Depot won the public award of the Architizer A+ Awards

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, by design of MVRDV, won the Popular Choice prize the 2022 Architizer A+ Awards. Architizer is an architecture platform. Its mission is to provide architects with information to build better buildings, better cities, and a better world.

Next to MVRDV, the Rotterdam-based architecture firms Powerhouse Company and Group A were also nominated. They, unfortunately, didn’t win with their project Floating Office Rotterdam and Central Park in Utrecht. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen was voted as a Popular Choice winner in the 2022 Architizer A+ Awards, with the public selecting it as the best project in the Gallery and Exhibition Spaces category. The award counted thousands of votes submitted by Architizer readers. With the depot emerging as the popular choice among the five finalists.

The selection of the depot continues a run of prizes for the building. Following the project’s success in – among others – the “stimulating environments” category of the BNA’s Building of the Year awards, de Architect’s ARC21 Award, and Architectenweb’s Best Public Building of the Year award. Last month the Depot App also won a prize, with both a renowned Webby Award, also known as the Oscars of the internet, and silver in the Dutch Interactive Awards. In addition, the depot is a finalist for the Rotterdam Architecture Prize.

Inviting as possible

MVRDV’s ambition was to design a public depot that is as inviting as possible in which visitors feel welcome. This building has no back. The depot owes its constricted shape to its relatively small footprint (40 meters). As a result, the building projects upwards and has an overhang of 10 meters to accommodate the entire program.

The diameter of the roof is 60 meters. The reflective facade ensures that the building visually blends into its surroundings. Every day – depending on weather conditions – the depot looks different, like in a living painting. The birches, grasses and pines placed on the award-winning roof help to retain water, promote biodiversity and reduce heat stress in the city.

Architizer is an architecture platform of which 335,000 architects are part. Its mission is to provide architects with information to build better buildings, better cities, and a better world.