3 May 2016 – Some weeks ago, together with my colleague-architect Hugh Strange, I re-visited the housing project at Oranjeboomstraat in South Rotterdam. As a practitioner he looked at various details such as the way the chamfered street corner has been built. Hugh wrote a most thorough article about it for the magazine Building Design.
Before Hugh flew back to London we had a long conversation at Zestienhoven airport. We talked about building, the city of today, important examples and about the comparison of this Dutch project with my English experiences designing the Bluecoat arts centre in Liverpool and the Green Lane Triangle social housing in the Tranmere district of Birkenhead. That last project could be compared with the job for South Rotterdam. This interview concludes the article and it ends with a compliment to Riki Aarden of Woonstad, who played such a pivotal role with her skilled client-ship.