The exhibition delves into the neighbourhood protests of the 1970-1990 postmodern period, featuring posters, local papers, cartoons, and pamphlets from the Oude Westen Action Group. Audio materials provide an auditory experience of the time, while film footage and interior photos offer a visual representation of the past and present.

Maps and plans reveal the design elements created to increase space and experiment with housing forms. The current state of the neighbourhood has been explored and mapped by Architectuur Maken, Bart Isings, Charlie Koolhaas, and Studio Verter. Essays by Tim Verlaan, Lidwine Spoormans, Florian Urban, and Endry van Velzen critically reassess the period from a contemporary perspective.

Within the framework of West Side Stories, OMI, a Rotterdam-based public centre for architecture and urban culture, organised a series of lectures, debates and film screenings at a local cultural centre named Leeszaal West.

The theme of the festival is inspired by the postmodern aesthetics of the Rotterdam urban renewal period of 1970 to 1990, which was characterised by public protests and the use of "Trespa plating” – a brand of high-pressure laminate panels used in applications such as exterior cladding, decorative facades and interior surfaces.

In terms of the design approach, the project adopted a clean typographic grid as its foundation, upon which a playful graphic language was added. The graphic language was inspired by the postmodern Trespa aesthetics of the 1970-1990 urban renewal period in Rotterdam.

This playful system of shapes pays homage to the iconic Trespa plating, characterised by its distinctive colours and rounded bolts grid. Trespa plating was a popular and low-maintenance solution used during the era, often used to modernise older buildings.