WATT has become a city in itself, a building to wander through. Each room has a unique atmosphere, created through the use of unique materials and colours structure and purpose. The main element of the design is the monumental entrance street that connects all functions in the building. The street has a rugged industrial look, during the building process it was literally hacked out of the old building. Unprocessed bricks, old piping and original window openings reveal the structure of the original building. At the end of the street are the two main halls, the large hall ‘the Stage’ and the lowered dance hall ‘the Basement’.
Sustainable
dance club
Rotterdam (NL)
In Rotterdam, we designed WATT, the first Sustainable Dance Club in the world. With a radical expanding of its capacity to 2.000 people, the creation of an entrance street and innovating sustainable features, the former pop-stage Nighttown has been transformed into the most controversial and experimental pop stage in the Netherlands.

Parallel to the street are a new cafe-restaurant and a theatre hall . The theatre hall can be used for an independent function or it can provide an open space for the adjacent café-restaurant. The WATT restaurant extends over two floors and is connected by a central void. The inner edges of the void are lined with a wall of hundreds of green beer bottles which, together with the background lighting, form one large chandelier. Large windows look out onto the adjacent park.



The awareness of sustainability has been made visible wherever possible. Material has only been added where it was absolutely necessary. The output of the entire water and energy household are projected as VJ-images and are part of the programming. Other visible elements are the energy exhilarating dance floor in the dance hall and the minimal wastebars in the large hall. The toilets are been flushed with rainwater and the transparent water pipes and sinks show the use up of water. One can relax in the green oasis of relax-roofs and courtyard.