Rotterdam opens Portlantis ‘storytelling machine’ to explore city’s past, present and future
The huge Portlantis constructing in Rotterdam celebrates the previous, current and way forward for Europe’s largest port, and the spirit of an underdog metropolis. The centre, billed as “a machine for storytelling”, is certainly one of a collection of recent cultural points of interest in a metropolis recognized for innovation and experimentation.
We is likely to be persistently blown away by the sheer scale of worldwide ports with their monster cargo ships, cranes, acres of containers stacked like Lego bricks and fleets of vans, however how many people actually understand how a port operates?
Rotterdam, the most important and busiest in Europe, is demystifying its previous, current and trying to the longer term with the brand new Portlantis, a large customer and exhibition centre designed by famend Rotterdam-based structure agency MVRDV and positioned on the port’s southwestern nook.
Constructed as 5 rotated areas with an outer pink staircase to the rooftop, the constructing is surrounded by dunes, with views out to the North Sea and to the large cargo docks. The no-nonsense industrial design was masterminded by architect Winy Maas, certainly one of MVRDV’s founding companions.
The mission, commissioned and funded by the Rotterdam Port Authority, is near Maas’ coronary heart.
“As a child I fell in love with this panorama of bins and I biked and hiked round these gigantic buildings. It’s the reverse of the cuteness we affiliate with the Netherlands,” says Maas.
“The query was methods to compete with the windmills, ships and containers? The construction is comprised of the supplies of the port — recycled metal, which is proof against salt, mud and wind.”
Positioned on Maasvlakte II, an unlimited synthetic land extension 44km from the town centre, Portlantis’ design upholds “round economic system” rules, and is absolutely energy-neutral because of environment friendly insulation, 266 photo voltaic panels and its personal wind turbine.
Its type echoes the port’s stacked containers, however boasts panoramic home windows and a hovering 22m atrium hung with a large kinetic sculpture that includes chrome yellow symbols of the port reminiscent of a sequence and anchor.
“It feels a bit James Bond,” smiles Maas — however inside, the exhibition centre is extra Willy Wonka. Designed by Herman Kossman of Kossmanndejong and Portlantis’ inventive director Piet-Hurt Robust, the three-storey present addresses totally different themes of previous, current and future.
“The perform and operation of the port is so complicated,” says Robust of their mission to spotlight and animate the port’s operations: myriad vans and warehouses, 80 container ships docking daily, petro-chemical industries processing crude oil, and the potential for a greener future forward.
“All the things you would possibly use in a day out of your sneakers to a banana, water bottle, to washing machines, furnishings and bike elements, very probably handed via the port. Sixty % of the stuff round us has a reference to Rotterdam port. It’s meals for thought if you go dwelling,” says Robust.
The primary flooring is all about at the moment’s port — transport, cargo, trade and infrastructure — and features a chemical lab and a workshop. The second flooring explores the impression of the port on the economic system, employment and setting, and third considers the way forward for the port via improvements and power transition.
Every zone is immersive, and interactive with video games, workshops and simple to digest info. On reaching the third flooring, guests are given iPads to discover potential options and outcomes because the port reinvents itself within the nation’s bid to be carbon impartial by 2050, with offshore wind, biofuel manufacturing and battery recycling all potential choices. There’s even a digital actuality helicopter journey that simulates a daredevil flight over the port.
At current, says Robust, 50% of commerce is linked to fossil gasoline. On the environmental word, a collection of vitrines are devoted to the natural world, together with many uncommon birds.
Portlantis is small however punchy, and is geared toward a broad viewers — everybody from college pupils and college students contemplating a profession within the port to company guests, worldwide port authorities and most people.
Eileen Niks, Portlantis Programme Supervisor, estimates an annual footfall of 150,000 guests. The roof high restaurant and a stroll throughout the dunes is an enormous plus.
The centre, billed as “a machine for storytelling”, is certainly one of a collection of recent cultural points of interest in Rotterdam, a metropolis recognized for its progressive considering and experimentation.
With a ten% uptick in customer numbers in 2024, Rotterdam will quickly see the launch of Fenix Museum, the world’s first centre devoted to migration, and the reopening of Netherlands Photograph Museum in its new dwelling, a former 1903 espresso warehouse within the docklands space. It looks as if the previous underdog metropolis is coming into its personal.
Bombed in the course of the Second World Battle, the fashionable cityscape is the other of historic Amsterdam, it’s dwelling to thriving world architectural practices together with MVDRV and OMA, and a buoyant design scene with makers benefiting from empty industrial areas and low rents. However as Portlantis demonstrates, a lot of its economic system and id revolves across the port.
“We’re not Paris, Rome or Amsterdam,” says vice mayor Robert Simons. “We’re focussed on innovation — and the power of the port can felt within the metropolis’s coronary heart.”
