Archinect - News

MVRDV updates Expo 2000 Pavilion transformation in Hannover

2024-11-22T16:39:00-05:00

MVRDV has updated its progress on the adaptive reuse of the Dutch Expo 2000 Pavilion in the German city of Hannover. The project will yield two new buildings surrounding the renovated pavilion—an original MVRDV design that's set to be transformed into a co-working office facility with a third-floor garden, maintaining the "stacked landscape" concept critical to the original. The pavilion had sat abandoned for 23 years before construction began.

Image courtesy MVRDV via Threads

MVRDV adds a protective design to Aldo van Eyck's Tripolis complex in Amsterdam

2024-11-05T15:41:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed the restoration of Aldo Van Eyck’s Tripolis Park office complex in Amsterdam.

The project, which founder Winy Maas says was deeply personal to him as a fan of the eccentric late Structuralist master, re-establishes two buildings within the monumental original design to cater to Uber and other high-end tenants while greening the site and constructing a new 12-story 'landscraper' to protect against vehicular noise pollution.

Image: © Ossip van Duivenbode

The complex links to one of Van Eyck’s most beloved designs, the Amsterdam Orphanage from 1960. MVRDV felt it was their responsibility to protect both its future and the architectural character of the Tripolis buildings’ facades—an act which required careful research done in unison with surviving Van Eyck family members and his available archives.

Image: © Ossip van Duivenbode

The work they performed thereafter included adding an all-wood cladding material outside, while designing a more usable office environment i...

MVRDV delivers 'diamond'-encrusted facade for Tiffany’s newest Shanghai location

2024-07-08T14:09:00-04:00

MVRDV has shared details of its latest design, the new Tiffany & Co. location in Shanghai’s Taikoo Li Qiantan retail development, featuring a glittering imitation of a diamond-encrusted facade.

Image © Wen Studio

The firm’s newest project for the jeweler follows last year's coral-inspired 3D design at the Singapore Changi Airport and utilizes a screen made from 6,988 handcrafted glass 'diamonds' to produce an effect that offers many variances depending on the time of day.

Image © Wen Studio

Behind the screen, an in-store café and accompanying balcony separate the showroom areas and private salons that are included on every floor. The 3.3-pound glass jewels are suspended from steel cables and given a mirrored steel finish to complete the effect, held together finally by specially designed steel fixtures positioned to prevent them from moving or spinning on their supports.

Image © Wen Studio

The facade component is completely dismantleable and will have its parts reused or recycled afte...

MVRDV and other Dutch studios look into the future with the speculative 'WHAT-IF: Nederland 2100' study on urbanism and adaptability

2024-07-05T12:20:00-04:00

The consequences that climate change presents to the future natural and built environment of the Netherlands have led to a new study on urbanism titled 'WHAT-IF: Nederland 2100,' produced by a trio of Dutch studios that includes MVRDV, IMOSS, and Feddes/Olthof. The research is aimed at adaptability and features a series of feasible plans to greet such challenges while showing how the country can "live with nature, provide housing and quality of life, protect its cultural heritage, and adapt its economy to a new normal."

Image courtesy MVRDV

Importantly, the authors say, these pragmatic potential solutions can be studied and applied to the situations of nearly 900 million global residents who are similarly imperiled by their lives in low-lying areas.

Image courtesy MVRDV

A 'decision matrix' is employed to answer all possible scenarios, including the maximum predicted global warming. In the end, the cities in the east become 'hyper-dense,' while the currently more populated large citie...

MVRDV transforms 19th Century structure into new multifunctional NIO House Amsterdam HQ

2024-06-14T17:22:00-04:00

MVRDV’s remade space for the electric automaker NIO has opened in Amsterdam. The Chinese brand’s new European flagship offers just over 29,000 square feet of showrooms and other spaces carved out of a seven-story heritage structure in the Keizersgracht district that's held over from the 19th Century.

Partner Jacob van Rijs says: “The exciting challenge of this project was in unifying the history of this building with the identity of NIO, a company which in many senses is interested in offering a vision of the future. In a sense, we are confronting the same challenge that Rietveld resolved so gracefully 90 years ago. NIO House Amsterdam shows how the old and the new can provide a counterpoint for one another and ultimately enrich each other.”

Image: © Ossip van Duivenbode

The building has changed hands several times throughout its long history after originally being constructed for the New York Life Insurance Company in 1891. Special features include a second-floor “Joy Camp” childre...

MVRDV reveals tribune-shaped, mixed-use design with communal terraces

2024-05-13T11:46:00-04:00

MVRDV has unveiled its design for a tribune-shaped, mixed-use building in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Located in the city’s revitalized Strijp-S neighborhood, the project, called the Strijp-S Tribune, includes a mixture of social housing, mid-sector rental units, commercial spots, and outdoor spaces organized through large, stepped terraces.

The building will stand along the Ketelhuisplein, a lively public square that hosts a range of events and recreational activities throughout the year. Formerly defined by its industrial presence, the area has transformed into the cultural heart of Eindhoven, with a mixture of creative companies and residents now inhabiting repurposed factories and newly constructed high-rises. This history has informed the shape of the Strijp-S Tribune.

Image: MVRDV

At its tallest, the building stands eight stories tall. It steps down to two stories alongside the plaza of the Ketelhuisplein. The stepping shape allows the structure to fit neatly with its surroun...

Construction starts on MVRDV's new Berlin mixed-use development

2024-03-17T08:00:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the MVRDV-designed LXK Office and Residential Campus in Berlin. The mixed-use complex will add needed office and residential space to a rapidly developing part of the city.

The project is located in the Friedrichshain district. It spans approximately 658,751 square feet and features abundant office, commercial, and residential space. The complex consists of two L-shaped volumes, with the residential component consolidated into a single block. The corners of each volume open up to create an accessible green, public square. This divide allows the project to integrate itself sensitively into the scale of the surroundings.

Image © MVRDV

One of the most distinguishing features of the development is its single continuous luminous band that wraps horizontally around each structure. The band unifies the fragmented structure into a single form. This component is further activated by green, accessible terraces that offer views into the surrounding city. It also hosts ...

MVRDV begins construction on overhaul of old Shanghai cement factory

2024-02-12T11:16:00-05:00

A team led by MVRDV has begun construction on a leisure and cultural district in Shanghai on the site of a disused cement factory. Named Gate M West Bund Dream Center, the project will transform a collection of buildings of different styles and time periods, “adapting a former industrial zone while making use of the existing structures and thus minimizing carbon emissions,” according to the team.

Image credit: Ucharm

Under the MVRDV scheme, developed with co-architect AISA, landscape architect Field Operations, and interior architects CL3 and Xu Studio, a series of disused buildings will be linked in a “cohesive whole” by a network of bright orange paths, stairs, ramps, and bridges. The site is organized around key landscaped axes including a central spine linking both ends of the district, while a “three-dimensional promenade” is created by a series of landscaped rooftops, elevated riverbank terraces, and a network of staircases and elevators finished in a defining orange color.

Ima...

MVRDV plans a new 'Green Heart' in the center of Düsseldorf

2024-01-10T20:30:00-05:00

MVRDV has released updated renderings and other details about its forthcoming Grüne Mitte (or “Green Heart”) plan that calls for a redesigned new green district in the culturally rich German city of Düsseldorf.

The firm’s plan, which entails the construction of a colorful residential component totaling 500 units (half of which are considered social housing) around a small landscaped public space from fellow Dutch designers LOLA, was the product of an intensive community input process that included members of the diverse Flingern-Süd community.

The area has been considered a "hot spot" for squatting since the end of the 1980s and features equally popular shopping spaces and a parking structure that was built only 11 years ago before the land was acquired by the developers Cube Real Estate.

Image © MVDRV

As part of that process, residents selected the Green Heart proposal from a trio of outline primers. Their solution calls for a 36% reduction in paved areas, with a new...

MVRDV completes colorful HAUS 1 office conversion in Berlin

2023-12-04T14:24:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed work on a vibrant new conversion project in Berlin called HAUS 1 that reworked an aging office building from 1997 into a new hub for innovation and community.

Other than the eye-catching canary color finish, the project is visually dominated by an extended grand external staircase. A new terraced timber pavilion space is enacted on the rooftop, completed by an arrangement of native plants and constructed using a palette of bio-based materials. Inside, floorplans are altered to maximize flexibility. Other important aspects of the design include low-temperature underfloor heating and a rainwater harvesting system that will help the building to function sustainably year-round.

Photo © Lukas Drobny

MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs says: “The newly transformed HAUS 1 is more than a gateway to this unique campus devoted to impact. It is a representation of the Atelier Gardens community and their commitment to chart a different vision of society...

MVRDV begins construction on 'urban oasis' mixed-use concept for Paris

2023-11-29T12:44:00-05:00

MVRDV is behind a newly commenced mixed-use housing tract called La Serre, to be located in the Paris region’s ZAC Léon Blum eco-district at Issy-les-Moulineaux.

The firm’s project announcement details an 18-story development defined by its open facade with a landscaped vertical village provided by landscape architect Alice Tricon.

MVRDV says a total of 390 trees will be planted throughout the structure, helping to defy “traditional housing norms” in order to present a refreshed take on urban dwelling that’s in tune with Paris’ need for biodiversity and constructed using a host of low-carbon materials.

Image: © ENGRAM

The city’s Mayor, André Santini, said: “The project prioritizes nature, placing it at the forefront while the building recedes into the background. This urban oasis is not just a residential space; it's a genuine village square.”

Image: © ENGRAM

An open steel rack superstructure hosts the carefully selected slate of 150 different (mostly native) plant species while provi...

MVRDV and Orange Architects introduce master plan for new mixed-use district in Kyiv

2023-11-27T13:58:00-05:00

MVRDV and Orange Architects have announced a new master plan for a mixed-used district in Kyiv, Ukraine, that's meant to spark a revitalization of the capital’s downtown commercial area.

The design for the NUVO complex calls for a five-building mix of new structures united by a central shared infrastructure and connecting to a planned high-speed rail extension. The plan will increase pedestrianism in the area while tying its development to core principles of sustainable building and green design, the architects say. The project features a palette of local materials to “showcase” the architectural products of manufacturer (and the property's developer) Kovalska and expands on a pre-Russian-invasion master plan from APA Wojcehowski Architects.

Rendering: Wizard 3D Studio, image courtesy MVRDV and Orange Architects

MVRDV’s portion calls for a pair of new buildings to be designed around potential future adaptations. The larger, L-shaped 18-story tower uses flexible floor plans to offer ...

MVRDV sets its feet in Boston with a two-tower residential design near Harvard University

2023-11-02T14:54:00-04:00

A new residential project in Boston from MVRDV and co-architect Moody Nolan will deliver much-needed housing accommodations for the burgeoning Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) district on the southern edge of Harvard University in Allston, Massachusetts.

The scheme remade a former industrial site located across from the Harvard Business School on Western Avenue into a new urban district with a 343-unit housing component (25% of which is considered ‘affordable’), new green spaces, and areas reserved for local small businesses.

Developed by Tishman Speyer using a master plan from Studio Gang and Henning Larsen, the district will serve as an innovation center with added laboratories, an office component, hotel, and a new conference center for the university. MVRDV says it will be sited in the middle of the plan, offering a connection to the Greenway, a two-acre open space linking to the Charles River. Local mainstays Utile, Inc. are also contributing to the master plan's landscape des...

MVRDV designs residential master plan as new neighborhood for Brussels

2023-10-24T15:34:00-04:00

MVRDV has released details of their master plan for Tour & Taxis Lake Side in Brussels, Belgium. The master plan consists of 17 buildings designed by seven different architects including MVRDV, adding 800 residential units to the area.

Image credit: RZGraphics

The master plan is split into three sections. A mixed office and housing campus to the east contains large-scale buildings, including cross-laminated timber and lightweight hybrid structures. The middle section, meanwhile, sees 14 individual buildings clustered around a public garden. The ground floors of the buildings contain public amenities and shops, while all 14 buildings hold either green or energy-producing roofs. The third section of the master plan blends the dense neighborhood into the adjacent Tour & Taxis Park, with a more open space punctuated by a tower known as the Park Building.

Image credit: RZGraphics

The plan contains a range of housing types, including two buildings providing co-living apartments. The master ...

MVRDV completes transformation of communist-era Tirana Pyramid monument in Albania

2023-10-17T20:11:00-04:00

The transformation of an aging brutalist monument to communism into a new tech education center geared toward teenagers in the capital city of Albania has been officially inaugurated following a three-and-a-half-year revitalization effort led by MVRDV.

The project remade the 127,000-square-foot Pyramid of Tirana, first established as a museum dedicated to the legacy of dictator Enver Hoxha in 1988, into the centerpiece of a new cultural hub and park space located in the heart of the city.

Image: © Ossip van Duivenbode/MVRDV

Brightly-colored boxes are stacked within, around, and on top of the original structure, providing areas for education and events programming, while the addition of outdoor steps to its sloping beams creates intriguing new public space possibilities for visitors. Some see it as a testament to the country’s dogged ability to overcome the collective memory of the Hoxha regime. MVRDV hopes it will turn into a “carrier” for the cult...

MVRDV transforms 1990s Shenzhen tower into ‘vibrant and colorful skyscraper’

2023-10-09T11:56:00-04:00

Construction has been completed on the MVRDV-designed Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre, transforming an old mixed-use tower in the Chinese megacity into a “vibrant and colorful skyscraper.” The 330-foot-tall tower contains a hotel alongside a range of facilities for the welfare of women and children.

Image credit: Xia Zhi

The original tower was completed in 1994 during a period of rapid growth in Shenzhen. Plagued by two decades of fire safety concerns, the tower remained largely empty until the decision in 2019 to overhaul the building.

Existing tower before MVRDV's commission. Image credit: MVRDV

Image credit: Xia Zhi

MVRDV’s proposal for the tower saw the existing structure reused in an effort to avoid the carbon cost of demolishing and rebuilding. The most visible aspect of the transformation is a new facade featuring a grid of multicolored exterior frames. The new three-foot-deep envelope is designed to provide extra shading while also incorporating openable panels for natural v...

MVRDV and Van Boven Architecten complete high school alma mater renovation in the Netherlands

2023-09-29T14:56:00-04:00

MVRDV has announced the completion of their Van Boven Architecten co-designed Gymnasium Beekvliet renovation project in the Netherlands.

The alma mater of both Winy Maas and Theobert van Boven was once the nation’s leading catholic seminary and was later used as an internment camp for political prisoners of the occupying Nazi regime during Worl War II before being modernized into a new grammar school in the early 1970s.

“I went to school at Beekvliet myself, as did one of my children, and my wife is also a teacher there. These connections strongly motivate me to design a unique and special building that does justice to the school’s rich history,” van Boven said in a preview last year.

Image: © Daria Scagliola/MVRDV

Located in the village of Sint-Michielsgestel near Eindhoven, the school now features a unifying new auditorium addition at the center of the school that’s meant to improve circulation. An existing classroom building and plaza area were also renovated. Ian Kirkpatrick, a C...

MVRDV completes ‘The Canyon’ tower in San Francisco inspired by California’s geology

2023-06-27T11:17:00-04:00

MVRDV has completed a mixed-use tower in San Francisco inspired by geology. Named ‘The Canyon,’ the 23-story scheme is part of a wider master plan along the city’s waterfront to create a sustainable community named Mission Rock.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

The Canyon is one of four buildings to be delivered as part of the first phase of the Mission Rock neighborhood, which also includes designs by Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and WorkAC. Occupying the northwest corner of the neighborhood, The Canyon is grounded by a five-story plinth topped by a 240-foot-tall tower.

A ground floor of small-scale shops and restaurants is topped by two floors of offices, while the tower contains 283 apartments. Over a third of the apartments are rented at below market rate, with residents selected via a lottery process, providing 102 homes for middle-income families in response to the city’s housing crisis.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

The development features a ruggedly textured red-brown facade, while a...

MVRDV begins construction on Chengdu scheme inspired by bamboo-weaving traditions

2023-06-16T11:48:00-04:00

Construction has commenced on the MVRDV-designed Chengdu Jiaozi Courtyard Towers in the city’s financial district. The mixed-use complex comprises three office towers and a conference center sitting atop a ring-shaped plinth, with an architectural language that “recalls the traditional structures once located on the site.”

Image credit: Atchain

The three offers towers measure 262, 328, and 426 feet in height, respectively, and each occupies a corner of the square site. Below, the conference center serves as the “eye-catching addition to the site’s most prominent corner,” with a large cantilever and facade details inspired by the region’s bamboo-weaving traditions.

Image credit: Atchain

In contrast to the square arrangement of the towers and conference center, the base of the ensemble sees a ring-shaped connecting plinth creating a round courtyard. Located adjacent to the conference center, the plinth steps down to street level to “welcome people to the center of the site.”

Image credi...

MVRDV's new demountable science building has over 120,000 reusable components

2023-05-25T19:36:00-04:00

Construction of MVRDV’s Matrix ONE project, a laboratory and office building in the heart of Amsterdam Science Park, has been completed.

The six-story, 140,000-square-foot structure is the largest of seven buildings that now make up the Matrix Innovation Center, a site for scientists and entrepreneurs to develop sustainable solutions for current and future issues.

Image: MVRDV / © Daria Scagliola

As the main hub at the Center, Matrix ONE aims to be a guiding example to the other buildings at the Amsterdam Science Park. The building was made to be demountable, in which connections such as screws and bolts allow elements to be detached and reused. In addition, its floors are made using prefabricated concrete slabs with no fixed connections.

Image: MVRDV / © Daria Scagliola

The platform Madaster was used to provide a material passport system that registers all the materials and products incorporated in the building. It provides insight into the carbon dioxide storage for over 120,000 ...

MVRDV begins Expo 2000 Pavilion adaptive reuse transformation

2023-05-16T13:19:00-04:00

MVRDV has shared details on their efforts to revitalize the firm’s former Dutch Expo 2000 Pavilion design into a new, mixed-use development in Hannover, Germany.

According to the firm, the project will transform the aging structure into a new anchor of a three-building development called iLive EXPO Campus after a successful 90 million Euro ($97.8 million USD) fundraising campaign led by iLive and Die Wohnkompanie Nord.

The structure had sat abandoned since its completion 23 years ago, often attracting illegal visits from architects eager for a peek at its three-level interior that has since become overgrown with the local flora while retaining its original structural integrity.

Image © MVRDV and © iLive Expo Campus

“The theme of the Dutch entry for Expo 2000 was ‘Holland Creates Space,’ and we did exactly that in 2000 by stacking typical Dutch landscapes up to 40 meters high, so that a large wild garden could be created around the pavilion,” MVRD...

MVRDV unveils plans for green and porous residential building in Montevideo

2023-05-09T18:43:00-04:00

The construction permit for MVRDV's 15-story residential building "Ziel" in Montevideo, Uruguay has been approved, marking the Dutch architectural firm's first venture in the country. The building, designed for developer IXOU in collaboration with executive architect Monoblock, is set to transform city living with its unique design centered around light, air, and green spaces.

Situated a block away from the ocean and adjacent to Villa Biarritz Park in the dense Punta Carretas neighborhood, the design of Ziel utilizes its deep plot and neighboring buildings' blind walls to create an open and permeable structure. The project includes a courtyard and a series of individual homes stacked loosely to ensure each apartment receives adequate sunlight, while extending the park's greenery throughout the structure.

Envisioned as a stack of country villas within a bustling city, the project includes 40 apartments, each with generous balconies or loggias. The ...

MVRDV reveals 'ecology-first' master plan for health and technology campus

2023-04-18T08:00:00-04:00

MVRDV has designed what the firm describes as a “pointillist” master plan for a health and technology campus in the Dutch city of Nijmegen.

The project aims to reimagine the Noviotech Campus by unifying the currently disjointed campus buildings and adding new buildings in the empty spaces between them while merging the site into the surrounding city. The design team says it's taking an “ecology-first” approach by transforming the campus into a nature-inclusive landscape that connects the neighboring Goffertpark, one of the city’s largest green spaces, and the adjacent Jonkerbos War Cemetery to designated green corridors nearby.

Image © MVRDV

The master plan preserves six of the seven pre-existing large buildings on the site, including one that will be renovated. The buildings will serve as a grid into which new buildings are added over time over three phases of development. The campus aims to eventually expand to approximately three million square feet of leasable space.

A green sp...

MVRDV’s Winy Maas to curate biennale on threatened Van Gogh landscapes

2023-04-17T13:36:00-04:00

MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas has been selected as curator for the Van Gogh Homeland Biennale. Set to launch in 2025, the event will draw attention to the Brabant landscapes in the Netherlands which featured in many Vincent Van Gogh paintings more than a hundred years ago and are now under threat from climate change.

Image credit: MVRDV

The Biennale is part of a broader collaboration between Midpoint Brabant, MVRDV, and the Van Gogh Homeland Foundation, which aims to raise public awareness of the challenges faced by the Dutch landscape, where the number of flood events is increasing, and tensions are rising between farmers, cities, industries, and nature lovers over land use.

The team hopes that a blend of architecture, landscape design, sustainability, and leisure backgrounds will “show in an attractive and accessible way how the landscape that inspired Vincent van Gogh 150 years ago can be made more sustainable and greener in the future.”

Image credit: MVRDV

The Biennale will in...

MVRDV completes stunning new green-roofed wholesale market in Taiwan

2023-02-23T12:41:00-05:00

MVRDV has shared photos of its just-completed “ambitious architectural experiment” wholesale produce market project in Tainan, Taiwan.

The firm’s second foray into the country, open-air Tainan Market features a publicly-accessible green roof, punctuated at one end by an office structure, that can be further adapted for agricultural use while providing users a stepped vista onto the market floor and surrounding landscape beyond.

The design team says: “Tainan Market represents an ambitious architectural experiment. Here, MVRDV reinvents the typology of the wholesale market — a building type that is usually housed in simple metal sheds — and turns it into a mixture of a market and a public green space. In doing so, the design takes an often-prosaic part of the food industry and elevates it into a place for the public to experience food and appreciate views of the landscape.”

The market is ...

MVRDV’s Nathalie de Vries included on Forbes 50 Over 50 EMEA list

2023-02-06T12:10:00-05:00

MVRDV co-founder Nathalie de Vries is among 50 women to be included in the Forbes 50 Over 50: Europe, Middle East, and Africa 2023 list. Building on the inaugural 2022 edition, the list is intended to honor “foundations, business, and political leaders, scientists, and vanguards leading the way throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”

“Dutch architect Nathalie de Vries puts the “DV” in Rotterdam-based design firm MVRDV,” Forbes writes. “A founding partner of the firm, De Vries has designed everything from three Dutch national monuments to co-working spaces and hotels to the unique, multi-use Baltyk Tower in Poland—one of the many major projects she’s completed after turning 50. Her urban designs focus on sustainability and innovation and have won awards such as the Amsterdamprijs and architecture’s prominent Architizer A+ Award.”

"Being named to this list really ca...

MVRDV produces a catalogue for cities facing sea level rise as part of Vancouver competition

2023-01-30T10:51:00-05:00

MVRDV has released a series of proposals to respond to rising sea levels in Vancouver. Working as part of a North Creek Collective team, the Dutch firm produced a catalogue of options for adaptive buildings aimed to inspire other coastal cities to “undertake immediate action to adapt to climate change.”

Concept for Coopers' Park, Vancouver for 2040. Image credit: MVRDV

The catalogue was originally produced as part of North Creek Collective’s entry to Vancouver’s Sea2City Design Challenge, a contest that invited teams to investigate the urban future of a body of water at the heart of Vancouver named False Creek. In contrast to typical responses to sea level rise that concentrate on defensive measures such as flood barriers and dikes, the catalogue asks the question: “what if cities learned to work with water, rather than against it?”

Concept for In Between Bridges, Vancouver for 2040. Image credit: MVRDV

The catalogue responds with a variety of possible solutions for adapting waterfron...

MVRDV and GRAS complete phase one of Project Gomila, a mixed-use district in Mallorca

2022-12-22T14:16:00-05:00

The first phase of a collaborative residential design between MVRDV and GRAS Reynes Arquitectos called Project Gomila has opened in Mallorca, Spain.

Located in the city’s El Terreno district, the project will eventually bequeath 60 new dwellings in plots surrounding the Plaza Gamila that were purchased by the Fluxa Family, owners of the popular Mallorca-based shoe brand Camper, in order to initiate an urban renewal strategy in line with their business philosophy.

“In terms of urbanism, the concept revolves around the diversity of the buildings,” MVRDV's Winy Maas explains the design. “Where some of the designs are more suited to family homes, others are more suited for apartments for singles or couples; where some buildings are fully residential, others bring commercial functions into the mix. This diversity of people and spaces will help bring back El Terreno’s lost vibrancy.”

Image ©

Phase One’s bu...

MVRDV launches digital tool that lays out design possibilities for Rotterdam's rooftops

2022-11-28T17:21:00-05:00

At the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, MVRDV’s computational design arm MVRDV NEXT, multidisciplinary planning organization Superworld, and the Municipality of Rotterdam announced RoofScape, a software that visualizes potential uses for rooftops in Rotterdam.

RoofScape was designed to be used by both professionals and citizens while being detailed enough to assist policymakers and urban planners. As noted in MVRDV’s press announcement, rooftops have become one of Rotterdam’s urban planning priorities. This program builds on prior work between MVRDV and the Dutch city, who launched Rooftop Catalog in 2021, a book containing 130 suggestions for how rooftops can be utilized to increase Rotterdam’s density. The suggestions range from providing more housing and leisure spaces to fostering biodiversity and energy generation.

Image courtesy of MVRDV

The software works by color-coding roofs by what uses they can support. The possibilities are determined through a wide range of ...

MVRDV completes Gaîté Montparnasse block transformation in the heart of Paris

2022-11-08T16:42:00-05:00

MVRDV has shared details on its just-completed Gaîté Montparnasse block renovation in the French capital.

The project transformed Pierre Dufau’s once iconic 1974 Ilôt Vandamme design into a more welcoming mixed-use site just south of the Tour Montparnasse facing Avenue du Maine.

“This piece of the city was like an island of ‘70s nostalgia — a tower with no visible entrance, and a plinth where you could get lost between the pedestrian slabs and automobile boulevards,” MVRDV founder Winy Maas explained. “The first step in the design was a study to fragment the block and to make sustainable density — adding new programs such as homes and revealing hidden ones like the library. It created a kind of explosion of buildings that combines large and small scale, existing and new programs, where everything mixes and opens up to the city with lobbies and windows of varying scales like so many addresses.”

Image: Ossip van Duivenbode courtesy MVRDV

By splitting the massing using a tonal glazed cl...