Day 15

Family day with Host Family at Rotterdam.

I'm very glad and thankful that my host family heeds my request and brings us to Rotterdam, the second biggest city of Holland and perhaps, the most modern city. I think it is the seat of Architecture of Holland because of it's well planned city and road, its modern buildings and the famous Erasmusbrug, designed by Dutch architect Ben van Berkel.

The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) museum is also located in Rotterdam. I find out about this even before my trip to Netherlands while researching about Netherlands architecture.

The weather is not fine, but it stops raining when we arrive.  We park the car near the metro station and we ride a metro to NAI. The amazing thing about Rotterdam is that every part of the city is accessible because of its well-planned metro.

Rotterdam's Metro

The Kol sisters: Leoniek and Sanne. Pretty, aren't they?

A nice minimalistic house across NAI

Seeing NAI from afar fills me with joy and excitement. It's like the fulfillment of my trip. NAI is probably each architect's haven.

The NAI museum completes my trip in Holland as an Architecture student. The museum exhibits the importance of urban planning to cater to the needs of the citizens. Not only politicians, investors or city designers are involve in city planning, but also citizens play important role in changing the living environment.

Before starting our museum trip, we chill out for hot chocolate and tea at the NAI Cafe.

Making City Exhibit shows the spatial planning for Rotterdam.

Dutchville- Ideas for the city of the future.

The NAI library: If I probably live in Rotterdam, I'll come by here everyday.

Our trip to the Netherlands Architecture Institute has help J.Lo and I greatly on our project MegaCebu, since the main exhibit of the month is about city development and planning.

Leoniek and J.Lo discussing which route to take to the Erasmus bridge

We take a walk around the city and find the famous Erasmus bridge.

The Erasmus bridge is Rotterdam's trademark. It's a beautiful cable-stayed bridge about 89-meters long. We walked across it.

We visit Rotterdam's center. It's full of people. J.Lo and I shop for souvenirs. After having shopped, we walk to the famous cube houses. It is located on Overblaak street. It consists of 38 small cubes and two super cubes attached to each other. The cubes are occupied by residents, but it is also a famous tourist destination.

The Cube Houses is designed by Dutch Architect Piet Blom.

While I don't quite love it, I still think it's a great architecture for its unique shape and personality.