MVRDV settled into their new office headquarters inside the remodeled Het Industriegebouw, nestled in the heart of Rotterdam. Now dubbed by the firm as the MVRDV House, the building was originally designed by iconic Dutch architect Hugh Maaskant in 1952. The new 2,400 square-meter interior is modeled like a family home, filled with ample working and gathering spaces that reflect the “work hard, play hard” balance many firms strive for in their office's design.

Photo © Ossip van Duivenbode.

Now with 140 employees based in Rotterdam, “[t]he expanding MVRDV family needed a new house,” says MVRDV co-founder Jacob van Rijs. MVRDV's new office has “everything that [a] home requires, a living room, a dining room, a sofa for the whole house to sit together,” he described. Surrounded by various creative start-ups and design firms, MVRDV believes they fit right in their new neighborhood.

Photos © Ossip van Duivenbode.

The Family Room serves as the firm's main communal space for social interaction “with three oversized elements of the home, the couch, dinner table and vegetation chandelier – a large tribune with a drop-down projection screen for lectures, office presentations or football [and] a long lunch table at which the whole office gathers together daily”. Adjacent to the Family Room is The Atelier, a light-filled central working space occupied by the project teams. A glazed wall laden with diagrams and doodles separates the two areas.

In contrast to the light-filled Atelier, MVRDV's directors — as one may expect of the leaders of the pack — chose to have their space tucked away in a “darker corner” on the ground floor. But they were placed close to the printer and coffee corner “to encourage them to be out amongst the rest of the team”, the firm describes.

Photos © Ossip van Duivenbode.

Like a section of a dollhouse, another noticeable feature of the new office is the multi-colored meeting rooms. Each room has their own theme and specific furniture that allows various meeting arrangements. 

Among a multitude of the building's monochromatic rooms are the dark blue Presentation Room for larger formal meetings; The Drawing Room for workshops; The Lounge; a cozy “Library Room”, and of course, a Game Room for hanging out and playing a game of table-tennis. Outside, MVRDV will soon design a communal courtyard.

Photos © Ossip van Duivenbode.

“Now we share a work space that could allow for future, flexible growth and collaboration within the building,” says van Rijs, ”just as was the design intent of the original architect.” 

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