The opening ceremony of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen will take place on November 5th, 2021, with a special guest in attendance: His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. The depot – which houses the entire 151,000-artwork collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – will then open to the public the following day.

The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is the first publicly accessible art storage facility in the world. It is not a second museum, where only a small percentage of the collection can be exhibited, but an engine room that exposes the world behind the preservation and maintenance of a dizzying number of works of art and design. Visitors can experience the collection in a new way: not in the hallowed halls of the museum but in combinations determined by practicality rather than by curation, without explanation, and in that sense perhaps with fewer inhibitions.

Located in the Museumpark, next to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen itself, the depot has already become one of Rotterdam’s most recognisable buildings. The reflective facade, consisting of 6,609m2 of glass divided over 1,664 panels, ensures that the building visually blends into its surroundings and reflects an image of the city’s skyline to passers-by. Meanwhile 75 birches, 20 pines, and grasses on the rooftop demonstrate the opportunity that buildings can provide to add more nature to our cities. This rooftop forest helps to retain water, promote biodiversity and reduce heat stress in the city, and has already been awarded the Dutch rooftop prize before the opening of the building.

Read more about the design of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen here. Tickets to visit the building from November 6th onwards can be purchased here.

Photo of King Willem-Alexander © RVD - Erwin Olaf. Photo of the depot © Ossip van Duivenbode.