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<\/a><\/p>\nThe refined design was unveiled on Tuesday after MVRDV won the international architecture competition for Shift Embassy.<\/p>\n
The planned landmark will form part of Rotterdam\u2019s new \u201cnature-positive\u201d Waterkant neighbourhood, which is expected to include 3,750 homes, schools and maker spaces built around a new tidal park.<\/p>\n
The embassy was the brainchild of Shift, a social enterprise working to scale-up solutions to pressing global challenges. In an interview with Positive News, its founder Don Ritzen said that the idea behind the building is to create a hopeful vision of the future \u2013 and hasten the change needed to reach it.<\/p>\n
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\n The planned landmark is set to be part of the new ‘nature-positive’ Waterkant neighbourhood. Image: MVRDV\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMost people, when they think about the future, they think that it\u2019s all going to shit,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to bring more systemic change, we need to create places where people get inspired and get hope again, where they feel empowered to take action, and where they can meet like-minded people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shift Embassy, he says, will be one such place. Inviting visitors to experience a sustainable future that has already arrived (albeit only in some parts of the world), it will use immersive art, inspiring stories and exhibitions to showcase alternative pathways to the ones humanity is on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t believe in telling people what to do,\u201d said Ritzen. \u201cWe believe in showing them what is possible, and that it\u2019s something that they can participate in. It\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We need to create places where people get inspired and get hope again<\/p>\n
MVRDV was chosen to design Shift Embassy after its proposal, dubbed Rotterdam Rocks, was taken forward by a judging panel. The plans will now be put out to a public consultation, before the necessary construction permits are sought. \u00a0<\/p>\n
MVRDV\u2019s renders depict a rocky, vegetation-strewn landmark on the banks of the Maas. Featuring a giant exhibition space showcasing \u201cglobal success stories in nature, energy, travel, and circularity\u201d, the building will also contain educational spaces, places for community events and a hotel.<\/p>\n
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\n The building aims to create a hopeful vision of the future \u2013 and hasten positive change. Image: MVRDV\n <\/p>\n
\u201cRotterdam Rocks departs from how sustainability is traditionally communicated, bringing together joy, discovery, and surprise into a new architectural language,\u201d said the judges. \u201cWe anticipate this building and its programme will invite people to rethink their everyday behaviour and encourage new ways of living sustainably together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winy Maas, a founding partner of MVRDV, said that the project will also serve as a \u201cscale-up lab\u201d to showcase the latest innovations in low-carbon construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to create inclusive spaces for people, trees, plants, for water, air, and for animal habitats, balancing the need for new built space with new landscapes to compensate our ecological impact,\u201d he said. \u201cOur design integrates these human and natural spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
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