Markthal, Rotterdam

Architecture: MVRDV
Text: Eszter Götz
Photos: Ossip van Duivenbode, Scagliola & Brakkee

At a historical location at the Binnenrotte, next to the largest weekly open air fresh food and hardware market in Rotterdam, the first covered market of the Netherlands was realised. Markthal includes a huge market floor on the ground floor under an arch of apartments. Its shape, its colourful interior and the height turns Markthal into an unique spectacle. Unique is not only its shape and size, but especially the way the different functions are combined. The combination of an apartment building covering a fresh food market with food shops, restaurants, a supermarket and an underground parking is found nowhere else in the world. The building needed to be as open as possible to attract the public and at the same time it had to be closed off due to weather conditions. Keeping the closure as transparent as possible a cable net façade was chosen which needs very few constructive elements. Its principle is comparable to a tennis racket in which the steel cable are used as strings in between which the glass is mounted.

Architects: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
Fellow architects: Marc Joubert, Anet Schurink, Jeroen Zuidgeest, Michele Olcese, Laura Grillo, Ivo van Capelleveen, Renske van der Stoep, Anton Wubben, Joeri Horstink, Diana Lopez, Gijs Rikken, Elsbeth Ronner, Yvo Thijssen, Johnny Tsang, Sven Thorissen
Structure: D3BN/ DHV, Maurice Hermens
Acoustics: Peutz & Associes Zoetermeer, Peter Wapenaar