MVRDV to design "improvising" towers in Rotterdam

Rotterdam is adding a new high-rise development to its Wilhelminapier waterfront, and it's twins (sort of): MVRDV's competition-winning The Sax proposal, a mixed-used project comprised of the two interconnected residential towers Philadelphia & Havana, certainly stands out with its broken-up, grid-like facade, evoking the hallucination of giant Jenga stacks. The effect is intended, as the architects sought to capture the city's musicality and the spirit of "variation and improvisation". 

Construction will start as soon as next year, and completion is slated for the end of 2022.

Read on for a project description we've received from MVRDV.

"Rotterdam's harbour basins and quays form an important historical reference for the port city’s heritage, with Wilheminapier firmly established as one of its most popular and spectacular areas. Since 2015, development partners BPD Bouwfonds Property Development, Ontwikkeling B.V. and SYNCHROON Ontwikkelaars in consultation with the municipality of Rotterdam, have been working on the development of residential buildings Philadelphia & Havana."

"The Sax, with its two interconnected towers will rise between the New Luxor Theater and the Boston & Seattle residential areas. The building is conceived as one recognisable silhouette with its main layout adopted for housing distribution in towers that are about 70 to 150 meters high and connected to an air bridge in which the 150 room hotel is located. Inside the building, all main rooms are situated within the bay-windowed facade meaning that all apartments benefit from the maximum amount of daylight enhanced by 270-degree panoramic views of the Nieuwe Maas and city. On top of the hotel at 80 meters high, there is a public terrace."

"The scale and character of the developments of Wilhelminapier over the last decade have contributed to a recognisable city silhouette with an ensemble of towers populating the Kop van Zuid skyline. The Sax will be the latest addition to Rotterdam’s skyline thus contributing to the city’s now recognisable 'Manhattan On the Maas.’ A residential building that is designed from the inside to the outside and therefore looks so distinctive, with no repetitive facades but a building with a diverse and more individual appearance."

Project Credits:

Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

Year: 2017+ 

Client: BPD Bouwfonds Property Development, Ontwikkeling B.V. and SYNCHROON Ontwikkelaars 

Size and Program: 82,200 m2 with 450 apartments (sale and rental), a hotel with 150 rooms, parking and commercial units 

Design: MVRDV - Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
Design Team: Jacob van Rijs, Frans de Witte with Fedor Bron, Mick van Gemert, Mark van den Ouden, Luca Moscelli, Fouad Addou, Daniele Zonta, Giuseppe Campo Antico, Ronald Kam, Clementine Bory and Yassin Matni.
Visualization: Antonio Luca Coco, Davide Calabro, Massimiliano Marzoli, Costanza Cuccato, Kirill Emelianov and Pavlos Ventouris 

Partners 

ARUP: Mathew Vola, Peter Mensinga, Jorn de Jong, Shibo Ren, Nathalie Ramos, Roel van de Straat, Leonie van Ginkel, Alex Christodoulou, Veronika Heidegger and Tom Warger 

Additional images: WAX Architectural Visualisations