Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum | MVRDV

The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, located in Rotterdam’s Museumpark, offers museum visitors a unique form of experience: a solid engine room where the whole collection of 151,000 pieces is made available to the public. In addition to the numerous storage and care rooms, the depot offers a cafeteria and a 35-meter-high award-winning rooftop forest.

© Ossip van Duivenbode

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum’s Design Concept

The depot, a 39.5-meter-high round structure, has a modest footprint due to its bowl-like shape. This design guarantees that existing views into and pathways through the Museum park remain unobstructed on the ground level, reducing the impact on subsurface water buffers, while a vast rooftop public space with a café provides access to inspiring vistas of Rotterdam.

© Ossip van Duivenbode

Its reflective façade wears the trappings of whatever surrounds it: people passing by, Museumpark’s green grounds, the clouds, and Rotterdam’s dynamic city skyline. Despite its size of 15,000 m2, the building is already entirely merged into its surroundings thanks to this reflection. It enlivens its surroundings while forging strong bonds with the park and other structures..

© Ossip van Duivenbode

Artifacts will be stored and displayed in the depot based on their climatic requirements rather than travel or era. Each storage compartment is climate-controlled and divided into five climate zones based on the materials used to create the art: metal, plastic, organic/inorganic, and photography.

© Ossip van Duivenbode

The atrium, with crisscrossing staircases and suspended glass display cases displaying exhibitions of works chosen by museum curators, is the building’s focal point. This atrium will link visitors to exhibition rooms and curators’ workshops, providing them with a one-of-a-kind behind-the-scenes experience and the opportunity to understand how a world-renowned museum maintains and cares for its art collection.

© Ossip van Duivenbode

Art is displayed throughout the building, beginning in the ground floor lobby and going all the way through the building, including the rooftop restaurant. A rooftop forest at the height of 35 meters will provide additional public attraction outside this restaurant, accessible by a fast elevator from the ground floor and filled by 75 multi-stemmed birch trees rising several meters tall. The rooftop provides guests with breathtaking views of Rotterdam.

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