In the very heart of the Rotterdam City Ports area, RDM Campus has been established on the former premises of the Rotterdam Dry Dock Company (RDM). Under the motto Research, Design, Manufacturing this area has been redeveloped into a unique location and breeding-place for the creative and innovative production industry. Education and companies work together on sustainable and innovative solutions in the areas of building, mobility and energy.
The focus point of RDM Campus consists of two buildings; the redeveloped head offices of the Rotterdam Dry Dock Company: RDM Droogdok17 and the redeveloped former machinery hall; RDM Innovation Dock
RDM Innovation Dock/Business Hall RDM Innovation Dock is a series of big-scale monumental industrial sheds with a floor area of 23,000m2 of which 12,500m2 is available for companies that would like to engage in knowledge sharing with the adjacent schools. This part of Innovation Dock is the so-called Business Hall.
To facilitate these companies an urban grid with various infrastructures and parcel sizes was established, with maximum flexibility, optimal safety and a strong identity. The different circulation principles with paths in varying widths for pedestrians, fork-lift trucks and trucks form the basis of the design. Each parcel in the Business Hall will have a specific lay-out and set up depending on the requirements of the individual companies.
The use and the organization principle are clearly anchored through the integrally designed signing plan on the floor with sign-posting, traffic rules, parcel boundaries and escape routes.
The signing is executed in a ‘glow-in-the-dark’ or luminescent coating that makes the hall readable both in the day and nighttime. At the same time this coating takes care of energy saving and safety thereby reflecting the innovative character of the RDM Innovation Dock. In case of darkness, as a result the signing is still strongly visable through luminescent crystals. In this fashion parcel boundaries, zebra crossings, pictograms and sign-posting are indicated. The coating contributes to sustainability in terms of CO2 reduction. Because the material charges itself under influence of daylight and artificial lighting. Only when it gets dark the material lights up resulting in a lesser need for artificial lighting. By doing so the use of electricity decreases. The use of colour in the overall plan is reserved in order to promote the innovations of the separate companies and to respect the monumentality of the existing structure
The modular grid facilitates office and storage units as well as fences that are all coated in the same industrial light gray colour of the parcels emphasizing the reserved approach of the architectonical intervention.
The added facilities such as toilets, storage rooms and equipment rooms are all executed in black, both inside and outside supporting the reserved colour approach.
RDM Droogdok 17 RDM Droogdok 17 concerns the new accommodation of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture, educational facilities for the University of Higher Education Rotterdam, conference facilities and various office spaces
RDM Droogdok 17 comprises an integral design for the internal modification of the existing structure with a new interior. The existing building was built in 1913 in a formal expressionistic style. The assignment is to fit in the new programme into the monumental buidling in a contemporary fashion in which old en new are interwoven. The used colours en materials, with subtle differences in grades of gloss, texture and colour, bring unity and recognition of the linked new spaces The generic programmes such as educational and office spaces are executed in pearl white and are stretched between the two specific public spaces which are executed in chocolat brown: the exhibition hall and the auditorium. By doing so they form the head and tail of the design. Varying colour combinations of furniture in brown and white, that differ from space to space, enhance the identities of the individual spaces and create different atmospheres. Besides the use of custom made furniture, PLUS modified standard furniture in order to tune in on the colour and materialization of the integral plan.
Through the use of innovtive materials, such as Vectogramm ceilings and walls, Stone-veneer doors, Polyurethane furniture and a palm wooden floor the innovative character of RDM Campus becomes a physical experience.
