Interview with Architect Winy Maas about spherical mirror façade

In this interview Winy Maas, architect of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, talks about his vision for the spherical mirror façade and the way Sorba has implemented his idea. Maas speaks about the cooperation between Sorba and MVRDV architects, which has resulted in the magnificent façade we see today.

A beautiful visual

“The depot will be in a park in the middle of the city. The question then is, how do you make a building that loves the park. You do that in a few ways; 1. you make a round building so that you have no corners. So that you always see people and you can easily get around them Secondly by making the smallest possible footprint and that means not making it too high, so that a roof can be made on which a forest can be planted. Then it is covered with a mirror, which actually makes nature visually larger and allows you to see around the corner. You get more air and you also get more contact with the community. I think that results in an enormous reconciliation with the environment. .

In the first instance the building was designed to make it in stainless steel, but that causes 2 problems, firstly it is very expensive and secondly you cannot make windows in it, no transparency. So then we came up with the request to make it out of large mirror plates. In collaboration with Sorba, this has led to a number of questions. What is the maximum size that we can make, how are we going to make that bend and how are we going to make that transition from transparent to reflective.

We then also did this together with the maker, the mirror bender, in China. And that was also beautiful to see. Sorba guided that, how can you also make that with a maker. Also because it is so innovative, you have to do this in dialogue with the makers. I really liked that in the process and it works as you can see now. “

“My dream has now become a reality and that is more than we could ever have imagined”

Watch the interview with Winy Maas here

Want to see and read more about this project. Take a look at the project Depot Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – Rotterdam in our portfolio.