Skip to content 
City Spotlight
Swapping Quaint for Cutting Edge in Rotterdam
By Karen Burshtein
After the 1940 Luftwaffe bombing of its historic centre, Rotterdam reinvented itself as a laboratory of socially aware, sustainable, and just plain out-there architecture.
The FENIX Rises
Beside the famous Hotel New York—once Holland America Line’s headquarters—stands an imposing brick warehouse topped with what looks like a giant steel waterslide. This twisting double-helix stairway, designed by MAD Architects and nicknamed the Tornado, leads to a rooftop viewing platform. It crowns the new FENIX Museum of Migration, one of Europe’s buzziest cultural institutions. Inside, bold, emotionally charged works of contemporary art tell migration stories, a theme central to Rotterdam’s history. The Tornado’s spiralling form is a striking metaphor for movement and change.
Art in a Flower Pot
From FENIX’s rooftop, across the Maas River, another steel marvel gleams: the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, affectionately dubbed the Flower Pot. Designed by local firm MVRDV, it flips the museum concept inside out. Instead of hiding treasures in storage, this mirrored bowl-shaped building displays them in glass-walled rooms that rise like a vertical street. You can also see art restorers repairing a Rembrandt from behind glass.
Surf and the City
Enjoy an aperitif of bitterballen and beer while watching people surf in the middle of the city. RiF010 is one of Rotterdam’s most daring projects yet: an urban surf pool in a repurposed canal. Want to try hanging ten? Beginner lessons are offered. And, for the more experienced surfers, they really crank up the wave machine. It’s also environmentally minded. The waves are generated by 100 percent sustainable energy. The amorphous arch-shaped building looming in the background is Markthal, the city’s covered food market, another landmark from MVRDV. It’s a reminder you’re in the thick of a city.
An Important New Building
In under an hour drive outside of town you’ll see a stack of rotating container-ship-inspired boxes overlooking Europe’s busiest port. Portlantis, another project from MVRDV, is an experience hub that is meant to draw local youth to the port and aspire to work there, not necessarily hauling cargo; the focus is on managing port and climate issues through high-tech jobs. It’s bringing a lot of visitors, too, for its cool design and state-of-the-art interactive exhibits.
Rotterdam’s Accommodations are also Buzzy
Think spending the night in a coffee roastery. The Man Met Bril Koffie is a chic new boutique hotel at the back of a local coffee roaster (the world’s first coffee hotel btw). It’s in the tranquil, gentrifying neighbourhood of Crooswijk where people dine at hip restaurants bordering the Rotte River, as swans swim by. It’s only a twenty-minute walk along tranquil canals from the bustling centre.
Why Go Now?
As Amsterdam actively tackles overtourism, visitors are opting to stay in Rotterdam which, in addition to its own offerings, is a perfect base for visiting other parts of the Netherlands. The Hague—and its Vermeer paintings—is only a 22-minute train ride away. Amsterdam is under an hour from Rotterdam, Dordrecht and Utrecht.
Travel Planner
To start planning your visit, see martigny.com and myswitzerland.com
