Beijing-based Mad Architects has announced that its design for the Fenix Museum of Migration in Rotterdam will shortly open to the public.
Commissioned by the Droom en Daad (Dreams Come True) Foundation, the project is the first art gallery to make migration its central theme.
The 8,000 sq m building is located inside a 16,000 sq m warehouse on the Katendrecht peninsula. This was once the largest of its kind, and was owned by the Holland America Line, a company that transported millions of migrants from Europe to America.
The museum’s centrepiece is the Tornado, a staircase in the form of a double-helix that rises from the ground floor and bursts through the roof, where it ends in a viewing platform that appears to hover above the city.
Ma Yansong, Mad Architects’ founder, said: “When we were asked to work on Fenix, we knew we had to create a dialogue with the existing building and its surroundings – and with a past containing so many stories of migration, memories and uncertainty.
“The Tornado is all about the future, but it’s rooted in the past. For me, it’s a metaphor for the journeys of migrants who passed through this building.”
The museum will open to the public on 16 May.
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