Once the largest warehouse in the world, the Fenix building and its surrounding riverbanks in Rotterdam saw millions of European migrants leave from its embarkments. Bought this year by the arts organization Droom en Daad Foundation, the building will soon undergo a historic renovation that seeks to honor this legacy.

Today, the former Holland American Line facility houses a number of arts groups, galleries, and, an organic food court. While the ground floor will continue to host restaurants, shops and galleries—some of which will remain its current occupants—the top floor will become devoted to exhibitions that commemorate the journeys of millions of migrants, both past and present.

It won't be a museum, insists the Foundation's leader Wim Pijbes. He told the New York Times in April that he wants to find a word "that has a kind of hybrid function, a place, a platform, an agora." As an example of what might be on display, Pijbes revealed that one of the first works he'd like to show is the VR film by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, which recreates the experience of crossing the U.S. border.

The $6.4 million renovation will also include a spiraling observation tower designed by MAD Architects. It is the first public cultural building in Europe to be designed by a Chinese architectural agency.

The Katendrecht peninsula, where the facility is located, is site to one Europe's oldest Chinatowns. In the early 1900s, the area was home to opium merchants as well as the country's first Chinese restaurant. The Foundation wanted to bring in MAD to realize the project in order to help bring this context back to life.

The spiraling staircase is theatric and the accompanying public atrium will merge the ground and first floors with the platform on the roof. The observation deck, which rises above the roof, will offer panoramic views of its surroundings. 

"We are proud to realize a dynamic transformation of the historical warehouse that will encourage people to move through the space, and be enjoyed by the community," said Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects. "It will lift body and mind, and be a place of pleasure and contemplation. The Fenix will inspire wonder and exploration about the past, the present, and the future."