Rotterdam Architectuurprijs brings the best new buildings in the city into the limelight every year. It’s an initiative of the municipality of Rotterdam and organised by AIR, Architecture Institute Rotterdam. The Malieklos housing project received the Rotterdam Architectuurprijs. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen won the public award.
The winning projects symbolise two important qualities of Rotterdam architecture: high-quality housing and high-profile icons. The jury sees Malieklos as irrefutable proof that the limited budgets associated with social housing do not have to be an obstacle to the realisation of high-quality architecture. The craftsmanship impressed the jury. It’s evident in special details such as the Brazilian brickwork.
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen got the most public votes. The second and third places of the Audience Award went to Welschen 2 and Beheercoöperatie W1555 respectively. In Welschen 2, a transformation of a residential area by architect Lotte Stam-Beese from the Reconstruction period, it’s all about craftsmanship and loving attention to modest budgets. The public writes: ‘Wonderful how social structures remain intact and old blocks give a wonderful new life’.
In third place is Beheercoöperatie W1555, a project that combines cooperative commissioning with sustainable architecture based on recycling. Reuse is always better than demolition, collective reuse is even better’, writes the audience.
There were two honourable mentions. The jury said this about Floating Office Rotterdam: ”Climate adaptive, biobased and CO₂ positive building are combined here in a remarkable floating structure that captures the imagination.” The second honourable mention was for De Groene Kaap. The jury wrote: ”The great invention of De Groene Kaap is the ribbon of landscape that binds the project together into a single entity, an appropriate and relevant identity carrier.”
