{"id":167715,"date":"2025-08-22T23:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167715\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T23:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:38:17","slug":"new-photographs-show-how-mads-fenix-museum-of-migration-has-come-alive-in-rotterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167715\/","title":{"rendered":"new photographs show how MAD\u2019s fenix museum of migration has come alive in rotterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

fenix Museum of migration in Motion<\/p>\n

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The Fenix Museum of Migration by MAD<\/strong><\/a> has now been open in Rotterdam<\/strong><\/a> for several months, establishing itself as an iconic civic landmark along the city\u2019s industrial waterfront. Rising above the historic port district, the museum<\/strong><\/a> occupies a restored warehouse once tied to the flow of migrants who departed from Rotterdam for destinations across the world. Now, with newly captured images months after its opening<\/strong><\/a> in May 2025, the project can be understood as not just a renovation, but as an active and lived-in landmark shaped by visitors\u2019 reflections and spiraling movement.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Everything is in motion \u2014 people, time, light, the sea,\u2019 says Ma Yansong.<\/strong> \u2018This building invites us to rethink moments of arrival and departure, and to reflect on the reasons we set out in the first place.\u2019 That sense of continuity between past and present is what connects the sculptural building to its cultural and urban context. Before the museum opened to the public, the architects documented their design process through a film titled \u2018Ma Yansong: Journey to Design the Fenix Tornado\u2019 \u2014 watch it here<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

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the Fenix Museum of Migration is sited in Rotterdam\u2019s historic port district | image \u00a9 Hufton + Crow<\/a><\/p>\n

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a spiraling monument for convergence in rotterdam<\/p>\n

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At the heart of the Fenix Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, MAD\u2019s tornado-shaped staircase has emerged as the defining element. Two spirals rise independently, crossing and separating before joining at platforms that overlook the coastal Dutch city.<\/p>\n

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The team at MAD compares the project to similar occupiable monuments such as Heatherwick Studio<\/a>\u2019s now-iconic Vessel<\/a> or the Little Island<\/a> along New York\u2019s Hudson River:<\/strong> \u2018These projects, like the tornado, operate at a similar scale and share a strong commitment to experiential design.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018But where Vessel is often described as an Escher-like stair maze or built for spectacle, and Little Island as a floating garden for urban escape, the tornado in Fenix takes a different approach. It is less about retreat or display and more about convergence.<\/p>\n

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a \u2018tornado\u2019 staircase forms the centerpiece of the museum | image \u00a9 Iwan Baan<\/a><\/p>\n

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mad\u2019s Tornado Staircase as Civic Space<\/p>\n

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MAD\u2019s Ma Yansong describes the Fenix Museum\u2019s configuration as \u2018random yet precise,\u2019 a system designed for fluid movement that creates chance encounters. The result lends a choreography of visitors\u2019 movements, as the layout organizes spontaneous interactions and encourages both individual reflection and collective experience as visitors ascend the spiraling structure.<\/p>\n

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The adaptive reuse of the museum\u2019s warehouse preserves the industrial shell, a memory of the surrounding neighborhood. This warehouse had been restored by Bureau Polderman, while MAD introduced interventions to alter its historic atmosphere. The opening of the central roof floods the interior with daylight to animate both the preserved concrete structure and the new stainless-steel spiral.<\/p>\n

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\u2018The shaping and shifting of global politics, geography, culture, and art are largely rooted in these migrations,\u2019 Ma explains.<\/strong> \u2018We hope this museum not only commemorates the past or tells stories of hardship, but more importantly, reveals hope and courage \u2014 offering inspiration for people today and in the future to look ahead.\u2019<\/p>\n

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the spirals rise independently before meeting at shared platforms | image \u00a9 Arch-Exist<\/a><\/p>\n

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Structurally, the spiraling staircase demonstrates a high level of engineering innovation. Measuring 550 meters in length and rising thirty meters high, it cantilevers outward up to seventeen meters at certain points, achieved through a spatial truss system developed with roller coaster specialists. Its reflective cladding, shaped with CNC technology, captures shifting skies, waterfront activity, and the movement of passersby.<\/p>\n

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The experience of climbing the stairs is never fixed. Perspectives shift with each step, encounters take place at the landings, and the view culminates in the rooftop platform where the city and river unfold as a broad horizon. The architects describe it as both a journey and a gathering place, where movement is transformed into architecture.<\/p>\n

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Inside, the collection includes historical artifacts and contemporary commissions, presented in an open plan that encourages visitors to move fluidly between past and present. Wim Pijbes, President of the Droom en Daad Foundation, emphasizes this universality:<\/strong> \u2018At some point in life, people make the decision \u2014 whether due to war, poverty, faith, or other reasons \u2014 to pack everything they own into one or two suitcases and start over on the other side of the world. What we must do is understand those emotions and give them form.\u2019<\/p>\n

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the reflective stainless steel surface mirrors light and movement | image \u00a9 Arch-Exist<\/p>\n

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the restored warehouse structure contrasts with the new intervention | image \u00a9 Hufton + Crow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"fenix Museum of migration in Motion \u00a0 The Fenix Museum of Migration by MAD has now been open…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[72892,648,1032,1033,171,96240,96241,96242,69002,23550,96243,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-167715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-architecture-in-the-netherlands","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hufton-crow","14":"tag-iwan-baan","15":"tag-mad-architects","16":"tag-museums-and-galleries","17":"tag-renovation-and-restoration-architecture-and-design","18":"tag-spiral-staircases","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115075055984970296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}