The notion of creative-types and artists commandeering a city’s more down-at-heel-areas and inadvertently paving the way for gentrification may be rather pedestrian but the Municipality of Rotterdam has taken a more enlightened approach to urban regeneration.

By working with Urbannerdam, a housing, urban renewal and generation consultancy, they’re helping to get individuals back on the property ladder and improve the reputation of Rotterdam’s more saturnine districts by calling on cutting-edge architecture and design to re-vamp its disadvantaged areas.

The city sells its dilapidated properties to private clients at competitive prices on the proviso they renovate these buildings and turn them into premium yet affordable housing. What’s more, the program partners the new owners with architects so they can be involved in the creative process from beginning to end.

Over 250 houses have been built through the Urbannerdam program, of which one – the Black Pearl - has won a Dutch Design Award as voted by the public. The project’s success is a testament to the social worth of architecture and demonstrates that high end design doesn’t have to be exclusive.