Walking tour of the Market Hall Quarter

A few years ago, the old inner city of Rotterdam was embellished with a brand-new beating heart: the Market Hall. This contemporary structure, designed by local studio MVRDV, has made such a mark on the city center, that one could now almost speak of it as the Market Hall Quarters.

For the first time in years the truly urban mix of living, working, shopping and leisure were combined in an architectural icon within the old center of Rotterdam. While working on the district, the cases of the wide open Binnenrotte and the Gelderseplein were also addressed and the two areas were transformed into pleasant and mundane squares with plenty of green zones to enjoy during summertime. Where once lay the dam in the river Rotte, you can now find an infrastructural puzzle of trains, metros, trams, bicycles and cars. And what once, before the blitz, was a buzzling medieval inner city, cramped with small working-class houses, is now a pleasant and sumptuous boulevard.

In a tour with UrbanGuides a professional architecture guide will take you on an exploring journey of the Market Hall Quarter. Our guide will connect the past and the present and will even unravel how this heart of the city will possibly look like in the future. Dive deeper into the ideas of Market Hall architect Winy Maas and marvel at the impressive artwork by Team Coenen. In 90 minutes, you’ll be able to get a glimpse of some 500 years of building history. From the medieval church of Saint Laurence to the modernist ‘city-church’ Het Steiger and from the postmodernist Cube Houses to the contemporary Market Hall.