The Sonneveld House
A complete modernist house a family really lived in.
MonkeyPod — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Johannes Schwartz — CC BY 2.0 · GraphyArchy — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Calips — CC BY-SA 3.0
Het Nieuwe Instituut is the national institution for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam's Museumpark, and the natural place to understand why the Netherlands looks the way it does architecturally. It holds the Dutch national architecture archive — millions of drawings, plans and models from the archives of architects across a century and a half, among the largest architecture archives in the world. Its exhibitions are built from that archive or around it and change several times a year. The part that makes it worth visiting even for someone with no interest in architecture is the Sonneveld House: a 1933 house a few minutes' walk away, designed entirely on modernist principles — movable partitions, built-in furniture, a kitchen calculated to the centimetre and a considered colour system. A family actually lived in it for decades. The ticket normally covers both, and the house is what stays with you.
A complete modernist house a family really lived in.
Architects' drawings and models across 150 years.
Museumpark 25, 3015 Rotterdam
The Chabot MuseumThe Chabot Museum stands in Rotterdam's Museumpark and combines two things each 1 minute walk4.0
Depot Boijmans Van BeuningenA giant mirror bowl amid the Museumpark — the world's first fully open art depot1 minute walk4.5
Kunstinstituut MellyKunstinstituut Melly is a contemporary art space on the Witte de Withstraat in R5 minutes walk4.2
Kunsthal RotterdamA museum without a collection: the Kunsthal (1992) was designed by Rem Koolhaas,6 minutes walk4.5
Park SchoonoordA small English landscape-style park beside Het Park in Rotterdam, laid out in t8 minutes walk4.8A single area gathering the city's main museums within minutes of one another: the Kunsthal for large exhibitions, the Depot Boijmans — the world's first art storage facility fully open to the public, with its concave mirrored facade — Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Chabot Museum and the natural history museum. At least half a day, and the park itself is an architectural design. The nearest metro is Eendrachtsplein.