MVRDV's depot boijmans van beuningen gets ready to open in rotterdam

MVRDV COMPLETES THE world’s first publicly accessible art depot

MVRDV is adding the finishing touches to the world’s first publicly accessible art depot in rotterdam, the netherlands. called ‘depot boijmans van beuningen’, the new building features a tree-topped roof garden and a curved, mirrored façade. the art depot is set to open on saturday, november 6th, 2021.

image by ossip van duivenbode (also main image)

A MIRRORED, BOWL-LIKE FAçADE TO REFLECT THE SURROUNDINGS

located in rotterdam’s museumpark, the 39.5-meter tall building is designed by MVRDV to offer a new type of museum experience. despite its large scale, the depot has a relatively small footprint thanks to its ‘bowl-like’ form. the reflective skin, which is made up of 6,609 sqm of glass subdivided into 1,664 mirrored panels, offers pleasing reflections of the surroundings, helping to embed the new intervention into the context.

the museum hosts an extensive collection of 151,000 objects. the pieces will be stored according to climatic requirements, rather than by era or genre, in one of five different climate zones. inside, the building’s main feature is the large atrium with crisscrossing staircases and suspended glass display cases. outside, the protagonist of the design is the rooftop restaurant and rooftop forest, which hosts 75 multi-stemmed birch trees. from here, visitors can enjoy panoramic views across rotterdam.

image by ossip van duivenbode

sjarel ex and ina klaassen, directors of museum boijmans van beuningen say, ‘this is a working building in which the most important consideration is what the building can do: to look after our collection while still being open to the public. next year the entire collection of boijmans van beuningen will once again be visible on one spot for the first time since 1935. we are convinced that making the collection accessible shows how much we care and how well we take care of it. this is something that the inhabitants of rotterdam will be proud of; something that they want to see with their own eyes, because they partly own this enormous artistic treasure.’

image by ossip van duivenbode

winy maas, founding partner of MVRDV, said in 2020, ‘with this construction completion, now the museum and the users can start to inhabit the building and fill its spaces with priceless art. although it will take another year before the real opening, the completion is a special moment for all: the museum, the city of rotterdam, stichting de verre bergen and of course for the contractor BAM, the many construction workers and subcontractors who persisted during the difficult circumstances we all faced due to the pandemic. the depot design is daring, and its success comes from the direct dialogue with all parties involved – from the person calculating the exact curvature of the mirroring panels and the construction worker who put up the glass vitrines to the company that co-designed our rooftop forest.’

image by ossip van duivenbode

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image by ossip van duivenbode

image by iris van den broek

image by ossip van duivenbode

image by iris van den broek

image by ossip van duivenbode

image by iris van den broek

image by ossip van duivenbode

project info:

project title: depot boijmans van beuningen

architecture: MVRDV

landscape: MTD landschapsarchitecten

location: rotterdam, netherlands

principal in charge: winy maas

partner: fokke moerel

project team: sanne van der burg with arjen ketting, gerard heerink, jason slabbynck and jan knikker

competition team: sanne van der burg and marta pozo gil with gerard heerink, elien deceuninck, saimon gomez idiakez, nacho velasco, jason slabbynck, mariya gyaurova and lukasz brzozowski

contractor: BAM

structure: IMd raadgevend ingenieurs

cost engineering: BBN

installations: RHDHV

façade consultants: ABT

building physics: peutz

sustainability: BREEAM excellent (goal)