A competition entry beside the station: an office tower that treats its mid-height as a second ground, the floor that gave our studio its drawing vocabulary.
- 146 m
- 38 floors
- Office
- Competition, 2028
The brief.
The Central District plot is the most connected square metre in the Netherlands, and every entry will maximise it. The question the jury actually asked: what does a tower owe the city between its lobby and its roof? Most answers are: nothing. Thirty identical floors of lease plan.
Datum One proposes a public middle. At +62 m the tower steps back and opens a two-storey city loggia: meeting rooms bookable by anyone with a station ticket, a run of workshop spaces, and a terrace facing the tracks. Above it the tower continues thinner. The skyline reads the step; the city uses it.
Datum One on the longest day.
The study model of all six towers with Datum One singled out. Drag through 21 June and see where its shadow lands, and who it reaches.
13:00Midday
Sun 60° up, from the SSE (160°). Datum One throws 83 m of shadow.
Rotterdam from open data: aerial photo Beeldmateriaal Nederland, buildings 3DBAG (TU Delft, 3DGI), roads NWB.
146 m,
drawn.
Every VANTA sheet marks the same three lines: plinth, datum and crown. This is Datum One from its own street corner, raised the way it will be built.
The detailsthat carry it.
Two towers in one section
Below the datum: deep, connected floor plates for large tenants. Above: a slender shaft of smaller floors with better light. One address, two markets, one skyline figure.
The loggia is not a terrace
It is drawn as a room: nine metres deep, wind-sheltered by the step above, open eleven months a year. A terrace is what's left over; a loggia is what was intended.
Structure follows the step
The setback lands on a storey-high transfer that doubles as the loggia's ceiling and the upper shaft's foundation. Nothing hidden: the heaviest move in the building is the one you stand under.
