Rotterdam: The Latest Architecture and News

A new public pavilion from MoedersheimMoonen Architects is set to be built in the old 'Leuvehaven' port in Rotterdam. Located near the Erasmus Bridge, the pavilion intends to bring new life to the historic port of Rotterdam. The municipality of Rotterdam is also set to invest in a bustling residential climate, with this new pavilion housing multiple programs that will contribute to a "lively" and "greener" Maritime District.

The building will replace three existing pavilions, providing a new perspective for visitors to the Leuvehaven. Much of the structure and foundation from the existing buildings are reused in the new design, promoting sustainability, honoring the present conditions of the site, and bringing high-tech design elements to the historical context.

The various programs for the Pavilion will include "the Port Information Point of the Port of Rotterdam, two publicly accessible workshops from the Maritime Museum Rotterdam and two catering establishments with terraces by the water," with the surrounding exteriors space also to be renewed in phases.

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OMA has released updated images of their Feyenoord City masterplan after reaching initial city approval in 2016. Developed for the Feyenoord football club in Rotterdam, the project comprises a mixed-use district and a new 63,000 seat stadium along the River Maas.

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Rotterdam-based Barcode Architects have designed a new 110-meter-tall triangular shaped residential tower to become an icon in the city’s skyline. The tower, which has been named CasaNova, features a large plinth and a building base which tapers down four stories to meet the ground with a sharp angular form.

MVRDV has revealed the design of Weenapoint, a new mixed-use development for the firm’s home city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Located in the Rotterdam Central District adjacent to Rotterdam Central Station, the 50,000-square-meter scheme will add to the recent transformation of the Weenapoint complex led by developer Maarsen Groep. The third and final phase of the master plan, MVRDV’s proposal will add 17,000 square meters of office space, a life-filled commercial plinth and up to 300 residential units.

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In this episode of GSAPP Conversations, Tomas Koolhaas—the director of the much anticipated documentary-biopic REM, a film about the eponymous founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Rem Koolhaas—discusses the movie at length. Among other topics, the conversation touches upon Koolhaas's specific tools and methods for filming architectural space, and the challenges of producing a film founded on a personal relationship.

Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI) have announced WORK, BODY, LEISURE as the theme of the Dutch Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Envisioned as "a collaborative research endeavor by a national and international network," Marina Otero Verzier—head of the Research Department at HNI and a member of the After Belonging Agency, curatorial team behind the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale—will act as the creative mediator of a series of collaborative contributions, pooling the expertise of "architects, designers, knowledge institutions, and the private sector."

MVRDV has been selected as the winner of a competition for The Sax, a 51-story mixed-use tower in Rotterdam’s Wilhelminapier port development. The building will add a total of 82,000 square meters (882,000 square feet) of residences, retail spaces and commercial facilities across two towers, the Philadelphia & the Havana, connected halfway up by a bridge containing a 150-room hotel.

Located on the south side of Wilhelminapier, the Sax will become one of the last residential buildings to rise within a new development on the historic harbor, one of the city’s most popular areas. The building’s recognizable pixelated silhouette and waterfront siting will give the building an immediate presence on the Rotterdam skyline, recently coined the “Manhattan On the Maas.”

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A year ago, Dutch telecom company KPN announced the move from its former headquarters in The Hague, to the famously leaning tower designed by Renzo Piano, at the foot of Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge. Completed in 2000, the tower is now set to undergo extensive renovation and expansion as part of the company’s relocation, to be headed by local firm V8 Architects with the intention of creating a new distinctive entry of the Wilhelminapier.

Piano himself was consulted in the design process, with the final proposal receiving his approval. "As a Rotterdam office, we are proud to have been asked to bring this characteristic building—and the first tower on the Wilhelminapier—to new life," said Michiel Raaphorst of V8." And we are honored our intervention is welcomed by Renzo Piano."

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Rotterdam’s skyline is set to welcome a soaring new addition in the form of Cooltoren, V8 Architects’ 150-meter tower that upon completion, will become the city center’s tallest residential tower. Located in the Baan quarter, the design aims to integrate itself within the post-war urban fabric of the district and embody Rotterdam’s historical double layered characteristics – that of the low rise and the skyline.

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A large-scale masterplan for Feyenoord (or Feijenoord), a suburb-city of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, has been approved by Rotterdam City Council. The successful concept design from OMA, led by Partner David Gianotten, incorporates a historically-important football stadium—for the nationally significant Feyenoord football club—which "no longer fulfills modern demands." Aligned with the football club's "expanding ambitions" both in the Dutch and European football leagues, this proposal is the latest in a string of plans to expand, but the only one to have been accepted.

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MoederscheimMoonen Architects has been given the go-ahead for construction of a new training complex for Rotterdam’s leading football club, Feyenoord. Located in the new Stadionpark district, the grounds of the new complex will occupy a relatively secluded site within the larger sports, housing, and retail master plan—which will include OMA’s new stadium—allowing the technical staff and football team to work in train in privacy from the start of the 2018-2019 season.

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