Debate in Rotterdam: iconic green work of art or ‘greenwashing’ in the construction sector?

With ‘Rotterdam Rocks!’ Dutch architectural firm MVRDV wins the international design competition for Shift Embassy, ​​a much-discussed, yet to be built ‘sustainable icon’ in the new Waterkant district in South Rotterdam. The design was chosen from five finalists from renowned international architectural firms. MVRDV previously designed two eye-catching buildings in Rotterdam: the Markthal and the Depot of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The cost of the project is estimated at 240 million euros. Initiator Don Ritzen, entrepreneur and one of the founders of startup investment company Rockstart, wants to raise that amount together with other private investors.

According to the initiators, the Shift Embassy project, which was previously released under the name Shift Landmark, should become “an important cultural attraction in Rotterdam”, which should “inspire visitors to contribute to large-scale ecological and social change”. It wants to do this with an art experience, telling stories of sustainable entrepreneurs, and by giving people tips for a more sustainable lifestyle. Companies, governments, local organizations and local residents can rent spaces there. There should be a hotel and restaurant. And there are plans for a public vertical park, with a paid and a public viewing point. The organization wants to open its doors in 2031.

The previously chosen name, Shift Landmark, has been changed to Shift Embassy. This adjustment follows a lively discussion among architects as to whether iconic architecture can still be used as an instrument in this way city ​​marketing should be used, as was done in the 1990s with, for example, special museums.

With the new name, the organization wants to emphasize the function of the building, rather than the building itself, explains initiator Ritzen in a video call. “An embassy is a place where everyone is welcome, where you feel at home, where meetings take place. Architecture is a means to inspire people.”

Debate about sustainable construction

The architectural world has previously responded critically on the proposed construction project. Critics find the construction of a new, large building as an icon for a sustainable future in particular implausible. “Greenwashing in the construction industry,” it wrote Architects Climate Action Network. Renovation, reuse and building with natural materials are increasingly seen as the future in the architectural world. Shift Embassy will actually emit significant CO2 by using steel and concrete₂generate emissions.

The fact that the building wants to attract many (flying) international tourists was also not well received. Shift Embassy previously set the ambition to attract one million visitors annually. That has now become 700,000. By comparison: Fenix ​​Museum, the new art museum about migration in Rotterdam, attracted 500,000 visitors in its first year. Ritzen expects that the climate benefit through awareness and lifestyle adjustments will be many times greater than the construction emissions.

Gurgling waterfall

MVRDV’s design – an ensemble of vegetated, stacked rocks with a splashing waterfall – has undergone a number of changes since the nomination. The earlier version evoked the association with Frank Lloyd Wright’s world famous Falling Watera stacked villa next to a waterfall in the American state of Pennsylvania. In the latest version, the waterfall is no longer visible, but “integrated like streams in the porous skin” of the building, says architect Winy Maas of MVRDV. The building is slightly less high and now has seven instead of eleven rocks. The walking route of the vertical park is no longer built into the rocks, but runs along stairs. The modified design looks less green than before.

In the past, MVRDV designs were sometimes greatly simplified in their implementation compared to the first design. Like the Marble Arch Mound in London, that through The Guardian was renamed “Mound Zero”. Is something like this likely to happen again? According to Maas, with a construction budget of 115 million euros, the “core values ​​of the design” are guaranteed: the rocks, the caves inside, the vertical park and the porous skin with different structures. Vegetation will grow on it; from mosses to ferns and trees. “Biodiversity has actually been enriched,” says Maas.

Rotterdam Rocks! should pave the way for an alternative sustainable architecture, says Maas. Steel from oil derricks is reused and forged together, and even partly determines the final shape of the building. The concrete construction is made as efficient as possible using 3D printing. The porous skin, developed with artist Joris Laarman, must provide space for biodiversity. It will be an “experiment with sustainable construction”, aimed at “innovation in the construction sector”, according to Maas.