Benthem Crouwel Architects and Snøhetta have teamed up to complete a hybrid civic complex in the Netherlands, recently revealing its gently sloping design. The upcoming House of Culture and Governance in Delfzijl will bring together a theater, library, and town hall under one roof. Its form is conceived to respond directly to its urban and cultural context. A soft curve along the facade embraces the public square, while the structure gently tapers into the existing street pattern on the opposite side. The roofline also traces a rhythmic silhouette against the sky, undulating ‘like a piece of music,’ says Saartje van der Made, architect and partner at Benthem Crouwel.

The aim, she notes, is to create a building that feels ‘rooted in the landscape and community of Eemsdelta.’ In line with this, the project is the result of a fast-paced but deeply participatory design process, taking into consideration input from future users, local residents, council members, and youth groups.

all images courtesy of Benthem Crouwel Architects and Snøhetta

Snøhetta & Benthem Crouwel Architects consider local identity

The teams at Snøhetta (see more here) and Benthem Crouwel Architects (see more here) looked closely at Delfzijl’s historical and urban fabric when shaping the building’s massing and material expression. The final design aims to fit seamlessly into its surroundings while also standing out as a contemporary civic landmark. The surrounding area will also be significantly upgraded as part of the project, continuing the municipality’s recent efforts to revitalize the urban fabric, extending from the city beach and boulevard to Damsterkade and Vennenplein.

The House of Culture and Governance is intended to function as a civic and social hub, designed with and for the community. This focus was integral to its identity, as its program has evolved from an initial plan for a theater and library into a multifunctional facility where people can meet, learn, and engage with culture and government. Notably, the heart of the building will be a shared central space, where the library is prominently located and conceived as an open and accessible environment. While the first phase of the design has been completed, the City Council of Eemsdelta is expected to finalize the structural design by October 2025.

a soft curve embraces the public square, while the structure gently tapers into the street pattern on the other side

the roofline also traces a rhythmic silhouette against the sky, undulating ‘like a piece of music,’

project info:

name: House of Culture and Governance
architect: Snøhetta | @snohetta, Benthem Crouwel Architects | @benthemcrouwelarchitects
location: Molenbergplein, Eemsdelta region, the Netherlands

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Following his groundbreaking Bosco Verticale in Milan and the social housing version in Eindhoven, Stefano Boeri Architetti‘s Wonderwoods Vertical Forest blossoms in Utrecht (find designboom’s previous coverage here), the tallest of its kind in the Netherlands. Rising 104 meters above the Beurskwartier district, the green tower is described by the studio as a ‘building/city’ and a complex ecosystem. The project continues Boeri’s decade-long pursuit of architecture that nurtures biodiversity, public life, and environmental responsibility.

Located near Utrecht’s central station, Wonderwoods is part of a two-tower development designed in collaboration with MVSA Architects. Stefano Boeri Architetti’s Vertical Forest tower is an evolving habitat made of 360 trees and 50,000 plants across its terraces and balconies. ‘Our Vertical Forest in Utrecht is a fundamental stage in the research we are carrying out all over the world,’ says Boeri. ‘The building hosts a combination of considerable vegetal biodiversity and a wide range of functions, including exhibitions, commercial, tertiary, and residential uses, as well as hospitality options. It will be a real building/city as well as a rich and complex ecosystem.’

all images by Lorenzo Masotto, unless stated otherwise

Wonderwoods is a living tower that breathes

True to its name, Stefano Boeri’s Vertical Forest building actively supports non-human life. The Milan-, Shanghai- and Tirana-based architecture studio punctuates the facades with circular openings that are used as nesting spaces for native bird species. The selection of 30 local plant species changes the appearance of the facades over the course of the year. This living skin responds to light, temperature, and plant growth, making the tower an expressive participant in the urban environment rather than a static object.

Constructed using a novel prefabrication system for both balconies and facades, the tower marks a first for this typology. It rotates along its vertical axis in four superimposed ‘orders’, aligning with sunlight and views rather than the rigid street grid of Croeselaan. This gesture enables a physical connection at the seventh floor with the neighboring MVSA building, where a green pedestrian bridge hosts restaurants and panoramic views. Below, a water management system reclaims and filters rainwater for sustainable reuse.

Stefano Boeri Architetti’s Wonderwoods Vertical Forest blossoms in Utrecht | image ©Milan Hofmans

part of a broader architectural vision

The building’s ground floor and basement host public spaces and ample bicycle parking, while its upper levels combine offices, fitness areas, and a network of duplex apartments that double as residential ateliers. Designed as a fully pedestrian zone, the surrounding area integrates sustainable systems such as a subterranean reservoir that captures, reclaims, and manages rainwater. Following the Trudo Vertical Forest social housing project in Eindhoven, Wonderwoods becomes the first of Boeri’s green towers in the Netherlands to include public-facing amenities, advancing his vision for accessible, ecologically engaged architecture as part of the city’s everyday life.

Inside, more than apartments, many of them duplexes, are designed for diverse occupants, with generous outdoor spaces and smart greenery management systems that monitor irrigation and schedule pruning. The lower floors accommodate public amenities, including bicycle parking, fitness areas, and commercial spaces, reinforcing the building’s role as a vertical neighborhood.

The Wonderwoods Vertical Forest, in line with Stefano Boeri Architetti’s broader architectural vision, represents a new way of thinking about how cities and nature can coexist. By winning the MIPIM Award, the project has been recognized for its forward-thinking approach to sustainable urban living. A decade after Milan’s Bosco Verticale showed the world that greenery can be an integral part of high-rise architecture, Wonderwoods carries that idea forward. 

rising 104 meters above the Beurskwartier district | image ©Milan Hofmans

a green pedestrian bridge hosts restaurants and panoramic views

the green tower is described by the studio as a ‘building/city’ | image ©Milan Hofmans

an evolving habitat made of 360 trees and 50,000 plants | image ©Milan Hofmans

30 local plant species change the appearance of the facades | image ©Milan Hofmans

lush terraces and balconies | image ©Milan Hofmans

Wonderwoods is part of a two-tower development

this living skin responds to light, temperature, and plant growth

an expressive participant in the urban environment

Wonderwoods becomes the first of Boeri’s green towers in the Netherlands to include public-facing amenities

project info:

name: Wonderwoods Vertical Forest

architect: Stefano Boeri Architetti | @stefanoboeriarchitetti

location: Utrecht, the Netherlands

height: 104 meters

partner + project director: Francesca Cesa Bianchi

developer: G&S& | @gensamsterdam

local architect: INBO | @inboarchitects

collaborating tower design: MVSA Architects | @mvsa_architects

landscape design (facades): Laura Gatti | @studiolauragatti

landscape design (roofs): ARCADIS Landschapsarchitectuur

structural engineering: Van Rossum

general contractor: Boele & van Eesteren

landscape contractor: Koninklijke Ginkel Groep

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In the center of Amsterdam, Kimsooja’s immersive installation To Breathe — Mokum transforms the city’s historic Oude Kerk with textiles and ethereal light. The installation speaks to themes of migration, belonging, and the transient nature of home, offering a meditation on identity and cultural exchange.

At the work’s heart are Kimsooja’s iconic bottari — colorful textile bundles inspired by traditional Korean wrapping cloths. Spread across the ancient stone floor of the church, these bundles are filled with clothing donated by members of Amsterdam’s diverse communities. Each piece of clothing represents the lives and stories of the people who contribute to the city’s rich multicultural fabric. These textile bundles serve as symbols of both personal and collective journeys, embodying the arrival and departure of individuals who have shaped the identity of the city over time.

Amsterdam is often described as a city of minorities as it holds within its borders people of more than 170 nationalities. The bottari honor this global mosaic, their vibrant colors a symbol of the city’s role as a crossroads of cultures.

images © Natascha Libbert

kimsooja employs Light as a Choreography of Color

Alongside the symbolic textiles, artist Kimsooja’s manipulation of light is equally integral to the experience of To Breathe — Mokum in Amsterdam. The 44,000 panes of glass in the Oude Kerk are covered with a transparent film designed to fracture sunlight into a spectrum of rainbow hues. The film’s finely woven structure acts as a prism, breaking the light into its component colors and casting them onto the church’s ancient interior. This ever-changing play of color moves across the space throughout the day, highlighting different architectural features — an arch, a gravestone, a pillar — creating a dynamic, shifting perspective.

The light itself becomes a guide, subtly leading the viewer’s gaze through the space. Unlike traditional static lighting, this intervention shifts, creating a living landscape of color that reveals the church anew. In this new context, the church ceases to be merely a monument. It becomes an active, breathing entity, constantly changing with the movement of the sun.

Kimsooja’s installation To Breathe — Mokum transforms Oude Kerk into a space of light and reflection

everchanging light transforms the oude kerk

The radiant light of the Kimsooja installation evokes the Oude Kerk’s Catholic history, where stained-glass windows once bathed the interior in a rich spectrum of colors. Kimsooja’s use of light recalls this tradition while introducing a more universal form of illumination. By employing light as a medium, Kimsooja connects the church with a global network of places where light and color have served as symbols of spirituality, unity, and reflection.

Her work operates within this universal language of light, creating a bridge between diverse cultures and histories. As the light shifts and moves, it reflects the changing nature of the church, breathing life into its architectural form.

traditional Korean textile bundles are filled with clothing from Amsterdam’s diverse communities

Kimsooja’s installation is a reflection of this history, with particular attention paid to the waves of migrants who have settled in Amsterdam over the centuries. The title To Breathe — Mokum itself draws from the Yiddish word ‘mokum,’ which means ‘city’ or ‘safe haven.’ This was the term used by Jewish migrants who found sanctuary in Amsterdam, making the city a home and a place of refuge. Through the installation, Kimsooja connects the church to the broader narrative of migration in Amsterdam, where people from all over the world have sought a safe harbor.

the colorful textile bundles symbolize migration, identity, and the city’s multicultural character

sunlight is broken into rainbow hues by transparent film on the church’s 44,000 glass panes

the installation brings attention to Amsterdam’s 750-year history as a city of migration and sanctuary

the ever-changing light highlights the church’s architectural features

project info:

name: To Breathe — Mokum

artist: Kimsooja | @studiokimsooja

location: Oude Kerk | @OudeKerkamsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

on view: May 23rd — November 9th, 2025

photography: © Natascha Libbert | @nataschalibbert 

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Foxhole, a residence designed by Amsterdam-based Studio Vincent Architecture occupies a threshold condition. Set on the border of Abcoude, in the newly developed De Winkelbuurt neighborhood, the residence takes a step back from the street, introducing itself through a courtyard framed by two abstract forms. One holds the living quarters, the other a pared-down entrance volume, sealed to the road. The spatial pause between them serves as a kind of exhale, filtering the shift from public street to private garden. At dusk, light from the western horizon reaches deep inside.

The home takes shape through a pairing of asymmetrical geometries. The main house sits low and long behind a canal, while its companion structure hugs the edge of the road with a solid face. Together, they define a protected zone that simultaneously welcomes and withdraws. Along the facade, tall pivoting doors can be thrown open, turning the boundary into a passage. Despite the density of the surrounding development, the home finds its own rhythm through this interplay of mass and movement.

images © Jeremy Piret

inside the foxhole residence

Studio Vincent Architecture’s Foxhole residence unfolds internally with a kind of spatial looseness. On the ground floor, a central cabinet wall does the work of traditional partitions, carving out living areas while maintaining a clear visual connection between them. This organizing core brings attention to the kitchen, which appears immediately upon entry. Around it, the open-plan living and dining rooms slide out toward the garden, their generous glass openings responding directly to the house’s stepped siting.

The architects approach the upper floor with a sensitivity to human proportions. Custom built-in storage is wrapped in the same finishes as the walls, dissolving the boundaries between surface and structure. Rooflines slant inward, yet the space opens up rather than compresses. The abstraction of the pitched ceiling gathers daylight and holds it, softening the edges of the compact rooms while drawing attention to the physical presence of the materials.

the house sits between two abstract volumes that create a private courtyard away from the street

studio vincent architecture’s design strategies

Studio Vincent Architecture shapes its Foxhole residence with energy consciousness at its core. The structure is wrapped in thick layers of thermal insulation, serviced by a heat pump, and ventilated through heat recovery systems that preserve warmth without sacrificing fresh air. Its roof is embedded with twenty-six solar panels, flush with the surface, quietly generating more electricity than the house consumes. These decisions are carefully coordinated with the architecture’s orientation, which offers controlled exposures and framed views.

Foxhole adapts to its context with a split personality. Facing the neighborhood, it echoes the familiar silhouette of a pitched roof, anchoring itself among traditional houses. Along the side that meets open land, the roofline folds and cuts, releasing a more experimental outline. The asymmetry allows the building to engage different worlds at once — residential order on one side, open expanse on the other — without flattening into a single gesture.

The home’s floor plan informs its relationship with the land. The pentagonal footprint is not an arbitrary move, but a means to balance light, view, and privacy within a tight parcel. It responds to the canal, the street, and the sun with equal weight. The geometry shelters, but it also opens, making the house feel embedded rather than imposed.

large pivoting doors allow the closed entrance building to open onto the garden

a central cabinet on the ground floor replaces interior walls to create fluid, connected spaces

the upper floor uses built-in furniture and aligned finishes to create a unified flow

the kitchen is placed at the heart of the plan with clear sightlines from the entry

rooflines and material heights are scaled to the human body for spatial comfort

living and dining areas open to the garden through sliding windows that extend the interior outward

project info:

name: Foxhole

architecture: Studio Vincent Architecture | @studiovincentarchitecture

location: Abcoude, The Netherlands

structural engineer: De Ingenieursgroep
contractor: Bouwbedrijf Bon

completion: 2024

photography: © Jeremy Piret | @jeremypiret

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With a radical new proposal by Danish maritime architecture studio MAST, Rotterdam’s Spoorweghaven neighborhood is poised for a transformation. In the heart of a disused dock just southeast of the city center, the team envisions a floating community. Together with locally-based contractor BIK bouw, the prefabricated, modular project will bring over one hundred apartments supported by public green space, moorings, commercial units and a new harbor for leisure. It’s a plan informed by its local context and scaled to continental ambition, making Spoorweghaven the largest floating housing development ever proposed in Europe.

The proposal reflects the spatial pressures faced by cities throughout the Netherlands. Confronted with the need to produce a million new homes within the decade, and with little vacant land left to build on, the country is turning to its most abundant resource: water. MAST’s design responds with a flexible model for growth that bypasses the ecological cost of dredging or land reclamation. In Spoorweghaven, can expand its housing stock without erasing the harbor’s identity.

visualizations © Slimstudio

A porous and participatory landscape

MAST’s floating community at Spoorweghaven will blend into Rotterdam’s existing fabric by bicycle and by boat. The site plan extends local cycling routes and introduces new blue corridors of transport, creating seamless links between land and water. The design incorporates bridges at both ends of the dock, enabling pedestrian access to floating walkways, public piers, and bicycle storage. These threads reweave the harbor into the city’s daily flow, restoring continuity to a once-isolated stretch of waterfront.

The project is imagined as a layered civic space. Communal gardens, floating parks, and shared roof terraces are arranged to encourage both quiet retreat and spontaneous gathering. The architecture withdraws in places to give room for the harbor to remain visible and accessible. Rather than cordon off the water, the project draws it in, inviting it to become part of the everyday social fabric.

Rotterdam will see the construction of Europe’s largest floating housing development

Prefabrication for low-impact urbanism

MAST’s plans for Spoorweghaven will also support aquatic life of Rotterdam. In collaboration with Biomatrix, MAST will install over 900 square meters of floating reedbeds along the harbor’s perimeter. These islands act as natural filters, removing pollutants from the water while forming habitats for birds, fish and invertebrates. The design contributes to the city’s broader ecological network, showing how architecture on water can become an engine for environmental repair.

Once underway, construction will take shape off-site. MAST’s floating structures will be built of CLT and assembled away from the dock before being floated into place. This prefabricated method drastically reduces construction noise, traffic and material waste in the neighborhood. It also allows for reversibility: the homes can be relocated or dismantled entirely if the conditions of the site change. Such adaptability is at the core of MAST’s strategy for circular design.

the project will bring over 100 apartments with public and commercial spaces

Spoorweghaven addresses the housing crisis with a water-based urban solution by MAST

the design includes floating gardens, walkways, and shared terraces

floating reedbeds will enhance biodiversity in Spoorweghaven

project info:

name: Spoorweghaven

architect: MAST | @MAST_denmark

location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

contractor: BIK bouw | @bik_bouw

visualizations: © Slimstudio | @slimstudio.eu

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A new exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion, debuts alongside the long-anticipated opening of the MAD-designed Fenix Museum of Migration. During the exhibition’s opening, designboom spoke with Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut and curator of the show.

‘With the opening of Fenix here in Rotterdam, it was a great chance to finally do an exhibition together,’ Chen tells designboom. ‘Ma and I have had quite a number of conversations, both formally and informally. I always felt like we needed to continue it. I was always left wanting more.’ This exhibition continues that dialogue, assembling MAD’s early speculations and recent large-scale works into a spatial and emotional journey.

images © Ossip van Duivenbode (unless otherwise stated)

Tracing Origins in a Rapidly Changing China

The Rotterdam exhibition Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion begins by anchoring MAD’s origin story in the formative years of independent architectural practice in China. ‘There were no private architecture firms allowed until the 1990s,’ explains Aric Chen of the Nieuwe Instituut. ‘Ma is part of that second generation of Chinese architects. It’s really remarkable to see how quickly things took off.’

A central installation expands upon MAD’s 2008 publication MAD Dinner, a document of creative gatherings the founders held during China’s early 2000s building boom. These interdisciplinary salons gave rise to speculative urban visions — a Tiananmen Square reimagined as a park, an aquarium seen through the perspective of a fish — which now appear in model form, offering insight into the studio’s earliest attempts to reframe public space and identity.

MAD opens its first solo museum exhibition in over a decade at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam

ma yansong’s Fenix as Cultural Anchor

Among the most anticipated works on view is MAD’s design for the Fenix Museum of Migration, the newly opened museum in Rotterdam dedicated to global migration stories. Fenix features the Tornado, a swirling, double-helix stair that lifts visitors through the atrium of a historic warehouse to a rooftop observatory. The Tornado connects the ground to the sky, but also history to the present.

It’s MAD’s first cultural building in Europe, and its role is deeply symbolic, especially given the museum’s context in Katendrecht, once one of the first Chinatowns of continental Europe. The exhibition offers detailed insight into the design of Fenix as a built manifestation of MAD’s evolving interest in architecture as a vessel for memory.

the exhibition coincides with the completion of MAD’s nearby Fenix Museum of Migration

MAD’s longstanding engagement with shanshui — the classical Chinese worldview in which landscape, city, and spirit cohere — remains a thread throughout the show. ‘Shan Shui painting was a big influence on Ma for a certain point,’ Chen continues. ‘The studio has since moved on, but the relevance of that is still really important for understanding the firm’s work today.’

Rather than presenting shanshui as a metaphor or motif, the exhibition shows how the philosophy permeates form-making, whether in the land-integrated design of Quzhou Sports Park or in the undulating mass of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Aric Chen curates the exhibition to reflect two decades of MAD’s emotionally-driven architecture

The exhibition’s title, Architecture and Emotion, invites viewers to consider architecture as more than a functional or aesthetic exercise. ‘Emotion is not something that we, here in this part of the world, are used to thinking about when we talk about architecture,’ says Chen. ‘But with MAD, emotions are very much connected with the idea of nature.’ The Nieuwe Instituut’s interest in climate resilience and spatial justice finds unexpected alignment in MAD’s emphasis on sensory experience and cultural memory, positioning the exhibition as a counterpoint to more techno-rational design narratives.

The selection of projects, Chen noted, leans toward recent and ongoing work, but also draws attention to the studio’s cross-cultural approach. ‘We always want to bring other cultural perspectives into the conversation,’ he says. ‘What Ma and MAD really do is provide that other schema or worldview for looking at space and how we experience it.’ From Beijing to Los Angeles, Paris to Rotterdam, MAD’s projects resist a singular national identity.

MAD’s early years are presented through models and materials from its 2008 publication MAD Dinner

emotion is presented as a primary design force linking people, nature, and space across cultures

Shan Shui philosophy continues to influence MAD’s organic and landscape-integrated architecture

projects like the Lucas Museum and One River North demonstrate MAD’s design language

project info:

name: Ma Yansong: Architecture & Emotion

museum: Nieuwe Instituut | @nieuweinstituut

architecture: MAD | @madarchitects

location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands

opening: May 16th, 2025

photography: © designboom, © Ossip van Duivenbode | @ossipvanduivenbode

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Monadnock Architects unveils Volante, a social housing building which occupies a slender footprint within the Nieuw-Zuid redevelopment in the Dutch city of Hilversum. Here, porch flats and generous greenery shape a legacy of postwar urban planning. On a site previously occupied by a residential-care facility, this new social housing project completes an ensemble of five structures, introducing density while honoring the open qualities of the neighborhood. The structure’s position atop a parking garage required precision in planning, resulting in a carefully calibrated relationship between height, massing, and light.

Volante is designed as two joined volumes, aligned lengthwise to nestle between existing buildings while preserving access to daylight and sightlines. At the center, a circular atrium provides orientation and light, anchoring the corridors that lead to each unit. Though compact, the apartments benefit from this shared interior rhythm, with circulation treated as an architectural space rather than a means to an end.

images © Stijn Bollaert

playful geometries mark volante’s entrance

With the design of its Volante project, Monadnock Architects takes a pragmatic yet expressive approach to facade design. Long elevations are animated by a steady cadence of vertical piers and horizontal bands, realized in brickwork that feels both familiar and carefully wrought. Rather than apply decorative treatments, the architects embedded richness into the construction itself. Shaped bricks form junctions with a quiet attention to detail, creating shadows and texture that reward close observation.

The main entrance distinguishes itself through a palette of glazed bricks in deep, contrasting tones. Openings shift in scale and shape, inviting movement through a slightly abstracted gateway. This deliberate formal variation signals a break from the repetitive housing block, asserting the address as a shared front door and a marker of arrival within the neighborhood’s internal rhythm.

Volante is part of a densification effort in the Dutch city of Hilversum

Monadnock Architects’ Optimistic Details

Monadnock Architects use the terminal walls of Volante to define its urban role beyond the immediate site. These gable-like end facades are more than closures — they operate as signals, visible from afar, and carry a subtle figuration that punctuates the building’s linear volume. In a district that balances visual openness with increasing density, these gestures give character without demanding attention.

There’s a distinct clarity to Volante’s expression that reflects a belief in the dignity of housing. Materials are robust, but their assembly conveys levity. The ochres and reds of the brickwork catch changing light with warmth, while the building’s quiet symmetry offers a sense of order amid the trees and neighboring facades. It is a structure that looks settled, yet quietly ambitious.

The architecture resists the urge to impose a singular identity. Instead, its strength lies in how fluently it completes a larger composition. Densification here does not compete with the inherited character of Hilversum’s greenery or mid-century fabric. The building draws on these cues, integrating new residents into a context with care and continuity.

the main entrance is marked by glazed bricks and geometric openings that establish identity

the brick facade features vertical piers and horizontal bands that create depth and rhythm

end facades are designed as urban markers visible from a distance

the use of color and tactility brings warmth and optimism to the residential experience

specially-shaped bricks add texture and refinement throughout building

a circular atrium serves as the central organizing space for the compact apartments

project info:

name: Volante

architecture: Monadnock Architects | @monadnock.architects

location: Nieuw-Zuid, Hilversum, The Netherlands

floor area: 8,032 square meters
completion: December 2024

photography: © Stijn Bollaert | @stijn_bollaert

lead architects: Job Floris, Sandor Naus
team: Marta Cendra, Michael Maminski, Filippo Gallone, Matéo White, Blanka Major
project architect: Sandor Naus

client: Dudok Wonen | @dudokwonen
contractor: Hegeman | @hegemanbv
construction engineer: IAA Architects
structural engineer: Schreuders
MEP engineer: InnQ Installations
building physics engineer: Alcedo
landscape architect: Hosper Landscape Architecture | @hosper_landschapsarchitectuur
urban planner: Moke Architecten | @moke_architecten

prefab concrete stairs: Hop prefab
steel stairs and balustrades: Krepla
elevators: Schindler Elevators
main entrance floor, walls: Winckelmans
common area floor: Marmoleum, Forbo Flooring
windowframes manufacturer: Kawneer
windowframes balustrades facades, supplier: Rollecate
interior frames, doors: Berkvens
facade cladding, brick: Klinkerwerk Iking | @klinkerwerk_iking
facade cladding, glazed bricks: Dijkstra Frisian Earthenware | @dijkstrakleiwaren
aluminium cladding: Voskamp

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On May 16, 2025, Rotterdam officially opens Fenix, a museum dedicated to the art and stories of migration, marking MAD’s first cultural building in Europe. Ahead of the public opening, designboom attends the preview of the museum, experiencing the space firsthand and speaking with architect Ma Yansong on site. Set within a 1923 port warehouse in the historic Katendrecht district of the city, Fenix is the result of architectural ambition and emotional gravity (find designboom’s previous coverage here). For MAD, the building is not just a container but a living environment shaped by movement, reflection, and encounter. ‘When you see the light and the people in the building, it really makes a difference,’ Ma Yansong tells us. ‘Before, that was only in the imagination. Now I realize this is a device for people’s movement and for meeting each other.’

The project is a milestone in the regeneration of Rotterdam’s waterfront and reflects the layered history of the site, once the departure point for millions of emigrants crossing the Atlantic. During his visit to the neighborhood, Ma sensed a deeper yearning from the community. ‘In people’s hearts, they wanted a lighthouse,’ he says. ‘They need a spiritual space, a symbol of their generation, or the older generation, or their next generation.’ For him, Fenix is ‘half architecture, half art.’ The Tornado, a dramatic double-helix staircase, crowns the Fenix museum. This centerpiece pierces through the old warehouse and flows upward, culminating in a rooftop platform, offering views of the River Maas and Hotel New York—the former headquarters of the Holland America Line. It’s a sculptural expression of movement and transformation, anchoring the museum in both a physical and symbolic manner. ‘The people’s behavior and reactions complete the work,’ he adds during our walkthrough. ‘Otherwise, it’s just a staircase.’

Rotterdam officially opens Fenix | image by Iwan Baan

a double spiral staircase tops the 1923 port warehouse

‘I saw this really big, heavy concrete building,’ Ma Yansong, founder of international architecture firm MAD, shares with designboom, referring to the original structure. ‘It’s monumental, and from the outside it’s really long and horizontal. My first instinct was to do something vertical, so you can recognize this is something different.’ He explains that the spiraling form of the staircase that tops the museum was essential. ‘There are two connected spirals, so the structure becomes self-supporting. This was essential to avoid columns in the middle. And then it becomes an experience.’ As visitors ascend the Tornado, it becomes a narrative, reflecting their own journeys. ‘You almost see your reflection as yourself traveling through time, always reflecting, borrowing the color, the light from the surroundings,’ he says.

As public and cultural buildings evolve, he comments, ‘public buildings, cultural buildings, will be spaces that bring more people together—not just one’s self.’  That principle shapes every part of Fenix, from its freely accessible ground floor to its soaring Tornado staircase. 

the museum is dedicated to the art and stories of migration | image by Iwan Baan

three major inaugural exhibitions explore migration

Three major exhibitions that reflect on migration through contemporary art, photography, and personal testimony mark the museum’s opening. All Directions brings together over 150 works from global artists, including Bill Viola, Yinka Shonibare, Rineke Dijkstra, and Steve McQueen, alongside newly commissioned pieces by Beya Gille Gacha, Hugo McCloud, and others that explore migration as a personal, lived experience. These works are not displayed in isolation, they’re meant to be experienced, moved through, and reflected in. That principle is embedded in the curatorial approach, as personal stories are intertwined with historical objects. A fragment of the Berlin Wall, a Lampedusa migrant boat, and a 1923 Nansen passport bridge individual journeys with collective memory. The Family of Migrants, inspired by Edward Steichen’s iconic The Family of Man, presents 194 photographs by 136 photographers from 55 countries. Finally, The Suitcase Labyrinth is an immersive installation built from 2,000 donated suitcases—some century-old heirlooms, others recently packed for new lives abroad. As visitors navigate the maze, an audio tour reveals intimate migration stories layered between the luggage.

this centerpiece is clad in 297 polished stainless-steel panels | image © designboom

a cultural landmark rooted in community

Beyond its galleries, Fenix functions as a cultural hub. The 2,275-square-meter Plein on the ground floor acts as a free, indoor city square, hosting performances, community gatherings, and global food explorations. Culinary highlights include a bakery by Michelin-starred Turkish chef Maksut Aşkar and a waterfront gelateria by the Granucci family, a nod to Rotterdam’s multicultural makeup.

Funded by the Droom en Daad Foundation, Fenix is a future-forward institution rooted in a city shaped by migration. ‘Migraton stories are the heartbeat of Fenix. We’ve woven them into every element – whether it’s the magic of Ma Yansong’s architecture, the memories evoked by the artworks on display, the freely accessible Plein, or the gelateria by the Granucci family,’ highlights Fenix director Anne Kremers. ‘We want everyone to feel welcome.’

Fenix Rotterdam and Rijnhaven with L’Áge d’Or by Gavin Turk | image by Iris van den Broek

the Tornado, a dramatic double-helix staircase, crowns the museum | image by Iwan Baan

anchoring the museum in both a physical and symbolic manner | image © designboom

its twisting shape echoes the flow of migration | image © designboom

a rooftop platform offers views of the River Maas and Hotel New York | image by Iwan Baan

a sculptural expression of movement and transformation | image by Iwan Baan

Fenix opens with three major exhibitions

reflecting on migration through contemporary art, photography, and personal testimony | image © Titia Hahne

these artworks are interwoven with objects of memory | image by Iwan Baan

The Family of Migrants is inspired by Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man | image by Iwan Baan

project info:

name: Fenix Museum of Migration | @Fenix

architect: MAD | @madarchitects
collaborators: Bureau Polderman, Droom en Daad Foundation

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands


previous coverage: November 2023, October 2024, January 2025

photographers: Iwan Baan | @iwanbaan, Iris van den Broek | @eyerisshots, Titia Hahne | @titiahahnephoto

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German photographer David Altrath delivers a visual narrative of one of architectural modernism’s most radical dwellings—the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, Netherlands. Designed in 1924 by Gerrit Rietveld for the Dutch socialite Truus Schröder-Schräder, the home stands as a three-dimensional manifesto of the De Stijl movement. Through Altrath’s crisp compositions, the series offers a fresh perspective on a house that, over a century later, still feels like it belongs to the future.

all images by David Altrath

de stijl’s legacy lives on in utrecht

Altrath’s images reveal the innovative structure of the residence, drawing attention to the relationship formed by the lines, planes, and bold primary colors that compose its visual language. With no fixed corners, sliding panels, and jutting planes, Rietveld dissolves the divide between inside and outside. Altrath casts his lens on this interplay of openness with precision, letting light and shadow animate the architecture’s geometric rigor.

The adaptable interior layout of the Rietveld Schröder House, where walls move and rooms shift to accommodate daily life, comes alive through Altrath’s series. His shots focus on the architectural decisions that challenged the rigid domestic norms of the 1920s, instead proposing a flexible, living architecture rooted in abstraction, freedom, and clarity. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the dwelling is one of the few built expressions of De Stijl principles in architecture. 

David Altrath delivers a visual narrative of one of architectural modernism’s most radical dwellings

the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was designed in 1924 by Gerrit Rietveld

the home stands as a three-dimensional manifesto of the De Stijl movement

the series offers a fresh perspective on a house

even a century later, the house still feels ahead of its time

Altrath’s images reveal the innovative structure of the residence

lines, planes, and bold primary colors compose the visual language

The Red and Blue chair by Gerrit Rietveld

the chair was in 1917

the Zig-Zag Chair in red

the residence is one of the few built expressions of De Stijl principles in architecture

project info:

name: Rietveld Schröder House
photographer: David Altrath | @davidaltrath

architect: Gerrit Rietveld

location: Utrecht, Netherlands

The post step inside a de stijl icon through david altrath’s images of the rietveld schröder house appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

The Netherlands presents its pavilion, developed by RAU Architects, at Expo 2025 Osaka under the theme ‘Common Ground.’ Designed according to circular principles, the structure serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and international cooperation, with a focus on energy transition and environmental sustainability. Over a six-month period, the pavilion is set to host programming aimed at facilitating collaboration between Dutch and Japanese organizations across business, research, and policy.

The pavilion’s design draws on the Netherlands’ historical and spatial relationship with water. Large parts of the country lie below sea level, necessitating a long-standing tradition of collaboration in water management. The concept of ‘Common Ground’ extends this ethos to a global scale, emphasizing collective responsibility in addressing finite resources and planetary boundaries. The pavilion integrates principles of the circular economy, highlighting material reuse, adaptability, and systems thinking in the built environment.

all images by Zhu Yumeng

undulating slats envelop central luminous ‘rising sun’

The structure is designed and constructed by AND BV, a Dutch-Japanese consortium that includes architecture firm RAU Architects, engineering consultancy DGMR, design studio Tellart, and Japanese construction company Asanuma Corporation. The pavilion takes the form of a rectangular volume, with a prominent central luminous sphere symbolizing renewable energy, specifically hydropower.

The facade features undulating slats designed to reference the motion of water. Their combined length totals 425 meters, referencing the 425-year-long relationship between the Netherlands and Japan. All materials used in the construction are cataloged in Madaster, a digital platform for material registration that supports circular construction by enabling reuse and transparency. The pavilion is designed for disassembly and relocation. After the Expo concludes, it will be dismantled and reconstructed in a different context, extending its lifecycle and preventing material waste.

main facade evening

Netherlands pavilion’s form symbolizes circular design

Visitors enter the pavilion and receive a small, illuminated object that interacts with various installations throughout the interior. The exhibition content focuses on historical and contemporary collaborations between the Netherlands and Japan, with particular attention to climate adaptation and water management strategies. At the core of the pavilion is the glowing sphere, which functions as a projection space for a 360-degree AI-generated film. The experience concludes with an interactive installation inviting visitors to contribute reflections and aspirations related to shared global futures.

main entrance evening

areal view

a new dawn

ramps

illuminated installation

main facade

grand ring

external facade

facade detail

intro space

event space

project info:

name: The Netherlands Pavilion Expo Osaka 2025
architects: RAU Architects | @rau.architects

location: Osaka, Kansai, Japan

gross floor area: 1157 sqm

designers: Tellart | @tellart

engineering: DGMR | @dgmradviseurs

construction: Asanuma Corporation | @asanuma_official

client: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken

advisor: BREED-ID

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