After lunch with another friend I encountered this building, right next to the river Maas, that flows through Rotterdam just before culminating into the North Sea. I expected this building to be the head office of a multinational company, but no, my friend told me it was actually a sort of technical middle school, for students between 12 and 16 years.
In Montréal I always mistake schools for prisons, because of their lack of windows. Alison says that’s because windows would distract the students too much. Can you imagine the distraction those students will experience in this building, looking out over the river with its huge ships passing by?
Rotterdam is a dream city for architects, and Montréal isn’t. The amount of building that takes place in Rotterdam, and actually in the whole of the Netherlands is staggering. The Dutch are building on every square metre of free land. Housing, schools, offices, railway stations, roads, high speed railroads, it’s amazing what gets build. Being an architect or engineer must be a very rewarding job. I’m afraid though, that, in a couple of decades when the Dutch population will rapidly decline (unless they start to admit immigrants again, right now the Netherlands is one of the most inhospitable countries in the world), all those new buildings and houses will be empty and there will be Dutch ghost towns, just like in Canada after the gold and silver rush.
My personal reaction to the Netherlands is complicated. I’m sad (and maybe jealous too) that I left all this prosperity, but at the same time I’m also glad I did. Although I never was rich I still benefited from the nice public buildings and the hugely efficient transport system, even though it is clogged at times.
Canada, and certainly Montréal is comparatively very poor and unorganized. But the social climate (and the weather too) is so much nicer that in that respect I don’t miss the Netherlands at all. Nevertheless, being in the Netherlands still causes a great deal of confusion within me. I’d like to not visit for a couple of years and see if I then can look at it as a real tourist and just enjoy it as such. If I still can afford to visit by then, because all prices have risen considerably the last couple of years. After my mother has died, which will probably not take many years, I’d like to visit other parts of the world, like the western parts of Canada, Mexico, Cuba; places I only know from pretty pictures.
Dec 18 2006
School
After lunch with another friend I encountered this building, right next to the river Maas, that flows through Rotterdam just before culminating into the North Sea. I expected this building to be the head office of a multinational company, but no, my friend told me it was actually a sort of technical middle school, for students between 12 and 16 years.
In Montréal I always mistake schools for prisons, because of their lack of windows. Alison says that’s because windows would distract the students too much. Can you imagine the distraction those students will experience in this building, looking out over the river with its huge ships passing by?
Rotterdam is a dream city for architects, and Montréal isn’t. The amount of building that takes place in Rotterdam, and actually in the whole of the Netherlands is staggering. The Dutch are building on every square metre of free land. Housing, schools, offices, railway stations, roads, high speed railroads, it’s amazing what gets build. Being an architect or engineer must be a very rewarding job. I’m afraid though, that, in a couple of decades when the Dutch population will rapidly decline (unless they start to admit immigrants again, right now the Netherlands is one of the most inhospitable countries in the world), all those new buildings and houses will be empty and there will be Dutch ghost towns, just like in Canada after the gold and silver rush.
My personal reaction to the Netherlands is complicated. I’m sad (and maybe jealous too) that I left all this prosperity, but at the same time I’m also glad I did. Although I never was rich I still benefited from the nice public buildings and the hugely efficient transport system, even though it is clogged at times.
Canada, and certainly Montréal is comparatively very poor and unorganized. But the social climate (and the weather too) is so much nicer that in that respect I don’t miss the Netherlands at all. Nevertheless, being in the Netherlands still causes a great deal of confusion within me. I’d like to not visit for a couple of years and see if I then can look at it as a real tourist and just enjoy it as such. If I still can afford to visit by then, because all prices have risen considerably the last couple of years. After my mother has died, which will probably not take many years, I’d like to visit other parts of the world, like the western parts of Canada, Mexico, Cuba; places I only know from pretty pictures.
By mare • english •