MVRDV designs a ‘disco ball’ for Rotterdam

Dutch firm MVRDV unveiled a new project to add to what Fast Company calls its “unorthodox architecture portfolio”—an arts building in Rotterdam that resembles a disco ball cut in half.

Called the Collectiegebouw (Dutch for "collection building"), the building “will make public the city’s extensive art collection, and give visitors a look at how museums work backstage,” Fast Company reports. It is proposed to be part of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam’s Museumpark.

The building’s reflective façade will help it blend with its park surroundings by reflecting greenery. In total, the project is 14,000 sm (or 150,694 sf), and includes a public sculpture park on its outdoor grounds.

Inside, visitors will be able to witness the backstage activity that happens at museums: restoration, transport, and storage of art.

"It is fantastic that the public art depot will be realized," Winy Maas, Principal Architect and Co-founder of MVRDV, told Fast Company. "In this way the entire population can share something that is normally hidden behind closed doors."

For the design of the newly completed Sorol Art Museum in Gangneung, South Korea, Meier Partners drew from Korean Confucianism to achieve a simplicity of form, material, and composition and a harmonious relationship with nature. The museum is scheduled to open on February 14. It is the firm’s first completed project since restructuring as Meier Partners.

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