The Dutch firm Monolab has designed a tower to rise 450 meters out of Rotterdam’s Maas Harbor. Noting the city’s existing buildings as being ‘primitive and of mediocre quality,’ the firm seeks to introduce ‘an ambitious and pragmatic’ structure to the city.

Monolab has shifted their tower into the water of the Maas Harbor to minimize wind and shadow effects. A network of walkways would connect the tower to the land.

The tower is layered with escape tubes inside the lateral structure of the tower, the elevators connecting to the structural grid system, and the sky lobbies connecting the exterior grid to the inner tower. The façade is clad in photovol glass that harnesses solar energy to power the building. The grid is structurally stabilized with the help of the sky lobbies that connect to the tower.

Circulation elements, such as stairs and elevators, are placed on the exterior of the building, leaving uninterrupted floor plans for offices, residential and special commercial programs.

The elevators make a ‘cloud of gondolas’, strategically moving up, down and diagonally for passing. The varying speeds and differing directions allow each elevator to find its own path to a requested address. This creates a vertical highway and a dedicated logistical matrix. Each elevator moves individually and is powered by two electric engines. An interactive touch screen, embedded in the glass of the elevator, allows the user to choose a destination. An inter-communication system will be implemented to avoid congestion. During the evening, the tower’s LED covered skin will display the activity of the elevators with their changing movements resembling moving light particles.

From the architects:

‘Monolab initiative to realize this true high rise of 450-m in the Maas Harbor in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is too hesitant, too defensive and too much like an underdog. Currently realized semi-tall buildings in Rotterdam are primitive and of mediocre quality. This project is ambitious and pragmatic at the same time.

After the Erasmus bridge we are in need of a new generation of skyscrapers at a larger scale, of which Rotterdam can be proud. Rotterdam always was an urban experimental field, after its city center was destroyed during the second World War, but since the early eighties Rotterdam lost its courage.

The high-rise zone, planned by the DS+V urban planning office (yellow), is extended southwards by Monolab (magenta) as a facilitating spine for the complete city. It stretches from the Central Station District via the Kop van Zuid to the Zuidplein public transport hub and Ahoy multifunctional venue. In this zone, the City Tower is the first of a series of towers, slowly walking Southward.

Monolab shifted the tower into the water of the Maas Harbor to minimize wind and shadow effects and to provide another project on top of the parking lot for 1000 vehicles. This second project has scenographic qualities through its huge urban window and plaza towards the Maas Harbor. It mediates between the big scale of the tower and the surrounding city.

The tower is connected with a steel pier as pedestrian boulevard to the parking and to the quay with the metro station. The pedestrian boulevard, crossing parking and water, is fit for pedestrians and distribution for the tower. It is a steel grid structure covered with profiled glass planks, to display the water below.

The pedestrian boulevard brings people via escalators into the tower through the check-in pavilion with security facilities.

Traditional towers need internal transport cores for elevators and escape stairs. These cores destroy floorspace. We placed the core outside, as a grid holding the elevators.

The elevators make a cloud of gondolas, strategically moving up, down and diagonally for passing. This makes the grid is vertical highway, a dedicated logistical matrix.

Anatomy from left to right: 1. escape tubes inside tower with lateral structure, 2. cloud of gondolas with structural systems of grid and tower, 3. grid and sky lobbies connecting to special functions, 4. the complete tower.

The cloud of gondolas inter-communicates to avoid congestion and cueing. Through variations in speed and change of directions vertically and diagonally, each gondola finds its own critical path to a requested address. Denser clusters of gondolas will appear if programs in the tower are more demanding at certain moments.

The grid is structurally stabilised with a steel forest of spacers connected to the tower. Sky lobbies make connections, suspended between grid and tower, serving parts of the tower via short internal elevators and escalators.

The tower is mixed use: apartments, office spaces and special commercial and entertainment programs. These are very transparent, finished with anti reflective glass. The rest of the tower is finished with reflective Photovoll glass, delivering all necessary energy. The rendeing of this skin is ‘worst case’, i.e. non transparent. In reality the Photovotaic skin will be semi-transparent seen from outside.

The tower is in the dark, while its LED covered skin displays a three-dimensional galaxy. The grid displays the intense activity of the gondolas through a perpetual changing pattern of moving light particles.

All gondolas move individually by their own energy cells and two electric engines, one in the top and one in the bottom. Each engine drives a heads that locks into the steel grid, driving the gondola along the grid vertically and diagonally. The heads can rotate to change the direction of the gondola.

In the side window of each gondola an interactive touch screen is embedded in the glass to command the address. Gondolas have two sets of doors: in the front passengers step in from the entry pavilion, and the back gives access to the sky lobbies and the tower. The gondolas are glazed to display panoramic views while traveling.’

More pictures: www.monolab.nl.