The Zomerhofkwartier (or ‘ZOHO’) is an inner-city small-scale business park in the Rotterdam area Agniesebuurt. The area ZOHO is next to the city center and Rotterdam-North. The goal is to transform this creative spot for innovation to an attractive and sustainably area for living and working. The desired gross floor area is approx. 67.000 m2. In the last years the area has been developed according to the principles of slow-urbanism; users were given the space and time to develop their initiatives. marco.broekman worked together with Frame Vastgoed, STIPO, vanSchagen Architekten,  4THECITY, bergunlimited and Stadkwadraat on a competition entry. The entry was selected with the best 6 entries, but did not get selected in the end.

The sustainably energy of the existing community has been the highest priority in our development strategy. The urban concept for the new ZOHO can be seen as a new interpretation of the Rotterdam building block; a walkable campus-like area. Selective redevelopment and new buildings create an area with small allyways and squares, a new tissue of public spaces with the human scale as starting point. Buildings are close together, existing and new buildings are in harmony and conflict simultaneously, creating new perspectives in the city. The public space works like a car-free ‘carpet’, green qualities connect in- and outside, facilitating the interaction between people. The grain-size of the buildings are intermediate between the Noordsingel and the future Pompenburg, embedding the plan in the city.