Rotterdam Central Film from Onur Can Tepe on Vimeo.
Rotterdam, Non-Fiction
Rotterdam, Non-Fiction is a series of videos and texts about the spaces within the urban life of Roffa. Each film is dedicated to a building and places an urban activity at the heart of the film.
The films are accompanied by short texts that I write retrospectively after finishing the edit. The aim is to reflect on what I learn about the city while filming it.
Rotterdam, River City / Erasmus bridge is built on the city’s desires to extend the qualities of the North towards the South and this desire manifests itself on its asymmetric structure. A social protest (just like a bridge) stems from a desire to connect to “the other”.
Celebrating the 24th birthday of Erasmus bridge the film is partly shot during the black lives matter protests. The aim with the film is to depict the life of an infrastructure on Maas Rivier over a couple of days by placing social protests at the heart of it.
Rotterdam, River City. Maas River generates a separation in Rotterdam. Erasmus bridge is built on the city’s desires to extend the qualities of the North towards the South and this desire manifests itself on its asymmetric structure.
Social Protest A social protest (just like a bridge) stems from a desire to connect to the other. Its expression is shaped by words and symbols that its participants collectively create. Rotterdam, River city is where a multiplicity of cultures are spread amongst both sides of the river. Cultures with unique qualities, histories as well as resentments with each other.
Rotterdam, Expressive City / Rotterdam created an atmosphere in which architects find the opportunity to do something special and that can only come from a personal space. / Dance in a public space creates a moment to appreciate someone’s inner space trespassing the norms and showing courage to express it.
My instinct always is to try to find an element in the life of a place and to build the story around it. In the case of Boijmans Depot Film it is not only the materiality and geometry of the building but also tthe skaters and dancers using the public park around it.
Rotterdam, Expressive City
Rotterdam created an atmosphere in which architects find the opportunity to do something special and that can only come from a personal space; a place of expressing personal preferences.
Depot Boijsmans van Beuningen is the latest addition to the diversity of personal visions in the city that are petrified into built form.
Dance in the public space
Public space is a place of shared norms and a dance disrupts its meaning temporarily. Dance in a public space creates a moment to appreciate someone’s inner space trespassing the norms and showing courage to express it. Rotterdam, Expressive city is where personalities are given the space to exist in the gaze of everyone else.
Rotterdam, Harbour City / It is easy to forget that Rotterdam is a harbour city. The Shipping College tries to bridge the gap by cantilevering towards the port area. Rotterdam is where harbour’s economy prevails, harbour’s communities live.
Something with an inherent tension.
Transport and Shipping College in Rotterdam is a building designed by Neutelings Riedijk Architects. In the film, the building is depicted next to a ship comparing their size to each other and it starts and ends with two urban scenes of Rotterdam: Landscapes of highrises in the opening scene and the port area in the closing scene.
Rotterdam, Harbour City.
It is easy to forget that Rotterdam is a harbour city. The rough, vicious aesthetics of the harbour is detached from the center. The Shipping College tries to bridge the gap by cantilevering towards the port area and by doing so invents its own identity.
Cargo Ship
A cargo ship has the same aesthetics as the roof of the Shipping College where the facade cleaning equipment is tacked away. It is pure utility, molded by weatherproof metal.
Rotterdam, Harbour City is where harbour’s economy prevails, harbour’s communities live, yet harbour’s aesthetics is tamed and reshaped into something else... Something with an inherent tension.