Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot: A innovative & experimental manifestation or a political & economical tool

Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot: A innovative & experimental manifestation or a political & economical tool

Hu, Joan (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

Panigyrakis, P.I. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

AR2A011

2021-04-15

Between 2013 and 2016 a striking number of 11665 architecture competitions were held in the EU, which is around 3888 competitions per year. Competitions were a way to be innovative, experimental and idealistic. However, due to the strike regulations and entry requirements, small businesses and young architects are often excluded. The question whether and how a building would be built or not becomes a political and social discussion. So considering the above, can architectural competitions still be considered to be innovative and experimental, as their organizers claim?This research will focus on Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot in Rotterdam. The 61,5 million euro project designed by MVRDV will be finished in September 2021. The design is the winning design out of the international competition where 47 firms participated in. The selection committee chose five designs to continue to the final round, the five firms included: MVRDV, MAD/NIO/Okra, Neutelings Riedijk, Koen van Velsen and Zwitserse Harry Gugger/Barcode Architects. The interest in the competition will be who the judges were and how they selected the winning design, the various designs will be compared using simple drawing. Despite winning the competition, MVRDV was almost disqualified from the competition, due to a mistake by Sjarel Ex, the director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. After the court declared they were the winner, various parties such as the government and surrounding institutes doubted if the building should be built. The main reasons for the disagreements were based on political standpoints, concerns on vision of the museum park and health concerns created by the mirror façade. In order to receive the building permit, compensation had to be made with the respective parties. What were the difficulties Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen faced in order to achieve this? Was the choice of MVRDV’s design over others a notion of innovation and change or political and economical?

AR2A011
Architecture Competition
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen

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© 2021 Joan Hu