Floating pavilion, Rijnhaven, Rotterdam

The Floating Pavilion is widely recognized as Rotterdam’s pioneering project for building on water. PDA designed the iconic building and oversaw the construction from start to end. It took less than a year.

FLOATING PAVILION

Rotterdam’s Floating Pavilion plays an important role both as a showcase of building on water and as an information and reception area. The iconic building allows the city to give space to experiments and knowledge exchange on floating constructions. And this for a good reason: the surrounding region has more than 24,000 ha. that is not protected against high tides. In addition, an area of over 1,600 ha . – formerly docks and harbour areas – are becoming available for new developments.

Building on water

Two key characteristics of building on water are the low weight of the construction and the potentially short building time. The three domes of the Floating Pavilion have been made based on a single-layer lattice construction in steel overlaid with a transparent, isolating skin with cushions made from EFTE, a superlight material originally conceived for space applications. Using prefabricated modules, the onsite construction took less than one and a half week.

Iconic domes

The Floating Pavilion catches the eye of every passer-by. It stands out while still retaining a human dimension.
Visitors who enter are positively surprised by the interior light and spaciousness. The two largest domes contain the lobby and exhibition space, while the smaller dome contains an auditorium suited for groups of up to 150 people.

Balanced and robust

The Pavilion’s exterior and interior have a stylish finish using robust, natural materials.
The building contains sustainable solutions for energy and climate management, and for air and wastewater treatment – all state-of-the-art at the time of construction. Heating and cooling is done through solar energy, surface water, and natural ventilation. There are separate climate zones with their own heating and cooling requirements, adding to the efficient energy use. The Floating Pavilion is largely self-sustaining and only needs exterior connections to supply electricity and drinking water.

It can therefore easily be uncoupled and moved to another location.

Knowledge and exhibition hall

The Floating Pavilion has been open to the public since 2010. Foremost, it is a knowledge centre presenting up-to-date information concerning building on water and Rotterdam’s climate change mitigation program. It also serves as a display hall for various company exhibitions.

Want to know more? Go to www.drijvendpaviljoen.nl