14-09-2022
Architecture

Dutch Design Daily

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MVRDV www.mvrdv.com

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen

By 14-09-2022

Every year, Dutch Design Awards (DDA) honours the best Dutch designers and their most impressive and groundbreaking projects. Various disciplines, viewpoints and solutions are judged in light of the impact they have on our society. Dutch Design Awards thereby gives a boost to the profession as a whole. The best Dutch design, viewed in perspective and placed on a pedestal.

DDA nomination 2022 | Habitat
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, part of the Rotterdamse Museumpark, is the world’s first publicly accessible art depot. The client emphatically did not want a second museum, but a working building that showcases the world behind the storage and maintenance of a dizzying number of art and design pieces: 151,000 artworks, spread over 14 depot spaces. Here you can – on your own or with a guide – wander through the building or watch conservation or restoration work as it takes place. The MVRDV team, led by Winy Maas, opted for a round, sturdy building with reflective facade and a public roof garden, which always faces out towards its neighbours and visually blends into its surroundings.

Expert jury
A publicly accessible art depot is a special thing in itself. But MVRDV’s striking design means that Rotterdam really has a new urban icon in the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. The leading role is played by the convex, mirrored facade. Once inside, the spatial solutions for a complex and layered program are equally as impressive; the surprisingly large interior space accommodates its many functions with apparent ease. Visitors are carried and gripped by this layering of visual and spatial impressions. Careful integration into the surrounding landscape, the public roof garden, the light artwork and collaboration with so many involved parties make this a special ode to heritage and public space.

Photography: Ossip van Duivenbode

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