The first section of the permanent marking of the Rotterdam ‘Brandgrens‘ (fire limits), designed by West 8 for the City of Rotterdam, was officially unveiled by Mayor Aboutaleb on May 14th. Together with survivors of the Rotterdam bombing and collaborators on the project, Aboutaleb lit the first eighteen light objects of the four hundred in total designed by West 8 to permanently mark the areas destroyed by German bombs.

In May 2006 the City Council of Rotterdam has decided to physically mark the periphery of the bombardment of May 14th 1940 and the devastating fires which followed thereafter. As a ‘lieu de mémoire’ this so called ‘fire boundary’ makes clear with one blink of the eye why Rotterdam now has a modern city center. Fire boundary is a term which originates from the world of city planners and town developers in post-war years. It is a unique and specific Rotterdam concept. On the map of the Rudimentary Plan Reconstruction Inner City Rotterdam of engineer C. van Traa, dating from 1946, the term fire boundary is used for the first time in official documents. The area was indicated on the map with a modest dotted line.

Project

‘For the benefit of the ‘Fire Boundary project’ in 2007 a survey has been done by the Housing and Urban Development Department (dS+V), the Municipal Archives of Rotterdam and the Historic Museum of Rotterdam, to register the complete ‘fire boundary’ which encloses the old historical center and parts of northern Rotterdam, the districts of Crooswijk and Kralingen. This survey has resulted in the edition of ‘The Fire Boundary of 14th May 1940′, a book containing several maps of the ‘fire boundary’ and photo’s of buildings that survived the bombardment.

In 2007 a multiple design assignment for the marking of the fire boundary was commissioned to four designers. Bureau West 8 of Adriaan Geuze made the winning design.

The ‘Brandgrens’ marks the areas of the city that were destroyed by the aerial bombardment of 14 May 1940 and the ensuing fires that broke out. In 2006 the city of Rotterdam decided to permanently mark the ‘Brandgrens’ in the streetscape. West 8 (together with Opera Graphic Design) designed a 11,5 kilometer long track of circular light objects set in the ground. An iconic image is incorporated in these light objects, lit by red and green LED-light. The image combines the burning city, the silhouette of a Heinkel bomber, and the contours of the desperate arms and head of Zadkine’s statue commemorating the bombing of Rotterdam. The icon literally shows the terror, the suffering, and the burning city with the German bomber overhead. This physical marking of the ‘Brandgrens’ includes several information stations also designed by West 8 and is linked to a website that contains information about the bombing of Rotterdam, including photo’s and eye-witness reports.

This year the remaining light objects will be installed along the ‘Brandgrens’, creating a complete four hundred light display to permanently memorialize the bombing of Rotterdam and provide a legible impression of the extent of the 2,6 square kilometer area leveled by the bombs.’

More pictures: www.west8.com.

For background information on the Brandgrens and construction updates, please visit www.brandgrens.nl.