Two schools win Rotterdam Architecture Prize for 2023
The Rotterdam Architecture Prize went to two schools this year. The Zuider Gymnasium, located in a repurposed hospital, won the professional jury prize. And the public award went to the Fridtjof Nansenschool. “The winning projects prove that Rotterdam’s focus is on the future and subsequent generations.”
The jury was impressed by how hard action groups and the municipality worked to prevent the planned demolition of the Zuider Hospital and to turn it into a school. “With the establishment of the school in the gatehouse of the former Zuider Hospital, this monumental complex is facing a new future,” the jury said. It called the Zuider Gymnasium, by Molenaar & Co architects, “a learning environment in which the history of the community is tangible and palpable” and “brings connection and an optimistic view of the future.”
The Zuider Gymnasium came in second place with the Audience Award, with many voters appreciating how this historic building now offers a space for the future. “This project brings what Zuid desperately needs: quality, future prospects, and an appreciation for what is already there,” one voter said.
The public chose Fridtjof Nansenschool by BDG Architecten as the winner of the Audience Award. According to the voters, the school contributes to a greater awareness of energy and nature with its natural play area around the school and solar panels that are visible from the inside and make energy production visible.
“The school has succeeded in creating a space where children can develop, broader than language and math, discovering, playing together, and working in connection with nature,” one of the voters wrote. “It is so important to involve children in the climate at a young age.”
The jury and the public also praised the Getijdenpark Eiland of Brieneroord. The jury gave it an honorable mention, calling the tide park “an ancient lifeline and ecosystem in the middle of the city” that locals can now experience and enjoy. The project took third place in the public award, with voters calling it “an important first step in the development of a new relationship between city and river.”
The jury also gave an honorable mention to The Hudsons, a housing project in the Bospolder-Tussendijken district. It praised the project as a necessary and valuable new layer of time added to the 19th-century district.
