Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Rotterdam Centraal Station

I bought a few CDs after work today. This included two jazz albums: All Our Reasons featuring Billy Hart, together with Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner and Ben Street; Imaginary Sketches featuring Chad McCullough with Bram Weijters Quartet.

While listening to them this evening, I was reminded of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, which AB and I chanced upon in July and managed to get tickets before they were sold out. This in turn reminded me that I’ve not processed the photos that I took during our brief weekend in Rotterdam.

So I set out to do so and came across this photo of the southern entrance of the new central station in Rotterdam. The station has been under construction since 2007. The gentleman whose place we were staying at told us that it is reminiscent of a shark with its jaws wide open. Quite true, I say!

The striking architecture  and design of the train station is the work of MVSA Architects, West 8 and Benthem Crouwel Architekten. It’s also interesting to note the incorporation of sustainable technology in its design. For instance, it will feature the largest solar panel roof (10,000 square metres) on a train station in Europe.

I like the overall look of the station – it is certainly much more luminous and welcoming, and less gritty than any of the main train stations in Brussels. Walking from one end to other is like entering a space portal: the northern entrance opens up to Provenierswijk, a green residential neighbourhood with a 19th century moat and the best Thai restaurant that I’ve eaten at in Europe, while the south side of the station leads to the new city centre with skyscrapers, which immediately reminded me of Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar area!