100 jaar architectuur in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the City of Architecture in the Netherlands. This is underlined by the presence of the Netherlands Institute of Architecture (NAi) in this city since 1998. Long before the Rotterdam Skyline got its present day from in the 1980s and 90s of the last century Rotterdam had a reputation of allowing modern achitecture to florish. In the Netherlands is seen as the home of 20th century functionalism, but other styles have left their mark as well in Rotterdam. Already in the 1920s architects like Oud, Brinkman, Van den Broek, Van der Vlugt and Van Tijen designed refreshing if not revolutionary buildings for housing, offices, factories and villas.   After the 2nd World War functionalists get a free hand in the reconstruction. After a relatively quiet phase with emphasis on small scale in the 1970s Rotterdam has given a new impetus to new, large scale and daring architecture by new generations of architects like Quist, Hoogstad, Weeber, Houben, VAn Egeraat and Koolhaas. Also foreign celebrities join the fray like Sir Brian Foster, Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn and Alan Ritchie.   On these pages an overview will grow of defining architecture in Rotterdam over the last 100 years. From each year one project will be highlighted, while other important works from the same year will be mentioned.  To start off, have a look at six defining moments of the last century: