The borough of Delfshaven, Rotterdam, asked me to come up with a plan for a block of derelict buildings, which will eventually be demolished. The agreement with the neighbourhood is that the block will remain blue as long as there isn’t a new plan for the area. This was once one of the most unseen blocks of houses in Rotterdam, and by applying a layer of only 2 micron of blue paint onto it, it became Rotterdam’s most photographed one. By redecorating this block, which was built in the first years of the 20th century, people start looking again at what was and is there, and maybe think about what they will get in return.
It also puts in perspective blocks of houses as such, architectural ‘fashions’ and demographic processes like city migrations, by making those blocks look like toy houses or archetypal buildings on an architect’s maquette.
