Architects carry out interventions in Museum Park for Rotterdam Architecture Month

The interventions tell stories about the past, present and future of the park and allow visitors to experience the area in a different way, reports architecture center AIR Rotterdam. In this way, visitors can rediscover the Museum Park, the idea goes. “The walking route connects cultural institutions, special places and inspiring stories and takes visitors past architecture, nature and visual arts,” says AIR Rotterdam.

Time Tower
One of the eye-catchers along the route is the Time Tower by architect Alexandra Sonnemans in the garden of Huis Sonneveld. This lookout post and exhibition space in one takes visitors on a journey through the rich history of the area: from the Land of Hoboken, an open polder plain, via football fields and the Floriade 1960 to the current Museum Park.

The route continues straight through Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the exhibition Longing for Boijmans, where various interventions by artists bring the empty building to life. Through the side entrance of the museum, visitors enter the Henket pavilion, where the history of the museum building is central.

On display are models of the classic Van der Steur design, but also the later additions by Alexander Bodon, Hubert-Jan Henket and Robbrecht en Daem. What the future plans look like is not (yet) known, but one thing is certain: the museum building is constantly moving. Gasping to Boijmans is still awaiting approval from the Rotterdam Safety Region. This means that changes to the route and program may still take place, AIR Rotterdam said.

Bridge
From the Henket pavilion, visitors walk over a bridge designed by DaF architects. The bridge creates a temporary connection between the Museum Garden and the Rose Garden. With its design, the bridge fits seamlessly into a rich tradition of bridges in the Museum Park, while at the same time the bridge brings a bit of naturalization to the middle of the city, according to AIR Rotterdam.

Studio Inscape designed a garden house for the Rose Garden itself, which also serves as a visitor center for the RA Month. Visitors can walk right through this intervention and discover everything about the soil, plants and animals in the park and also about the theme of the regenerative city garden.

In the traverse between the Erasmus MC and the Museum Park, Atelier Tomas Dirrix and Chantal Schoenmakers design a modular exhibition about the green future of the city. The exhibition with work by around 20 different designers explores the theme of this RA Month in four parts: Garden of the City.

RA Month
The RA Month takes place from June 1 to 30. The ‘largest architecture festival in the Netherlands’ is organized by AIR. This year the festival heart is organized in collaboration with the Office for Metropolitan Information (OMI), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Nieuwe Instituut.