Hotel New York

Hotel New York is located on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam. It was the former management building of the “Holland-America Line” since 19 century. Written within its name, the studio was aiming to connect the trail between New York and Rotterdam and investigate historical influences between the two cities. The knowledge that has been developed in previous NY Midtown studio, typological study and urban research following the changes happened in the global political-economic environment, was the new lens to look into Rotterdam. After the last economic crisis in 2008, Rotterdam has gone through a gradual recovering process and there has been a big rise in market demands for housing projects ever since. In the last decade, the skyline next to Maas River has gone through the large change.

The graduation studio consisted of both individual and group work. The focus was on free-choice research topics related to the overall studio theme: Migration of the Ideas. Students were divided in total of six groups. Each studio group was assigned different area in Rotterdam and was asked to research and test chosen topics on the site. Groups were asked to develop a vision, design scenario for the site, rendered by the individual project interventions. Individual design scenarios and group site visions were strongly interconnected and together formed speculation on the future of Rotterdam. Students were free to choose thesis topics and encouraged to develop designs individually, and consequently connect them into overall group strategy.