Rotterdam Architecture Month

Garden of the City

This year, the RA Month lands its festival heart in the Museumpark. The festival (June 1-30, 2024) explores the past, present, and future of urban gardens with the theme ‘Garden of the City.’ A free walking route connects cultural institutions, special places, and inspiring stories, guiding you through architecture, nature, and visual art. The concept and implementation of this route with interventions were created by OMI – Office for Metropolitan Information and AIR – Architecture Institute Rotterdam. The festival heart is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. You will be able to walk the entire route during these hours. More visitor information…

Craving for Boijmans

The main attraction of this edition is Craving for Boijmans: the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen building will open its doors to visitors for 5 weeks (June 1 to July 7, 2024). An art route takes you through the monumental building in a unique way. You will encounter collection pieces that bridge the past and the present. Contemporary artists add their own creations, bringing together the past, present, and future. This event is interesting for everyone, from seniors who remember the 1935 opening as children, to today’s youth who enjoy Olaf Nicolai’s panna cage and Studio Wieki Somers’ wardrobe carousel. After five weeks of Craving for Boijmans, the museum building will close again until its reopening.

Order your tickets for Craving for Boijmans here

Route through the park

A striking element is the ‘Time Tower’, designed by architect Alexandra Sonnemans, which stands in the garden of Huis Sonneveld. This temporary intervention, serving as both a lookout point and exhibition space, takes you on a journey through the fascinating history of the area. It starts with the expansive Land van Hoboken, once an open polder landscape, soccer fields and the legendary 1960 Floriade, and ends in the contemporary Museumpark. The route continues through Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the exhibition Craving for Boijmans, where various artist interventions bring the empty building to life. Through the side entrance of the museum, you enter the Henket Pavilion, where the history of the museum building is highlighted. On display are models of the classic Van der Steur design, as well as significant additions by Bodon, Henket, and Robbrecht and Daem. The route through the festival heart and the Henket pavilion can be visited for free.

Bridge Between Museum Garden and Rose Garden

From the Henket Pavilion, you can walk across a bridge designed by DaF-architects, creating a temporary connection between the Museum Garden and the Rose Garden. The bridge fits perfectly within a long tradition of bridges in the Museumpark, while also introducing a piece of nature into the heart of the city. Studio Inscape has designed a garden house for the Rose Garden, which also serves as a visitor center for the RA Month. Here, you can learn all about the soil, plants, and animals in the park, as well as the theme of the regenerative urban garden. In the corridor between Erasmus MC and the Museumpark, Atelier Tomas Dirrix and Chantal Schoenmakers have designed a modular exhibition on the green future of the city. The exhibition, featuring work from around 20 different designers, explores this RA Month’s theme, Garden of the City, through four main sections.

Activities

Besides the events in the festival hub at the Museumpark, there are over 125 other activities, including the Day and Night of Architecture and the International Architecture Biënnale Rotterdam. So, there’s something for everyone in June, no matter your knowledge or experience with architecture. Check out the full list of activities during Architecture Month at Rotterdamarchitectuurmaand.nl/en.

Looking Back: Floating Festival Heart in the Maashaven

Last year’s (2023) theme for Rotterdam Architecture Month was Liquid City. Rotterdam, being a port city on two banks, is surrounded and saturated by water. The floating festival heart brought together complex challenges relating to water and climate in concrete urban solutions. The heart consisted of three huge floating barges creatively designed by Studio Marco Vermeulen. One platform had been transformed into a green park where visitors could relax and immerse themselves in architecture during events such as lectures, debates, and film screenings. The other platform offered urban sports activities such as freerunning and calisthenics in collaboration with renowned designer and freerunner Onur Eren. The three platforms were connected by a footbridge and offered a unique view over the Maashaven and the rest of the city, as well as demonstrated the potential of water. The Rotterdam Architecture Month festival heart provided an unforgettable experience for anyone interested in architecture, urban planning, and urban sports.

City of Architecture

The story of Rotterdam – its history, the bombing and the reconstruction – says a lot about the fertile conditions for flourishing architecture. After all, if nothing’s left, why not build on a grand and compelling scale? The courage that was and is shown – in design and the granting of commissions to architects – can be seen everywhere in Rotterdam. Read more…