KUNSTHAL, NETHERLANDS, ROTTERDAM, 1992
Attached are some photos from a very, very brief visit to Rotterdam a few weeks ago to see OMA’s Kunsthal Rotterdam, “A museum for temporary exhibitions”.
From OMA’s website,
The Kunsthal combines 3300 square meters of exhibition space, an auditorium and restaurant into one compact design. Sloping floor planes and a series of tightly organized ramps provide seamless connection between the three large exhibition halls and two intimate galleries. Its position, wedged between a busy highway and the network of museums and green spaces known as the museum park, allows it to function as a gateway to Rotterdam’s most prized cultural amenities.
The “tightly organised ramps” spiral within a square volume expanding and contracting to accommodate the building’s programmatic requirements. The step in the site between the highway and the park offer opportunity for a dissecting ramp linking the two.
Beyond spatial organisation, and after also recently visiting OMA’s Casa da Musica in Porto, I’ve come to admire the collaged nature of OMA’s work. Large expanses of materials stand against the buildings context. A couple of Miesian collages come to mind.
