MVRDV has won an international competition to design the most "Saxy" mixed-use tower of Rotterdam, combined with rhythmic pixelated facade and an orange-coloured lateral volume, crosscutting two interconnected towers. MVRDV's "the Saxiest" tower will rise between the New Luxor Theater and the Boston & Seattle residential towers.

Called The Sax, a 51 floor mixed-use tower will be added to Rotterdam’s renowned Wilhelminapier historic port development consisting of Rotterdam's harbour basins and quays - firmly established as one of its most popular and spectacular areas.

The Sax, drawing a distinctive character along with the port, will occupy a 82,000 square-metre surface area and will include 450 apartments, a hotel, wellness centre, parking, congress and varied commercial facilities.

Image © WAX Architectural Visualisations

Two towers - called Philadelphia & Havana - are interlocked with a massive lateral volume, which will host a 15-room hotel - acting like "an air bridge" and connects two towers with dramatic appearance. The Sax will include numerous commercial facilities consisting of restaurants, shops, bars and cafes that bring diversity to the streets and quays. 

"It reads like a vertical city but is also strongly rooted in contributing to the public life of the Kop van Zuid," said MVRDV. 

Image © MVRDV

The Sax points Rotterdam's historic context with its recognisable silhouette with its main layout adopted for housing distribution in towers that are about 70 to 150 meters high and connected by an air bridge in which the 150 room hotel is located.  

"Inside the building, all main rooms are situated within the bay-windowed facade meaning that all apartments benefit from the maximum amount of daylight enhanced by 270-degree panoramic views of the Nieuwe Maas and city. On top of the hotel at 80 meters high, there is a public terrace," added the studio.

"Rotterdam is more and more a city of towers and The Sax will add a new element to this collection," said Jacob van Rijs, co-founder of MVRDV. 

Image © WAX Architectural Visualisations

"The façade features a contemporary reinterpretation of the bay window, providing views for each unit with the advantage of allowing individual and unique apartments in this large collective complex. This windowed effect adds an extra dimension in experiencing the view onto Rotterdam. The plinth and the bridge which contains a hotel will be open to the public making Wilheminapier even more lively."

"The scale and character of the developments of Wilhelminapier over the last decade have contributed to a recognisable city silhouette with an ensemble of towers populating the Kop van Zuid skyline," said the studio.

The Sax will be the latest addition to Rotterdam’s skyline thus contributing to the city’s now recognisable 'Manhattan On the Maas.’ A residential building that is designed from the inside to the outside and therefore looks so distinctive, with no repetitive facades but a building with a diverse and more individual appearance.

Image © MVRDV

The design of The Sax is inspired by the distribution of recent towers and this gives a special sense of repetitiveness by considering the rhythm of the city. 

"It represents musicality, character and elegance, but also variation and improvisation. It also stands for the rough and unpolished; a raw tone; all metaphors echoing its historic port location from which a brand new building emerges as a new soundwave for Rotterdam," expalied the studio.

MVRDV will work together with ARUP on this project, including façade design and sustainability. Construction work is expected to start in 2018 and complete by the end of 2022.

Top image © MVRDV

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