Insights & Inspiration

What Rotterdam Throws Away, Linda Post Brings Home

While the city tears itself apart and puts itself back together, one designer has been quietly collecting the pieces — and giving them back.Rotterdam has a habit of destroying itself. Not out of carelessness — out of ambition. The city was bombed flat in 1940 and has been rebuilding, rethinking, and reinventing itself ever since, with a restlessness that feels almost constitutional. Bridges get renovated. Tunnels get overhauled. Theaters get new seats. Stadiums get new everything. And when the workers leave and the scaffolding comes down, there are always leftovers: steel beams, wooden trea…