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Magazine

week 13 | donderdag 28 maart 2024 10:43 uur | 0 bezoekers


Blue bird ... Ben van Erkel's Erasmus Bridge, nicknamed The Swan, Rotterdam. Photograph: Raimund Koch/Corbis

Ten arty things to do in Rotterdam

Of: hoe positief het Engelse Guardian schrijft over onze stad!

 


On the eve of Rotterdam's 40th film festival, film critic Agnès Poirier offers a guide to one of Europe's most eclectic and design-conscious cities.


 


Rotterdam may not be your typical Dutch city with canals, cobblestone passages and grand 17th-century houses, but it is an ode to modernism and innovation worth a detour. Flattened by the Luftwaffe in the spring of 1940, the Netherlands' second city has been rebuilding and reinventing itself ever since and become a hotbed of architecture and design. The New York Times declared that "Rotterdam is increasingly to architecture what Paris is to fashion, or Los Angeles to entertainment". The city is littered with iconic structures, such as Rem Koolhaas's De Kunsthal museum, Ben van Erkel's Erasmus Bridge (nicknamed The Swan), Piet Blom's cube houses, and Jan Willem Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk's periscope-like Scheepvaart en Transport College, to name but a few. Yet the city manages to combine dizzying steel towers with cultural attractions, such as a burgeoning club scene and its forward-thinking independent film festival, which starts tomorrow.


Here's our tour of the town:


Nederlands Architectuurinstituut


Since the permanent collection at the wonderful Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum (Museumpark, 18), nearby, is closed until the summer, check what's on at Holland's architecture institute. After a stroll around Rotterdam, you'll understood why the city hosts this national institution. Perpetually reinventing itself and playing with historical references, Rotterdam is the architects' city par excellence. The institute, reopening in spring after a massive renovation, offers lectures, a library, archive facilities and temporary exhibitions. It has just launched the first 3D architecture app which provides information about the past, present and future of 351 different buildings in Rotterdam. Further along on Museumpark is the Rem Koolhaas-conceived photo and design gallery,Kunsthal (Westzeedijk 341), which also has a great cafe.
• Museumpark, 25, nai.nl


De Unie


A hot spot during the film festival, Die Unie is a cultural centre with a cafe and a restaurant. Sleek but not impossibly chic, De Unie's programme is eclectic, to say the least: from promising English singer-songwriter Anna Calvi (who will perform there in April) to debates about modern architecture, and independent film premieres. Its organic menu is also first-class. Don't miss the €5 pompoensoep met pompoenzaadjes en brood (spicy pumpkin soup, a Dutch speciality). 
• Mauritsweg, 34-35, deunie.nu


Lantaren Venster cinema


The Lantaren Venster is not your ordinary art house cinema, especially since last year when it moved from Gouvernestraat, where it stood from 1949, to Rotterdam's waterfront area and the brand new designed glass and wood building by Alvaro Siza. The Lantaren Venster is a special place, to which you feel drawn especially when the weather is bad. There's a great programme of old and new art-house films and jazz – including big names such as Herbie Handcock and Brad Mehldau. A unique place.
• Otto Reuchlinweg, 996, +31 (0)10 277 2277, lantarenvenster.nl


New York Barbershop


New York Barber Shop RotterdamPhotograph: Robert Lagerman


<There's no need to have a trim to enter the New York Babershop. Located in the basement of theNew York Hotel, this unique cafe-restaurant-hotel-barbershop is situated in the former head office of the Holland-Amerika Line, in Rotterdam's harbour, opposite the Erasmus Bridge. The place has seen many a departure to the American promised land since its creation in 1872. It's lost in time, with original 1930s barber chairs and black and white pictures of movie stars boarding the Amerika ocean liners. Hairdressers and barbers are maestros, and their services are pricey, but worth it, according to the discerning male traveller. 
• Koninginnenhoofd, +31 (0)10 485 3196, newyorkbarbershop.nl. An Italian shave and a facial costs €37.50. No need to book between 9am and 5.30pm Monday-Friday; evenings and weekends are on a booking only basis. Doubles from €99 a night, room only


Villa Chabot


It's difficult to say what's more appealing – the 1938 art deco villa built by architects Baas and Stokla, white and round like an ocean liner, or the art collection that it houses. Villa Chabot exhibits the works of Dutch expressionist painter Hendrik Chabot, also known as Henk, who died in 1949. Little-known outside the country, he is worth discovering. A decorator who took drawing classes at evening school in the 1920s, Chabot taught himself sculpture by incessantly touring art museums in Germany. He started exhibiting age 40 alongside Fauvist Kees Van Dongen in an art gallery in Amsterdam and rose to national stardom.
• Museumpark, 11, chabotmuseum.nl


Fotomuseum


Housed on the waterfront in the memorable Las Palmas building, the photography museum is currently showing an exhibition whose central theme should feel familiar to many European visitors affected by public cuts. It's called "Angry, young and radical" and runs until the summer. With a breathtaking view over the Erasmus Bridge and Renzo Piano's Telecom tower, Las Palmas is the only remaining 1950s building in the harbour. A classic design by Van den Broek & Bakema, it is worth a detour for its architectural merit alone.
• Wilhelminakade, 332, nederlandsfotomuseum.nl


Dizzy Jazz Café


Dizzy Jazz Cafe Rotterdam


Dizzy's – named after Dizzy Gillespie – offers live concerts on Monday and Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons, featuring everything from jazz to Brazilian baile funk to salsa. It's also a bar where you can drink and eat well for less than a tenner. A stone's throw from the Nieuwe Binnenweg area – with its melange of coffee shops, restaurants and pubs – Dizzy's is a lovely place to stop for a drink and some music on your way back to your hotel. The best place is at the counter, on one of the wooden high chairs: you'll get the best view on the band playing and of the crowd reflected in the mirrors behind the bar's collection of best Scotch whisky.
• Gravendijkwal, 127, +31 (0)10 477 30 14, dizzy.nl


Rotown


Get a taste of Rotterdam's burgeoning club scene at Rotown, where DJ Okkie will be playing during the Rotterdam film festival. With a restaurant that serves daily from 11am to 10pm, this dance club is also a good place to stop for a drink, lunch or dinner. Moreover, it is located on one of the nicest and most eclectic avenues in Rotterdam, the Nieuwe Binnenweg, which offers a myriad of bagel shops, cafes, and secondhand bookshops. 
• Nieuwe Binnenweg, 17-19, rotown.nl


Showroom Mama and V2


On Witte de Withstraat, you'll find the quintessence of Rotterdam: multicultural Holland meeting hardcore contemporary arts. Known for its galleries and for Bazar (see below), the street is also home to Showroom Mama, a gallery catering to "16 to 26 year-olds" but open to all curious minds from Wednesday to Sunday from 1pm to 6pm and by appointment. If you're not totally convinced by Showroom Mama, veer into Eerndrachtsstraat, 10, and head for V2, also known as the Institute for the Unstable Media. Focusing on video and sound installations, V2 is big on robotics, electronic music and digital imagery. 
• Showroom Mama, Witte de Withstraat, 29, showroommama.nl. V2, Eerndrachtsstraat, 10, v2.nl


Bazar


Bazar Hotel, RotterdamBazar Hotel, Rotterdam


Bazar seems to exist to remind us of the multicultural nature of Holland in general, and of Rotterdam in particular. Both a hotel and a restaurant-cafe, Bazar offers thematic rooms for the curious traveller – named South American, African or Oriental. The one we tried, South American, with Frida Khalo-esque frescos, is on the top floor. The restaurant serves passers-by and residents alike with breakfasts from 8am. With its marinated feta, honey pancakes, suçuk(spicy sausages) and simit (sesame bread), it is the perfect Turkish way to start the day. Bazar has a sister hotel-restaurant in Amsterdam.
• Witte de Withstraat, 16, +31 (0)10 206 5151, bazarrotterdam.com. Doubles from €80-€120 a night including breakfast


• International Film Festival Rotterdam, 26 January-6 February,filmfestivalrotterdam.com/nl


Getting there


Ferry: Harwich to Hook of Holland from £59 one-way for a car and driver with StenaLine; Hull to Rotterdam from £119 for a car plus two people (cabin included) with P&O Feries; Newcastle to Amsterdam (Ijmuiden) from £139 one-way for a car plus two people with DFDS SeawaysAir:Cityjet and KLM fly from London City airport to Rotterdam. Train: Eurostar from London St Pancras to Rotterdam via Amsterdam from #69 return.

 
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