We’ve finally vis­ited MVRDV’s Didden Vil­lage, a roof con­ver­sion project in the North of Rot­ter­dam (see also our pre­vi­ous post “MVRDV’s first Rot­ter­dammer“).

The place hosted the mobile exhi­bi­tion series zwer­vende ten­toon­stellin­gen in the rooms of the wig-maker’s atelier.

The design set­tled - after strug­gling with a blobby roof land­scape - with the iconic shape of 2 mini-​huts, houses on top of a house. The addi­tion is cov­ered in blue resin, in stark con­trast to the tra­di­tional red bricks of the adja­cent build­ings, evok­ing the image of a home in the clouds - or maybe express­ing the desire for a blue sky con­sid­er­ing the always-​grey veil cov­er­ing the dutch skies.

The two vol­umes con­tain the parent’s bed­room and the children’s room - each with a sep­a­rate stair­case access. The stair­wells float above the old build­ing, under­lin­ing the addi­tive char­ac­ter of the new rooms.

Walk­ing up these stairs you find your­self in the tinted fairy tale land­scape, art objects scat­tered on the roof­s­cape - over­whelm­ingly blue, a strange lido. The family’s chil­dren played between the vis­it­ing archi­tects. It was enjoy­able to see how laid-​back the owners han­dled the vis­i­tors in their appartment.

Not enough blue? Find the full set of pic­tures on our photo page.