kitchen storage. The spatial compostion of the containers and their new contents make somehow logical sense at the pier.