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Irish Post
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
Rotterdam - where the world came ashore
I'M STARING up at a vast steel structure, rising from a former warehouse building in Rotterdam. This is the Tornado, a double helix-shaped staircase designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, with different paths that intersect at key points as you head upwards. The idea is that you choose your own route to the rooftop, rewarded by panoramic views of the Rotterdam city skyline and what was once the world's largest port. From this area, millions of migrants began and ended their journeys due to war, persecution, or the need for a fresh start. The Tornado tops off the impressive new Fenix Museum, which is all about human migration stories and migration-related art. Suitably it's in the Katendrecht district, which was a base for sailors and settlers from around the globe. Today, Rotterdam is proud of its multicultural roots, and Katendrecht is on the up. Fenix is a mind-boggling place, in the best possible way, with so many narratives jostling for your attention. A labyrinthine suitcase installation takes up one corner of the ground floor, each suitcase with its own story of displacement, hope and fear. Lampedusa Boat at Fenix (Pic: Allen) Opposite, a photography exhibition, Family of Migrants, documents people on the move. Amongst the emotive mix, you'll recognise Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother and Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl as iconic migration images. Upstairs, two huge gallery spaces are interspersed with all kinds of artwork - installations, paintings, sculptures and videos - across six themes, such as Fortune and Identity. Some pieces jump out at me instantly: a real migrant boat recovered from Lampedusa in 2022, complete with discarded water bottles; Yinka Shonibare's Refugee Astronaut IX sculpture, desperately heading to another planet. Others demand closer inspection: Do Ho Suh's replicated door locks from his old homes; Moroccan-style hairpins made from Dutch coins; expressive paintings on top of residence applications by Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska. I can't help thinking Niall Conlon's More Irish, More Blacks, More Dogs print would be a brilliant addition, countering the offensive signs ('No blacks, no dogs, no Irish') displayed in some English boarding house windows in the 1950s and 60s. If you come away from this museum with anything less than profound empathy, I'd suggest you might struggle to connect with what Rotterdam represents. Suitcase Labyrinth at Fenix (Pics: Polly Allen) Walking the diaspora Taking the Landverhuizers walking tour with expert Anja Brand helps uncover more of Katendrecht's history. Lots of local street names reflect its past residents, like Timorstraat (Timor Street) and Sumatraweg (Sumatra Way). The Netherlands' colonial rule included Timor-Leste, Suriname, Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies and West Indies; many people from these lands made the journey to Rotterdam, before and after liberation. As Anja explains, Rotterdam has residents with an estimated 206 nationalities: this figure includes unacknowledged nations such as Palestine, Tibet, Kurdistan and the Basque Country. Anja introduces us to Jorge Oliveira Lizardo, a historian and storyteller with proud Cape Verdean heritage, whose great-uncle was legendary local figure Joao Silva, who arrived here in the 1950s and became a musician with his own record label. 'Cape Verde was a stronghold, a refuelling station and a slave market for the Portuguese and Spanish,' explains Jorge. It's estimated there are 23,000 people of Cape Verdean origin in the Netherlands; in fact, Rotterdam has the third biggest Cape Verdean diaspora in the world. Many like Joao Silva arrived in the 1950s and 60s, before Cape Verdean independence from the Portuguese in 1975. The community still celebrates national festivals like Sao Joao, held every June. Jorge's heritage is part of the rich mix of Katendrecht: 'There were different nationality boarding houses for sailors, so you'd have a Chinese boarding house and so on,' he says. 'You could find people from your country.' In fact, as we learn from meeting author David Zee, who has Chinese, Taiwanese and Dutch heritage, Katendrecht once had the biggest Chinatown in Europe. Fenix Museum Tornado (Pic: Polly Allen) 'There were 60 Chinese boarding houses, with up to 50 people living on each floor,' he says. 'By 1918, 40,000 Chinese people worked in the shipyards. 'However, the Dutch government didn't allow marriage between Chinese and Dutch people – they referred to the Chinese as 'Asian vermin',' says David. 'My Dutch grandma was forced to revoke her nationality and become Chinese; the same applied to my mother. This meant they got no child support. My mother had to buy back her Dutch nationality in 1975.' Today, things are different: the Chinese diaspora is an important part of Rotterdam's identity, and events like Lunar New Year are celebrated here and in other major cities like The Hague and Amsterdam. Meanwhile, in terms of the Netherlands' post-colonial attitude, last year Rotterdam became the first Dutch city to return colonial artefacts to Indonesia. The city gave back 68 items that had been taken by Dutch military in the 19th and 20th century. Celebrating travel and cultural exchange Following the tour, the Story House Belvédère is a perfect pit-stop. Since its opening in 1894, it's been a restaurant, jazz club, Greek nightclub and a wrestling venue, but now it's a place to find cool international events, like gigs and exhibitions, and a guest chef of the day might cook up dishes from Egypt, Iran or Argentina. Across the water, there are further international sights, like New Ocean Paradise, a floating Chinese restaurant, garden and supermarket dating back to the 1980s. It was built to symbolise Rotterdam and Shanghai's status as twin cities, with their ports as gateways to the world. Further west, I head to the photogenic Delfshaven district, which held the original city port centuries ago, where the Pilgrim Fathers set off for America in 1620. Soak up the views over 400 years later at De Pelgrim (Aelbrechtskolk 12), a waterfront restaurant and brewery with its own signature beer, Mayflower, paying tribute to the connection; squeeze in a guided brewery tour and tasting if you have time. Near De Pelgrim there's a great antique shop, Maritieme Kunst & Antiekhandel (Voorhaven 33), selling global maritime-related treasures such as shipping charts and maps – a 1750 map of Ireland, by Dutch publisher Isaak Tirion, amongst them. Hotels with international roots The Hotel New York (Koninginnenhoofd 1) was formerly the Holland America Line offices, a pivotal company in migration to America. From 1901 until the late 70s, people could buy tickets here to New York. The Hotel New York (Pics: Polly Allen) The building is now dwarfed by skyscrapers, but its interiors blend heritage with modern twists, like Fornasetti wallpaper and a cocktail lounge. On a tighter budget, the 20-room Bazar (Witte de Withstraat 16) blends North African, West African and Middle Eastern influences in its cosy hotel décor – for example, Room 306 has Ghanaian motifs, whilst 308 has a sunken Ethopian-style bed. The international flavour translates to its restaurant menu: I spot Tunisian fish soup, Persian lamb stew, and Turkish yoghurt. Wherever you stay in Rotterdam, you can't help but be reminded that this city is a place of transitions and cultural exchanges, where each person's heritage or background just adds an extra something to the mix. More ways to find diaspora culture in Rotterdam The Rumah (Oude Binnenweg 110C) is a cocktail bar named after the Indonesian word for 'home', and giving a nod to the rum-focused menu. The owners have also brought pop-up events to other European cities, like Antwerp and Düsseldorf. Rotterdam had an influx of Scottish migrants from the end of the 17th century, and established trade links to Scottish ports. The Scots International Church (Schiedamse Vest 121), founded in 1643, is in the city centre. Like many buildings in this area, it was destroyed in the devastating Nazi bombing of 1940 and later rebuilt. Reading Room Rotterdam West (Rijnhoutplein 3) is a local-run library that holds 20,000 books in different languages, many you can keep for free. It's a useful place to study, enjoy a quiet coffee or meet people; volunteers have links to 23 different countries, including Greece, Somalia and Rwanda. See more of Ma Yangsong's global architecture on display at Nieuwe Instituut (Museumpark 25). Ma Yangsong: Architecture and Emotion runs until 11 October 2025. FACT FILE Visit Rotterdam and Visit Netherlands are your main sources for trip planning. The Landverhuizers Tour (€17.50 or £15pp), running until at least 20 July 2025, is bookable through the Story House Belvédère website. Rooms at Hotel New York by WestCord start at €100 or £84 per night; waterfront or pier views, €200-300 or £150-250 per night. Rooms at Bazar start from €75 or £63 per night. Rotterdam is an easy Eurostar journey from London St. Pancras or Brussels-Midi. Ferry connections are available from Hull. Flights to Rotterdam The Hague Airport go from 50 European or North African destinations, including Barcelona, Jersey and Rome. You can also fly to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, with many international connections such as Dublin and Cork, and take the train on to Rotterdam. See More: Rotterdam, Travel
Forbes
07-06-2025
- Forbes
Jiaxing Train Station By Architect Ma Yansong Is A Model Of People-Centric, Green Urban Design
The old and the new merge at Jiaxing Train Station by MAD Architects Jiaxing Train Station by Ma Yansong and his firm MAD Architects is a striking example of how contemporary infrastructure can harmonize with historical context and natural surroundings. Located in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, southwest of Shanghai, the project reimagines the traditional concept of a transportation hub, blending advanced design with cultural sensitivity. The station was conceived as a 'train station in the forest', featuring a gently undulating roof covered in greenery that seamlessly integrates the structure into the surrounding parkland. Beneath this green canopy lies a modern transport facility equipped to handle high-speed rail and daily commuters, while above, the original 1907 station has been meticulously reconstructed as a cultural landmark. MAD's design reflects Ma Yansong's ongoing exploration of 'Shanshui City' principles, merging nature, urban space and emotional resonance. By sinking much of the functional infrastructure underground, the design frees up surface-level space for pedestrian access and public use, turning the station into a civic destination rather than merely a transit point. Jiaxing Train Station not only improves connectivity, but also offers a vision of how architecture can foster a sense of community and continuity with the past, while embracing the future. Ma Yansong shares details about the project. Why did you decide to construct a 1:1 replica of the historic station building, while creating a new train station underground? Transportation is one of the keys that links up the whole system and helped us to develop the concept of a museum intervened by time. I want this place to be open to everyone and enable the public to fully engage with the ecology and cultural content. By restoring the historic building 1:1, it becomes a museum of time, a conversation between the past and the future. The history of this 100-year-old train station is also the history and culture of this city. We redefined culture, subjugating history in such cases that symbolize the timeline of urban development, and projected the museum to an epitome of the old railway station 100 years ago. This kind of 1:1 restatement endowed the architecture with its own story to tell while respecting history. Jiaxing Train Station lies beneath a giant green roof echoing rolling hills Tell me about the history of the Jiaxing Railway Station and how you're connecting old and new. Jiaxing Railway Station was first built in 1907 and put into use in 1909. It was an important transportation hub on the Shanghai-Hangzhou line at that time. In 1921, when some delegates of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party came to Jiaxing by train, the railway station became an important historical witness of the great meeting. But the station was later destroyed by the Japanese in 1937. After the restoration, the old station house becomes the History Museum of Jiaxing Railway Station, and will no longer assume the function of the main railway station house. The significance of this restoration is not in the restoration of the function, but more in the culture, whether it can trigger people's emotional resonance for the history of the place. In this sense, the restored station house is still 'real'. It still has historical images and stories, and it is very important to me that these stories have a relationship with the new space. Immediately adjacent to the restored station house is the 'floating' metal roof of the new station house. To echo the scale of the old station building, the new station building's entry/exit platform and waiting hall have been relegated to the ground level, with only one floor above ground 'fading' into the height. The black bridge canopy and the new silver platform form a continuous line, which is a metaphor for the relationship between the past and the future. In the underground of the station, I intentionally created a futuristic 'time tunnel'. Very often, for many traditional civilizations and histories in China, there is a limited concept that often does not allow the past and the new to coexist. Sometimes we duplicate old things and come up with many fake antiques. Like the old streets in so many cities, which were meant to bring out the history, turned out to be repetitions everywhere. Today, at the Jiaxing Railway Station, passengers in the new waiting room can look up to see the restored station house. The old and new station houses coexist together. Inside the floodlit Jiaxing Train Station Because the word 'sustainability' has been overused and oftentimes 'abused', what is your definition of sustainability? For sustainability, there are two aspects, one is the data ecology in terms of energy savings. It is a fairly large number. The entire roof of the two station houses is covered by solar panels. We basically designed architectures that generate electricity. All the energy goes into the city's electricity grid, and it will power the entire area, even the underground and landscape lighting. The other aspect I consider is sustainability within the cultural context, how it continues in the long term. Respect history and heritage, but reactivate them with new power. If we think about it, the life of a building comes from the profoundness of its culture or its vitality. Looking at the cultural heritages that we are protecting today, architecture especially is preserved as a material and preserved to today as self-explainable human evidence conveying the pursuit of different time periods in history, although they each symbolize different materialities and technologies of that time. Do you believe that the Jiaxing Train Station can serve as a model for sustainable practices for other transport infrastructure projects around the world, impact policy and change industry standards? I think most of the railway stations in China are pretty much standardized, and it is very difficult to be innovative with all the restrictions. Innovation sits itself beyond the response to an urban condition. We have to arrive at an understanding that most of the commonalities are particularly easy to replicate due to globalization or commercialization. For architecture such as offices, residences, retail shops, airports and railway stations, the uniqueness of such designs will be rapidly copied from one place to another, across cities and countries, despite any cultural sustainability and characteristics of different urban contexts. This type of architecture should be more rooted culturally, more customized with the unique characteristics of the location in the post-globalization era – its history, culture and visions. I think this is constantly what MAD is looking for, and what we discover on each project: a new journey.
DW
24-05-2025
- DW
Rotterdam: Architecture highlight and museum of migration – DW – 05/24/2025
A spectacular new museum building, the Fenix, has just opened in Rotterdam. The Fenix Warehouse, which was the world's largest when it opened in 1923, has been converted into a museum of migration by the Chinese MAD Architects studio. The highlight is a gigantic, gleaming spiral staircase on the roof, complete with a viewing platform. Inside, the focus is on migration. This fittingly reflects the museum's location in Rotterdam's port, from where millions of people once set sail for new lives in new places. It was also where many people from other parts of the world arrived in Europe for the first time. Our reporter Lucia Schulten (link) reports from the Netherlands.
Fast Company
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
Ma Yansong's first museum in Europe is a ‘metaphor' for migration
BY Ma Yansong is gesturing at a spiraling staircase inside the atrium of a building. The founder of MAD Architects —the Chinese firm behind the soon-to-open Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles—is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to inaugurate the opening of his first museum in Europe, and he is talking about movement. Of forms, yes, but mostly of people. The museum, called Fenix, sits on the edge of Rotterdam's historic port, which was also the first Chinatown in continental Europe. It was here, from the banks of the River Maas, where millions of emigrants—Albert Einstein included—boarded ships toward North America in search of better opportunities. And it is here, in the building that once housed the world's largest harbor storage warehouse for the Holland America Line, that Yansong has come to reflect on the meaning of migration. Bureau Polderman. MAD's tangled staircase connects both floors, then swoops out through the roof into a panoramic platform that offers sprawling views of the city. 'I think it's an architectural element, but it's also a metaphor; it has a storytelling function,' Yansong says. 'It's not about numbers' Fenix is opening at a time in which migrants around the world are being vilified, humiliated, deported. The EU has been hardening its migration policy for years, and hard-right parties are fast gaining ground —in the Netherlands as well. Since President Donald Trump took office, he has shifted nearly every aspect of U.S immigration policy to constrict regular immigration pathways, deport primarily black and brown immigrants living in the U.S. regardless of their legal status or criminal history, and instill fear among those who remain. The final deadline for Fast Company's Brands That Matter Awards is Friday, May 30, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Canada Standard
17-05-2025
- Canada Standard
Fenix Museum in Rotterdam explores stories of migration
Housed in a restored historic warehouse along Rotterdam's waterfront, the museum is situated on a site once teeming with departure docks. ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The Fenix Museum, a new cultural institution devoted entirely to the theme of migration, officially opened its doors to the public on Friday in Rotterdam. It claims to be the world's first museum solely focused on migration. Housed in a restored historic warehouse along Rotterdam's waterfront, the museum is situated on a site once teeming with departure docks. From here, more than 3 million people embarked on transatlantic journeys to destinations such as the United States and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - among them notable figures including Albert Einstein, according to museum archives. At the center of the museum stands the Tornado, a striking 30-meter-high spiraling structure designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong and his firm, MAD Architects. "Movement is the key for this museum," Ma told Xinhua in an interview. "It's all about humans traveling to different places in different times." "I almost consider this (the Tornado) as a journey for everyone," he added. "You start to take this stair... at some point, you run into a stranger. It becomes a social space, a place to bring people together." Hanneke Mantel, head of exhibitions and collections at Fenix, described the Tornado as a dynamic architectural element that winds its way upward from the ground floor, threading through the museum's various levels before culminating in a panoramic platform with sweeping views of the Rotterdam skyline. "The Tornado is a metaphor for a journey... with unexpected twists and turns. You might see yourself in reflection. And at the top, you arrive at your destination and you see the city," Mantel explained. Inside, the museum presents a rich collection of historical artifacts, multimedia installations, and deeply personal stories shared by Rotterdam residents with migrant backgrounds, offering an intimate exploration of human movement across borders.
