As part of a comprehensive long-term plan for investment in Rotterdam’s cultural infrastructure developed by Droom en Daad Foundation alongside the municipality, Rotterdam will undergo a transformation over the next decade recasting itself as a new center for European culture.
The plans cover the full spectrum of cultural and community programmes, including new museums, a new dance house, new spaces for music making and literacy, improved public parks and a series of high-profile public art commissions. A few days ago, two major museum developments were announced to open in 2025.
They are:
FENIX | Museum of Migration, a new international art museum devoted to the theme of migration, designed by Chinese MAD architects, in their first museum development in Europe, opening to the public on Friday 16 May 2025.
Fenix overlooks the former headquarters of the famous Holland America Line. It is the centerpiece of a transformation of Katendrecht, a harbour-side neighbourhood, the city’s former red-light district and oldest Chinatown of continental Europe. It will become a symbol for a new kind of cultural district that is sustainable, renewing heritage buildings, grounded in its local communities and bringing new kinds of art and culture into focus.
Also announced is the opening in the second half of 2025 of the new home of National Museum of Photography. It is moving from its existing site to the Grade A listed, eight floor, cast iron columned Santos building thanks to a donation by Droom en Daad.
A beautifully restored landmark in the heart of the city, the historic building opened in 1903 as a warehouse for storing Brazilian coffee.
The new expanded spaces will deliver unprecedented access to the work of restoring and documenting the collection, as well as world-class displays of Dutch photography of all periods. The collection now numbers some six million items, making it one of the largest museum collections of photography in the world.
The renovation was designed by architects RHWZ | Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten, Hamburg and WDJArchitecten, Rotterdam, and carried out by Leiden-based contractor Burgy.
Alongside these two developments, revealed is an ambitious plan to develop Danshuis, a new state of the art international dance centre for hip hop, tango and folk dance as well as classical ballet on a site next to Fenix in a design by MAD Architects.
Work will begin in 2025 towards an opening in 2030 to provide world class performance spaces, as well as spaces for community development of dance, open to all.
Wim Pijbes, Director of Droom en Daad, said: “We believe that the transformation of Rotterdam, building on its history as an open and vital centre for international trade as well as a port city renowned for its contemporary architecture from De Stijl to Rem Koolhaas, will see it as the defining European city of cultural development in the 2020s - a new home to new institutions in Europe’s most forward-thinking city.”
***
Press release and images Rotterdam and Droom en Daad Foundation
10
33
0
-
pierre alain varreon
commentThe very Mad Fenix Museum is not a piece of urban design fit enough to pertain to a World class cultural center. It is a theme park which would be better set in a Disneyland sort of. How can people mention de Stijl and Rem Koolhaas when referring to future Rotterdam's cultural development while Mad and other media spectacular designers are pasting their urban gadgets? Also why some major Dutch architects such as Kees Kaan , Wiel Arets, Felix Claus are not involved yet?