No Solid Ground: Three Approaches to Building Below Sea Level in Rotterdam

Architects carefully calibrate their relationship to the earth, adjusting foundations to soil, groundwater, climate, risk, and culture. Driven timber piles, rammed-earth platforms, and poured concrete slabs are each a response to a specific set of ground conditions , and each shapes the architecture that rises from it. The way a building meets the earth determines its durability and its limits bec