The museum brings together a century-old harbour warehouse, global migration stories and a reflective spiral staircase that rises above Rotterdam’s waterfront.
Rotterdam’s relationship with migration is embedded in its geography. As one of Europe’s great port cities, it has long been a place of arrivals and departures — including the journeys of millions of Europeans who left from its docks for North America. In the historic Katendrecht district, a former warehouse now takes on a new civic role as Fenix, a museum dedicated to the human stories behind migration.
Designed by MAD Architects, Fenix opened in May 2025 following the transformation of the century-old warehouse. It is the Beijing-based practice’s first completed cultural project in Europe, and represents an ambitious adaptive-reuse project that places an expressive contemporary intervention within a building shaped by Rotterdam’s maritime past.
Commissioned by the Droom en Daad Foundation, the project retains the warehouse’s industrial presence while adapting it for exhibitions, events and community use. The original structure was restored by Dutch practice Bureau Polderman, preserving the building’s robust proportions and material character. Rather than replacing this history, MAD’s design introduces a new centrepiece that makes the museum’s theme visible from both inside and out.
At the heart of Fenix is the Tornado, a polished stainless-steel double staircase that spirals through an opening in the roof. Its two intertwining routes rise from the museum interior to a public observation deck 30 metres above ground, where visitors can look across the River Maas and Rotterdam’s skyline. Reflecting the sky, water and movement around it, the form changes throughout the day — at once sculptural landmark, circulation route and viewing platform.
The staircase is conceived as an architectural expression of migration itself. Its paths repeatedly separate and converge, creating encounters between people travelling in different directions before leading them towards a shared destination. For MAD founder Ma Yansong, the design considers the emotions that accompany movement: departure, reunion, uncertainty and hope. The Tornado therefore does more than provide access to the roof; it turns the act of moving through the building into part of the museum experience.
Inside, Fenix uses art, historical objects and personal narratives to explore migration as a continuing global reality. A free Civic Plaza on the ground floor extends the institution beyond its galleries, providing a setting for performances, food-related events and public programmes. The museum is intended not only as a place to encounter exhibitions, but also as a shared space for exchange within one of Europe’s most diverse cities.
The transformation also incorporates an extensive planted roof of approximately 6,750 square metres. Beyond softening the building’s industrial profile, it supports insulation and rainwater retention, helping to reduce energy use and manage runoff on site.
Fenix is an assured example of adaptive reuse that resists nostalgia. The warehouse remains recognisably itself — solid, weathered and rooted in Rotterdam’s port history — while the Tornado offers a vivid counterpoint: light-catching, fluid and constantly in motion. Together, they give physical form to the museum’s subject, suggesting that while migration begins with leaving one place, it is ultimately shaped by the connections made elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of MAD Architects/Fenix
