The archive · Public & Social · Strategic decision · 2005–2013
Rotterdam's Benthemplein: a basketball plaza that stores 1.7M liters of stormwater
Rotterdam built a water square: a sports-and-theatre plaza whose three basins store 1.7 million liters of rain and keep the sewer from flooding.
City of Rotterdam (Gemeente Rotterdam) · De Urbanisten
What it had to solve
Rotterdam is densely built and low-lying, and climate change brings heavier rainfall, so sewers overflow. There is no space for conventional water storage, so the city decided to make water storage itself the public space.
How it works
Rotterdam, a low-lying delta city, faces a double squeeze: it is so densely built there is no room for new canals or basins, and climate change is making rain heavier and more unpredictable, so sewers overflow and streets flood. In 2005 the city and design studio De Urbanisten answered with a new typology — the water square — and in 2011 it got a real pilot at Benthemplein in Rotterdam-Noord.
Students from the Zadkine college and Graphic Lyceum had asked the city to improve the grey paved square, which matched the water board's wish to build storage there. In three workshops, students, churchgoers, neighbours and users of a local youth theatre and gym worked with De Urbanisten and the council on what the square should be: a dynamic place for young people where the water would be excitingly visible.
The result has three basins: two shallow ones fill whenever it rains, and a deeper sports pit fills only in prolonged downpours. Rain from surrounding roofs runs through shiny stainless gutters across the square into the basins — about 1.7 million liters in total — instead of into the sewer. Everything that can flood is painted blue; when dry, the basins are basketball, skateboard and theatre space with tiered seating.
Opened on 4 December 2013 and financed by the city, the water board, the national ministry and EU regional funds, the square made the idea policy: Rotterdam's water plan treats water squares as standard, and the city exports the concept — delegations visit every year, and Dutch firms have built water squares in Ho Chi Minh City and New Orleans.
Why it lands
- It combined two budgets — drainage and public space — so the water storage paid for a nicer square.
- The future users co-designed it, so the basins work as a skate, basketball and theatre venue, not just a tank.
- Making the water visible turned a technical requirement into something the neighborhood owns and enjoys.
- It scaled from one pilot to official policy and became an exportable model for other flood-prone cities.
What it did
The three basins hold about 1.7 million liters of rain, keep that water out of the sewer, and double as basketball and skate space; Rotterdam made the water square official policy, and the project became an international reference for climate adaptation.
What you can take
When infrastructure is unavoidable, make it a pleasure: funding a water tank as a plaza gave Rotterdam visible, usable public space and turned a drainage requirement into a model other cities copy.
Since then
The water square became official Rotterdam policy (Waterplan 2, 2007) before it was even built, and after opening it became an international reference for climate adaptation; two days before the opening, Rotterdam was chosen for the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities network. Dozens of delegations visit each year, and Dutch firms have delivered water-square projects in Ho Chi Minh City and New Orleans. The typology is widely cited in urban design as the model of 'sponge city' infrastructure that doubles as public life.
Sources
- Watersquare Benthemplein, Rotterdam — project page
- Benthemplein (official city page)
- New innovative water square combines leisure and storm water storage in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
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