This Sculptural Rotterdam Constructing Is Reinventing Artwork Storage for Public Enjoyment

Entirely reflective and sited in the middle of an urban park, it bears a resemblance to Cloud Gate—Anish Kapoor’s bean-like sculpture and selfie magnet in Chicago. But that resemblance is only skin deep. The Depot, outside the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, is designed to house more than 150,000 art and design works for which there’s no room in the museum itself, and to let visitors see those pieces being cared for. Other museums have opened storage areas to the public, but none has gone as far as the encyclopedic Rotterdam institution, founded in 1849, which began exploring the idea nearly a decade ago. MVRDV, an established Dutch firm, won a 2013 design competition with its proposal for the bowl-shaped tower. That shape means it doesn’t turn its back on any section of the park and that it occupies the smallest footprint for a building of its volume.

The scaleless exterior, composed of 1,664 glass panels, conceals a surprising amount of space: some 150,000 square feet, as much as a Walmart Supercenter. Inside, because art is arranged by size and conservation needs—the building has five distinct climate zones—works of different periods are juxtaposed, inviting new interpretations. The design, led by MVRDV partner Winy Maas, includes a rooftop restaurant set among nearly 100 birch and pine trees. What makes the building special, Maas says, is that it lets visitors come into “direct contact with art without the mediation of a curator.” And his design, both inside and out, lets them come into direct contact with architecture. boijmans.nl