Today, we travel to Rotterdam to meet Fokke Moerel, partner at MVRDV, a practice known for questioning limits, expanding what architecture can be, and asking, relentlessly: “why not?”.
In their work, boundaries never arrive pre-set. “This kind of pre-set boundaries or rules is something that we don’t have.” Every project begins with orientation: “Where are we? First you have to understand where you are to know what you are going to react to.” And with awareness comes responsibility: “you are using a part of the planet, so you better use it well.”
Themes in the office evolve constantly, “sometimes they age, but they never stay the same”.
From rooftop landscapes to mirrored buildings that invite you to take a picture of the world rather than a selfie of yourself, MVRDV stretch the idea of what a building can host and who it can belong to.
“When should you stop pushing?” they ask. “Where can we go even further?” The Depot in Rotterdam answers this directly: an archive once thought to be only 20% accessible is now 95% open to the public; a building unafraid of its own “objectness” and iconicity.
After all, using Fokke words, architecture is about “celebrating every piece of life.”
Cheers to that.
Guest: Fokke Moerel, MVRDV (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
This episode is sponsored by J&J Teixeira.
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