Costs for Optional activities after tours not included
1. The Green Village
The Green Village is a regulatory-flexible fieldlab situated on the TU Delft Campus with a focus on the built environment, allowing testing at neighborhood, street, and building levels. Here knowledge and educational institutions, businesses, governments, and citizens research, experiment, validate, and demonstrate their sustainable innovations. By addressing technical, business-economic, socio-cultural, and regulatory challenges, The Green Village serves as a catalyst for accelerating innovative solutions from theory to practical application.
The tour starts with a short introduction, explaining the concept and context of The Green Village, our objectives, and our unique innovation process. After that, we will guide you through some of the most engaging sustainable innovation projects within the themes of Sustainable Building and Renovation, Future Energy Systems, and Climate-Adaptive Cities. At each project, we will provide insights into the research objectives and potential market impact. We also explore how the challenges for innovations extend beyond the technical realm, touching on aspects such as regulations, business economics, and public acceptance.
Price: 20€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: The Green Village Delft
2. Climate Adaptive walk
In Rotterdam there is a change in tide of urban design. Stormwater forces the city not only to build creatively, but also to focus on repurposing existing infrastructure for water retention. Join this tour to explore some of the city's astonishing stormwater management sites and meet one of Rotterdam's planning masterminds behind some of the most innovative water adaptive urban and landscape design. Johan Verlinde is Programme manager Rotterdams WeerWoord; weather word / counter reaction. He will take you on a walking tour to Hofplein. At this high traffic inner city roundabout, you will hear about the massive transformation starting April 2025. Rotterdam will add over 10,000 apartments in city centre and we need to re-organise public space: add green, improve air quality, deal effectively with rising temperatures in summer time.
Next stop is world famous water plaza Benthemplein: a lowered multifunctional plaza, used for leisure and as water basin. Hofbogenpark is a public park now being constructed on the roof of a former railway viaduct, with a length of an impressive 1,2 miles and a width of only 20 feet. After a tram ride you will arrive in the M4H Makers district and meet with De Urbanisten (the designers & engineers of Benthemplein and Hofbogenpark) at their Sponge Garden and their Tidal park.
Price: 35€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: Tidal Park Keilehaven
3. Rooftop hop: Multiroofs
This is your chance to take a closer look and get into dialogue with one of the city council experts who has been developing Rotterdam's multifunctional roofs. Rotterdam has been working on a programme for Multifunctional roofs for more than 10 years now. We state that rooftops are space, that can be used for a broad array of societal and urban challenges that cities face. Multifunctionality is key to make the most of this -often overlooked- potential above our heads. Over the years we have worked on many different initiatives on rooftops, in total numbering well over 100. On this field trip guided by Paul van Roosmalen, you’ll explore a broad spectrum of repurposed rooftops: pro-biodiversity, anti-heat, water retention-, food-, solar- and social roofs. Paul is Programme manager Multifunctional Roofs for city council. He is in charge of the MultiRoofs project, accepted by Interreg NWE, comprising collaboration with 13 consortium partners from 6 European countries, including TU Delft that works on 3D BAG. While exploring several multiroofs in Rotterdam, Paul will also share information on Environmental DNA monitoring on roofs. The E-DNA can show signs of all living being that have been/ passed at an investigated location over the last week or 2 (depending on the weather). Paul’s team tested this technique together with Van der Tol (a Dutch contractor of green roofs) and SGS (an international testing organisation and laboratory) on three green rooftops in Rotterdam. The results are quite remarkable.
Price: 35€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: tbd (Rotterdam city centre)
4. Rotterdam Architecture Tour
Explore Rotterdam’s architectural boldness on this 1.5-hour tour led by a local architect. Shaped by destruction and reinvention, Rotterdam showcases modernist heritage, experimental design, and forward-thinking urban planning.
Learn about the city’s history and how its resilience was shaped during and after the devastation of World War II bombings. Postwar reconstruction laid the foundation for its cutting-edge architecture and ambitious sustainability goals. The tour introduces highlights like the historic City Hall, the modernist national monument, the Lijnbaan shopping district, and the dynamic Theatre Square. Along the route, discover some of Rotterdam’s newest landmarks, the striking Central Station, the world’s first publicly accessible art depot—Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen—and the impressive Markthal.
Finally, the tour arrives at the iconic Cube Houses, a daring experiment in urban living. Throughout the journey, you’ll gain insights into how Rotterdam continues to evolve, responding to urban growth, climate adaptation, and inclusive city design.
Price: 20€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: Urban Surfing RiF010
Optional activity after the tour: Extend your Rotterdam experience with a surf session at RiF010, the world’s first urban wave pool. Initiated by local surfers and citizens, this innovative project brings sustainable surfing to the city, making the sport accessible to all. (€50 incl VAT). To be booked individually with Walk Rotterdam. For further information, please contact: info@walkrotterdam.com
5. From Harbour to City
Explore the "wild west" of Rotterdam on a 2-hour tour through a former harbour and industrial area, once known for its underprivileged neighbourhoods and legal prostitution, now transforming into a vibrant district for makers, doers, and thinkers. We begin in Delfshaven, a picturesque medieval harbour and the departure point of the Pilgrim Fathers. Then, catch a glimpse of Lloydpier, where modern housing and businesses—including the SAWA timber project, the healthiest building in the Netherlands—are reshaping the riverside. Next, we’ll cross part of the 1.2 km long Roof Park and enter M4Haven, envisioned as a dynamic space for living, working, and learning, shaping the future of the new economy. We’ll encounter sustainable landscape test sites like Sponge Park and Tidal Park, and visit the open-air art collection of Atelier Van Lieshout. Highlights include Rotterdam’s most sustainable and circular brewery and the world’s first Floating Cow Farm, a groundbreaking example of sustainable urban farming.
We’ll reach Delfshaven via a scenic water taxi ride, offering stunning views of the riverside.
Price: 20€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: The Floating Farm
Optional activity after the tour: Join The Future of Farming tour at the Floating Farm, featuring a one-hour visit with a dairy tasting experience. (€250 per group of 20 participants). To be booked individually with Walk Rotterdam. For further information, please contact: info@walkrotterdam.com
6. Manhattan on the Maas
This 1.5-hour tour, led by a local architect, explores the striking architecture and transformation of Rotterdam’s South Bank—once a bustling harbour, now a vibrant district of modern developments. Learn about its industrial and migration history, the 90s revitalisation, and bold plans for land expansion and urbanisation. /p>
Discover highlights such as the Erasmus Bridge, The Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas, and high-rise icons by Norman Foster and Renzo Piano. We pass Hotel New York, once the headquarters of Holland America Line and now a popular landmark, and The Floating Office, an exceptionally climate-resistant building. The tour covers the innovative transformation plans for Rijnhaven and Maashaven and crosses the trending Katendrecht neighbourhood, blending cultural and industrial heritage with modern living.
To reach the South Bank, we’ll take a quick and scenic ride with the water taxi across the river Maas—an absolute must-do.
Price: 20€
Starting Point:World Trade Center Rotterdam
End Point: Rijnhaven Bridge
Optional activity after the tour: Extend your experience with a dip in the river Maas at the Floating Pavilion or visit the newly opened Fenix Museum of Migration.
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