I was born six years after the C70 exhibit, which celebrated 25 years of reconstruction. In 1976, when I was born, they slowly finished constructing the first skyscraper in the Weena area, the Hofpoort building, the headquarters for Royal Dutch Shell.

When I was five years old, I asked my mother as we walked along the Weena: ‘Why are there deer here?’ Up until 1981 there was a deer pen across from the Weena, behind the Doelen. The entire Weena was pretty much a big grass lawn with a motorway. Nothing had been built on the barren terrain that remained after the devastating bombardment in 1940. My mother answered my question, telling me that Rotterdam had once been bombed, and that this beautiful lawn and its deer had something to do with it.

I remember we used to go to relatives’ birthday parties in the country, and I would overhear people talking about our Rotterdam. They always spoke of Rotterdam negatively. I think this is one of the reasons I became chauvinistic at a young age, wearing the embroidered Rotterdam city emblem on my coat when I was only ten.

I grew up in an uncompleted city. And the city grew with me. I got pimples, and so did the city, in the shape op the first skyscrapers. Rotterdam’s appearance changes, the way you can see yourself change as you leaf through old photo albums. I think this is why so much in Rotterdam is documented. There is no city in the Netherlands with more books about herself.

In 2040 I will be about sixty-five. Will I be retired, or still be forced to work? Will I have become an old nag? What about Rotterdam? Will the city have gone to sleep or will she still be standing tall and going strong? And what is necessary to accomplish that?

In the 21st century, 70 to 80 percent of people will live in a city. Cities will become more important than countries. The world will evolve around a limited number of conurbations. If Rotterdam wants to be one of those, there is work to be done. The city needs to grow with at least 500.000 inhabitants, therefore almost doubling itself. These people will cause more density and improvements will have to be made concerning the infrastructure, but they will also bring about an enormous boost of the Rotterdam economy and cultural life.

We can reassure everyone who shudders at the thought of such a huge increase of the population. Rotterdam has witnessed such an expansion before, after Pieter Caland constructed the New Waterway in 1872. This meant a golden age for the city.

In my Rotterdam of 2040 I will search for ways to cause the same ripple effect. The ministry of Social Affairs has pointed out that the Netherlands will by then need at least one million new inhabitants to keep the economy going. How can we attract a large part of these people to reside in Rotterdam?

I would like to pose this question, not to the city council, a flown in expert, architect, or an urban designer, but answer it myself, and make it into a book, exhibit, and/or a TV-series.