Andreea Ioana Pirvan

Complex Projects

View from the river Maas

Maas Museum: A reinterpretation for the age of the prosumer

The Maas Museum redefines the architecture of the museum in the age of prosumers and wide cultural participation. The project reflects on a departure from recent traditions of iconicism, rediscovering the role of the museum as a means instead of a goal. It addresses the capacity of architecture to enable powerful creative and socioeconomic processes, with reverberations at different levels, from personal well-being and lifelong development of the individual through constant engagement in creative processes, as well as a macroeconomic scale by encouraging social cohesion and development of new entrepreneurial models. The proposal suggests essential alterations to the museum typology: new educational, production and dwelling facilities; a functional floorplan; and a flexible, robust detailing and material palette. Situated in Rotterdam Zuid, the identity of the museum is strongly bonded to the site’s industrial past. However, its simplicity allows it to be extrapolated from this scenario and calls for rethinking all cultural buildings.