Construction has begun on a combined residential project and market hall in Rotterdam, designed by Dutch architects MVRDV.
Called Rotterdam Market Hall, the building will comprise 228 apartments forming a tunnel over the market hall, glazed at each end.
The market hall itself will house 100 market stalls, shops and restaurants.
1,200 parking spaces and a supermarket will be located underground.
Each apartment will feature a balcony on the exterior of the building and a window onto the market hall below.
The project is due to be completed in 2014.
More information on the project website.
Images are by Provast.
Here are some more details from the architects:
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Construction Start MVRDV Market Hall
Today the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb and city councilor Hamit Karakus have officially started the construction of the new Rotterdam Market Hall. The arched building located in the centre of Rotterdam, developed by Provast and designed by MVRDV is a hybrid of public market and apartment building. Completion is set for 2014. Total investment is 175 million Euro with a total surface of 100.000 m2.
At the place where Rotterdam was founded, near the historic Laurens church, the Market Hall will be realized as a new urban typology. The Market Hall is a sustainable combination of food, leisure, living and parking. Fully integrated to enhance and use the synergetic possibilities of the different functions, a public building emerging from housing.
An arch of 228 apartments, of which 102 for rent, will create a large hall which houses 100 market stalls, shops and restaurants, 1200 parking spaces and an underground super market. The apartments will all have a balcony on the outside and a window to the inside of the market. Insulation will prevent any unwanted effects. The 40 meter tall and wide opening of the front and back will be covered with a flexible suspended glass façade, allowing for maximum transparency and a minimum of structure. The interior of the arch will display market produce.
The project with a total of 100.000 m2 is set to be completed in 2014 and part of the current regeneration of Rotterdam’s post war centre. Project developer Provast realizes the building, Unibail Rodamco invested in the shops and restaurants whilst Housing Corporation Vesteda will manage the rental apartments, making the building a socially integrated part of the city.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
one of the best dutch designs of the last decade, stunning yet simple
November 19th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
i think MVRDV is doing the most horrible buildings in history, the theoretical investigation has limits…. it´s on the good taste.
cheers
November 19th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
this is SO ugly! The mixed use concept is great but when are the Dutch going to finally figure out that you shouldn’t use grey colored materials in a country with grey skies 90% of the year?
November 19th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Though there are many aspects of this project which I think could be better, I like the general concept of it. I like that they did not chose to recreate the market typology, but took a ’simple’ large hall and that this space is not so much formed itself, but more the residue space of the construction of the dwellings.
I do wander how this will function when the market is closed. Would probably be strange to look from you dwelling into this desolated, big market hall full of junk that was left of the market.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Thanks!
I love it!And love my city Rotterdam.
Blogged about it too.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Nice ! half balconies facing north…
November 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
i used to be cool with new ideas. but now… hmm. seems they’re just trying to do something ugly.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I wander…poverty is simplicity?
This kind of extravaganza is the sign of the times.
Please, be serious.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
i just love the whole architecture,the shape the colours tha idea of seeing the market inside but also having a view from the outside world fascinates me i definitely have to visit it when it will finish !!! excited!!
November 19th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
rotterdam is quite an ugly grey city so this is fitting to it.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
it’s utterly ugly and doesn’t show any architectural thought beyond the smart programmatic approach. might end up with a Quasimodo-like quality…
November 19th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
The idea is interesting and refreshing. However, I do wish there was some elaboration on the ventilation system of the market hall. Can you imagine the amount of cooling devices required to cool the gigantic hall if it is dependent on air-conditioning during the summer months. Likewise, during winter, the vast expanse of glass do little to keep the heat in. Energy efficient wise, I have my doubts on the functional performance of the building, considering cultivating a sustainable environment is of primordial importance.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I love it!
We have very similar idea for Bratislava in programmatic meaning, but over here in the “wild-east” it seems to be kind of silly utopia..
http://www.mestskezasahy.sk/PDF/MZ_Totalstudio_Zilinska%20Market%20Place.pdf
November 19th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Architecture is now coming to the point where everything is acceptable and there is no rule. This building would ruin good and elegant look of Rotterdam in my opinion.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
i’m speechless. do they not have fire codes in holland? how do you escape from those rooms that are located at the very top?? this building will easly fit to rotterdam, which is just a big zoo of modern architecture.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Like it, but would have been more interesting to have a more poetic reason for the HUGE space above the market?
maybe at night the space could become a concert or performance area? even if a bridge crossed the boundary between north and south the “void” would become much more inhabitable and more interesting
November 19th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
A great example of the progressive urban spaces being explored in the Netherlands at the moment. This is the type of mixed use building that makes cities culturally rich, exciting, and safe. I appreciate the it is closed off internally for climate reasons, however if there were some way to make the interior of the arch open, it would interact better with the public (and provide more fresh air for residents). This must have quite a ventilation system to eliminate odors and pollution from the markets and stores.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
simple, yes. straightforward, yes. but here’s the thing. architecture still needs to be pleasing. its ugly and overbearing, and that’s a huge problem
November 19th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
The idea is very nice, and this will no doubt work very well as a “piece of a city”. There’s no way this can’t work. But I’m not big on the actual shape of the volume. I think it’s a bit ugly despite its epic see-through hall.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
what are you talking about de kooning the interior couldnt be more colourful, and the giant glazed facades at either end mean that the colour will be seen by many vantage points also it makes the interior a warm world in its own. Sick project. Clever Idea, compare this to 99.9% of food courts and crap malls that are occuring everywhere. Good work MVRDV
November 19th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
hyper-real or cartoon-like?
anyway, I wouldn’t like to live there
November 19th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
i dont like it.. i hate those tiny little squared windows..
November 20th, 2009 at 1:15 am
How can this be approved for construction?!?!?
November 20th, 2009 at 1:24 am
The mixed use concept is great but when are the Dutch going to finally figure out that you shouldn’t use grey colored materials in a country with grey skies 90% of the year?
As a Dutchman I have to agree on this.
But I like the project, it’s on the opposite side of the Art Academy, nice location. Only the big fruit prints are horrible, it feels like some B supermarket. (Dirk/ Bas)
November 20th, 2009 at 2:35 am
next to Kubus, the donjon and the beaubourg-failed library, this building is really going to make Blaak the most ugly square in the entire world…
November 20th, 2009 at 2:38 am
“That’s my appartment, yeah, just below the green pepper”
November 20th, 2009 at 5:46 am
this is fantastic! congratulations to the design team…this is a very exciting urban project. i hope it gets built and i can visit it!
November 20th, 2009 at 7:07 am
a horrible thing!
im sure it will be called Rotterdam Vagina!
November 20th, 2009 at 7:31 am
i think this building is great from an environment/climate point of view. the apartments will have great cross ventilation (so rare in multi unit housing) b/c they open to both the market and the exterior of the building. this is true of the market as well. also, all the spaces will have great access to natural light.
it’s going to be a very comfortable place to live and shop.
i also appreciate that the building has a bold form but the structure is actually quite simple: it’s just a series of big arches. zaha, gehry, etc also have bold forms, but the structural solutions are so acrobatic and complicated it’s just not worth it.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:01 am
is there really going to be giant veggie images plastered on the interior facade?
November 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Giant vegetables on walls… please… this is terrible. Hope not to see that coming.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:00 am
This is simply bad. And, the renders should have been made with the typical Rotterdam weather. This building won’t be in Rio, but in ROTTERDAM! Sad…
November 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
These renders are terrible. They make me hate the design.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:14 am
…so if i open my window, will it smell like my fridge??
November 20th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Overall I think it’s an amazing building and it’s even more amazing that a striking building like this can actually be built there and now. I’m curious to see the floorplans of the houses.
At the second last picture on the right you can see the sad tower that architect Hans Kollhoff has been creating…And its floorplans are even worse than its exterior.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:50 am
while i do like the general idea, and to me, the interior looks fantastic, the overall look is hideous. it’s like graving corbusier’s apartment blocks, making them even uglier, and bending them in a “n” shape
November 21st, 2009 at 7:24 pm
that’s very simple and vivid .. it has very effective idea regarding contemporary architecture !!
November 21st, 2009 at 9:17 pm
the grey facade isn’t a facade, just a wall with windows in a scale model
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:40 am
Imagine how noisy it will be inside. Indoor, market, tunnel. Right outside your apartment…
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
why do we pull the trigger on this one while we let all the recent retro-horror architecture in Rotterdam go by without a single word of critique?
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:11 am
‘Beauty’ is boring,…Ugliness is a new term of beauties……love it!!
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
dutch going nuts
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
A bit hysteric ordem…. one more from the Ducth Architecture, or maybe from the most part of the nowaday architecture. Let’s keep the principals of the “science”.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I love the basic idea of using the apartments like Lego building blocks to make a big enclosed civic space out of, but I suppose mixing typologies like this inevitably leads to some conflicts.. The hall space seems uncomfortably over-scaled for something that just contains ground-level stalls and the mixed-use efficiency of land use is possibly negated by the fact that so much of the building is really just empty space.. I’d like to see how it works in reality before judging it though.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:21 am
i like the concept so much ,but of course im in doubt to like having a window into the hyper market,and honestly that idea about huge fruit paintings on interior facades are funny,and believe me it wont be scary if it is lighten inside at night
anyway its nice idea to have a colorful facades inside
and i like MVRDV projects ,im sure they thought about air-conditions,….
being noise around ur apartment is what we have it even in center of a capital city everywhere ,lets see some new job
November 25th, 2009 at 10:28 am
the concept seems to be very interesting. I second the opinion about the shape, it could be better
November 26th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Hamid hates it and adds: “I’m sure it will be called Rotterdam vagina!”
WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST VAGINAS? They are beaultiful and rational forms, and take passion to the extreme … I see nothing of this on that building.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
The drawings are tricks: glass is not imaterial.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
“lets do something ugly”
please, do not let this get built. mvrdv is doing a harakiri with this project.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Bad taste is so extended.
And acepted.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I think it is COOL, it seems like it would be a great place to live if you like to people watch.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
In these days ugly could be successful! So, the intentions of the project will determine if the architecture is good or bad……. Is not only what we see, is what it can do in the urban context….
November 26th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
simple, basic forms, doesn’t always fit.
the commercial branding of MVRDV is too much here.
it turns to be just this, a kind of signature equivalent to a brand logo.
They were able to do astonishing things exploring that but it ends here to be very boring.
I think they are better doing residential anyway, except the expo pavillon which was great. Otherwise it turns to be a recipe that they exploit.
I never visit any of their buildings, I’m wondering how well it’s done..
November 27th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Are those, giant pickles?? or jalapeños? i like jalapeños, oh wait!.. cucumbers??…..
This design literally hurts, man…. i love MVRDV but im not so sure about this… i mean.. they have such great ideas, cool concepts and amazingly beautiful designs.. how did they come to this¡?? oh my god!! =/
November 28th, 2009 at 2:05 am
It’s the Library at Alexandria for the first time again….
November 30th, 2009 at 3:39 am
Imagine getting home from your job at 7, market is finished and you look out the window and you only see a big mess on the market floor. Nice!
Then it’s weekend and you want to relax a bit, you get annoyed by the sound of the market. Nice!