MVRDV has released the new photographs of the Public Art Depot in Museumpark Rotterdam, which will be the world’s first publicly accessible Art Depot in Rotterdam. 

Designed for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the reflective bowl-shaped building has topped out yesterday with a ceremony in Rotterdam and the first mirrored panels have been applied to the curved mirror façade. 

The project, named Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, is led by Winy Maas - principal architect and co-founder of MVRDV and Maas said: "It is fantastic that the public art depot will be realised. In this way the entire population can share something that is normally hidden behind closed doors."

The topping-out ceremony was celebrated by the Stichting Collectiegebouw consortium – which comprises the museum, the municipality of Rotterdam, and Stichting De Verre Bergen – and MVRDV’s founding-partner-in-charge of the project, Winy Maas.

The depot will host the museum’s archive of 151,000 artworks and, unlike other art storage archives, will be fully accessible to the public, who will be able to see the work that takes place behind the scenes of the museum. 

Alternatively, visitors will be able to visit the rooftop café, surrounded by 75 birch trees planted on the project’s roof. At a height of 39.5 metres and with a façade consisting of 1,664 panels of curved, mirrored glass, the project will reflect and celebrate the city skyline.

The topping-out ceremony is a major milestone in the construction of the world’s first fully accessible art storage facility, which this summer also saw the installation of its dramatic atrium staircases and the first panels in its trademark curved mirror façade. The project is scheduled for completion in 2020 and will open to the public in 2021, after the museum’s art collection has been relocated.

Construction of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is being led by BAM. A live feed of the construction progress can be found at the website. 

Image © MVRDV

Image © MVRDV

Image © MVRDV

Image © MVRDV

Image © MVRDV 

Image © MVRDV 

Image © MVRDV

All images © Ossip van Duivenbode unless otherwise stated.

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