Seppel

Snack bar selling homemade ice-cream underneath a post war housing slab, Rotterdam
120 m²
Client: STZ, Rotterdam
1995 – 1997

Seppel was a renowned institute in the post-war Rotterdam Zuidwijk district. The owner sold fries and meat rolls, but his pride was his homemade ice-cream. His business had to move, due to an urban renewal operation. Seppel was compensated with a new building, constructed underneath an existing slab of flat dwellings, at the site of the petrol station belonging to a former DAF car showroom.

The building doesn’t appear to be bothered too much by the post-war modernist architecture. It is conceived as a pavilion which orients itself to the grand public space in front of it. Around the corner, an ice-cream counter is built in solid brickwork.