The roof forest of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen was awarded the Rooftop Award 2020 on Friday 4 September during the Rooftop Symposium in Capital C in Amsterdam. Sjarel Ex, director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Arjen Ketting, associate and architect MVRDV, and Michiel van de Bunt, manager at ZinCo Benelux, received the Rooftop Award from DakenDiva Esther Wienese.
Roof innovators
Rooftop Revolution, the organizer of the symposium and booster of the sustainable use of our roof landscape, wants to use the Rooftop Award to give ambitious 'roof innovators' a stage and show that there is much more that can be done on our roofs. The roof forest at the depot is a wonderful example of this. It was designed by MVRDV in collaboration with MTD Landschapsarchitecten.
Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV: 'Roofs are very important in our designs. We make them accessible as gardens, woods or event grounds. The depot is a special case; it has a clear public function and is located in Rotterdam's Museumpark, which we didn't want to affect too much. We solved that by moving the park to a height of 35 meters'.
Green in the city
Adding nature to the city is the mission of rooftop Revolution. And according to Maas it is also of great importance: 'Especially to give people extra places where they can literally breathe. According to him, the award-winning depot is 'a piece of "jungle" where people can enjoy the forest and the spectacular views'. Museum director Sjarel Ex says about the award: 'It's great to win this prize together. And I think it's fantastic that, together with the City of Rotterdam, we can make the city's collection accessible to the public in this way. With the added value of a panoramic roof with restaurants and nature!
Depot Boijmans van Beuningen 📷 Ossip van Duivenbode
Ambition, creativity and guts
The depot is a special example of guts, creativity and a turnaround in thinking about roofs', says Jan Henk Tigelaar, director of Rooftop Revolution. We've received wonderful entries, all inspiring projects that deserve to be highlighted, but I understand that the jury couldn't ignore this icon.
Michiel van de Bunt, of consultant ZinCo Benelux, was the one who submitted the rooftop forest for the Rooftop Award: 'ZinCo was involved as one of the partners in the realization of this project, and I am very honoured to receive the Rooftop Award. He adds: 'The profit confirms what can be achieved when you work together with a team of ambitious people'.
Jury
Margot Bleeker, director Erasmus MC Trust Fund and involved with the winner of 2018, Tim van Hattum, program leader Green Climate Solutions at Wageningen University Research, and DakenDiva Esther Wienese, author of Het Rotterdamse Dakenboek, had the honour to choose the winner from the seven nominees.
They judged the entries on the following criteria: Innovation, Inspiration, Public Accessibility, Visibility, Sustainability and Green and the State of the Roof now, and almost unanimously chose the depot as the winner.
Esther Wienese: 'This year's Rooftop Award was for 'the most eye-catching roof in the Netherlands'. That's Depot. The trees on the roof of the reflecting 'pot' draw attention to themselves. This means this building has everything to make people aware and inspire them to do more with their roof'.
Nominees
The art depot in Rotterdam's Museumpark was one of a total of seven nominated roofs. All make a sustainable contribution to their surroundings, are innovative and a feast for the eye:
• Capital C, Amsterdam (monumental roof)
• De Peperklip, Rotterdam (nature roof)
• Depot Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (roof park)
• The Court of Cartesius, Utrecht (business and nursery roof)
• Childcare center Zanddonk, Waalwijk (roof of childcare)
• PLNT, The Roof, Leiden (innovative and multifunctional roof)
• Triodos Bank, Driebergen (business roof)
Depot Boijmans van Beuningen is a collaboration between Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Municipality of Rotterdam and Stichting de Verre Bergen. The depot was designed by the architectural firm MVRDV and built by BAM Bouw en Techniek.
