Forest lifted onto the roof of the Collectie Gebouw!

April 7, 2020

Monday, April 6, the first trees of the forest were lifted on the roof of the Collectie Gebouw of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. When the birches are in leaf, they will give the iconic building a green crown. This makes the roof terrace a leafy place to stay, from which you can read the metropolitan skyline of Rotterdam.

The Collectie Gebouw of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, designed by Winy Maas / MVRDV, houses the permanent collection of Boijmans van Beuningen. This is collected in one place and accessible to the public. The monolithic building with its mirrored walls merges into the Museum Park and the city and reflects this city. It appears to have landed in the Park as an alien object. Commissioned by and in collaboration with MVRDV, MTD landscape architects designed the roof landscape, the surroundings of the building and the integration into the Museum Park. On the roof a birch landscape and on the ground level a square-like space with birch and pine trees. Ebben supplied the sizable partly multi-stemmed trees, Betula pubescens and Pinus nigra, with trees specially grown for this purpose with a flattened root ball. The natural stone pavement seems to reflect the breaking of the Park floor in a number of 'shards'. The trees are here in raised planters with natural stone seating edges and wooden benches. This creates a sheltered and green place to stay and meet in the center of the city. With a terrace on the sun on the Museum side, linked to the catering facilities in the Collectie Gebouw. People determine the reflection in the walls of the building and dynamics in the square. Rotterdam has gained a special building and public space!