Previous state
Rotterdam has 18.5 square kilometres of unused flat rooftops, which could be used when addressing issues like scarcity of space, climate change, the housing crisis, and promotion of renewable energy. In 2022, the Rotterdam Rooftop Days—which organised sessions in May and June in which some rooftops were open to the public—proposed a temporary network of six hundred metres of walkways connecting unused rooftops at a height of thirty meters. The aim of the installation was to raise awareness of how to use rooftops to make Rotterdam a sustainable, vibrant, and habitable city.
Aim of the intervention
The rooftops of Rotterdam offer a new urban perspective by allowing visitors to think about their city from above and evaluate its whole potential, for example in terms of water storage, energy generation, food production, and promotion of biodiversity. Moreover, these spaces become meeting points for the convergence of design, culture, public policy, and a place where citizens can think about the future of cities. Culture is also foregrounded with interdisciplinary exhibitions.
Description
The Rotterdam Rooftop Walk, identified by its bright orange colour, offered an itinerary of six hundred metres above the city. It began at Koopgoot, the sunken shopping street that crosses underneath the Coolsingel in the centre of Rotterdam. The walk connects several rooftops, from that of the World Trade Centre plinth, crossing the Coolsingel to the rooftop of the Bijenkorf department store, and then to conclude on the rooftop of the shopping centre carpark. At the end of the route, an anchored staircase provides easy access to street level. The walk presented a thematic exhibition in which artists, designers, and architects offered ideas for turning rooftops into green zones, sources of solar energy, spaces for urban agriculture, and water storage systems. Moreover, the project embraces historical elements, including rooftops designed by Marcel Bruer in 1957, interactive experiences, and a green design for the Bijenkorf rooftop.
Assessment
In its thirty days of activity, including a two-day extension, the Rooftop Walk attracted more than 204,000 visitors. It was a resounding success. Tickets were almost always sold out and it attracted considerable national and international media attention. This cultural initiative encouraged interdisciplinary cooperation among designers, politicians, more than three hundred volunteers, and citizens, thus fostering teamwork for thinking about the future of cities. The experience also had the effect of reviving earlier projects, for example the Stairs to Kriterion—a temporary installation of 2016 celebrating the 75th anniversary of the reconstruction of the city—which had attracted 370,000 visitors. With its inspiring perspective, the Rooftop Walk demonstrated the potential of urban rooftops as living, functional spaces, and its one hundred and thirty proposals are collected in the Rooftop Catalogue. This initiative not only temporarily transformed the urban landscape but it also established a precedent for future innovative and sustainable interventions involving the use of rooftops.
[Last update: 14/11/2025]
