Rotterdam aspires to be an attractive city to live in and thus strives to accommodate a diversity of housing topologies within its city center and surrounding neighborhoods. This study shows how the task to increase water storage can be innovatively integrated into the transformation of existing monotonous neighborhoods. The urban renewal of Zuidwijk and Lombardijen is based on an upgrade of the water system and the introduction of a new typology in this area: an affordable plot to build your own house.  The water system is enlarged to store water but above and beyond that, it forms a coherent and connected water network which enables the new inhabitants to go by boat to the park and explore the larger landscape.