Construction has started on the second phase of MVRDV’s Hoowave Water Factory masterplan in Huwei, Taiwan. The project, which began construction in 2023, aims to modernise the town’s waterway network. The town will soon have a system that captures and stores water for use and gives space to the river, to nature, and to urban life. These changes will reverse the water pollution that had resulted from the town’s urban and agricultural growth, and better prepare it for the floods and droughts that will come as a result of climate change – while creating new cycle paths, cultural amenities, and ecological systems that connect the people, nature, and the river.
MVRDV has completed the GATE M West Bund Dream Center, transforming a former cement factory into a culture and leisure district that adds to Shanghai’s expanding string of West Bund cultural projects. The design makes a cohesive urban space out of a collection of buildings from different time periods, reusing the existing structures to minimise carbon emissions, and introducing an unmistakeable identity with its bright orange circulation elements. Offering possibilities for shopping, eating, drinking, skateboarding, rock climbing, and visiting exhibitions and events – or simply relaxing by the riverside – the area has already become an award-winning and popular destination for Shanghai residents and visitors alike.
The Pingtung County Government has recently selected the design proposal submitted by MVRDV together with HWC Architects for the transformation of Jialeshui, a well-known scenic area in the southernmost part of Taiwan, known for its remarkable rock formations shaped by wind and water. Based around a series of key structures that take the rocks themselves as inspiration, Nature Rocks proposes a comprehensive masterplan that aims to strengthen the site’s tourism infrastructure while respecting its natural environment. The design introduces a network of new pathways and public spaces, improves accessibility, and adds small-scale buildings – including a central visitor centre and three lookout points – within the existing built footprint.
MVRDV’s exhibition Carbon Confessions will travel to Paris and be on display from September 19 to 27 at the Atelier Néerlandais. As the world faces an increasingly urgent climate crisis, Carbon Confessions shows how the construction industry – responsible for nearly 40% of global emissions – can rethink the way we build. MVRDV has long focused on sustainability, and their designs support this much-needed change. But what does that mean in practice? In Carbon Confessions, MVRDV tells their story from the heart of this construction revolution. The exhibition shows the ideas, ideals, everyday actions – but also the missteps and missed opportunities – of their quest for carbon reductions.
MVRDV is proud to announce the appointment of Floris Overheul as its new Managing Director, starting July 1st, 2025. He succeeds Sigrid Baas, who has held the position on an interim basis since November 2023. Floris joins MVRDV with a strong track record in business leadership and organisational strategy. Since 2019, he has been part of the leadership team at Mecanoo where he served as Board Member and Finance Director, and was appointed Partner in 2022. In addition, he is a board member of the BNA (Royal Dutch Institute of Architects) where he represents the interests of architecture firms and leads the collective labour agreement (CAO) negotiations for the sector on behalf of employers.
Construction has started on KoolKiel, the MVRDV-designed mixed-use complex offering a mix of residences, two hotels and commercial spaces. The 86,000-square-metre project will redevelop a post-industrial harbour site at the southernmost tip of the Kiel fjord and is one of the city’s key redevelopment projects. The project will be built in three phases, with the first phase set for completion in summer 2027. On June 6th 2025, the official start of construction was marked by a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Mayor Ulf Kämpfer, State Secretary for the Interior Frederik Hogrefe, and Lutz W. Lester, representing the developer Adore GmbH. Also present were City Councillor Gerwin Stöcken and Markus Reutershan, Managing Director of KiWoG. Their participation signalled the start of construction at the site. The first phase will see the construction of 154 social housing units on the eastern plot, named “Wulf”, along Werftstraβe. The apartments are spread over three cubic blocks above a zigzagging plinth containing short stay apartments. In the second construction phase, two hotel towers will be built in the northern section of the site, while in the third phase 180 apartments will be developed on the site of the former Medienzentrum W8.
In the master's course Anti-Monument, led by Prof. Jacob van Rijs at the Technical University of Berlin, architecture students took on this challenge. The focus was on a climate-conscious and responsible approach to the built heritage of the capital. The software CarbonScape, developed by MVRDV, was used in the process. This tool makes it possible to visualise the hidden CO₂ emissions of materials and constructions. This exhibition presents work from the course in which students explored how existing buildings can be reimagined, repurposed, and further developed in the context of climate protection. CarbonScape served not only as an analytical tool to evaluate how these structures can be adapted to meet current needs and building regulations, but also as a design compass in a creative process that prioritises the reduction of CO2 emissions.
On Thursday the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany opened its latest exhibition, WEtransFORM: On the Future of Building, with an exhibition design by MVRDV. Billed as a cornerstone of the Bundeskunsthalle’s “year of sustainability and ecological change”, the exhibition presents the future of sustainable architecture and urbanism, focusing on the fundamental design principles required for a climate-friendly renewal of our building culture. The spatial design reflects the curators’ eight-chapter structure with a series of enigmatic, immersive spaces made almost exclusively from materials already available at the museum. This circular design approach makes the exhibition itself an example of the new building culture it advocates. “Over the years we’ve built quite some expertise in exhibition design thanks to creating many exhibitions of our own work, as well as a number of exhibition pavilions for expos from Hannover to Bogotá to Taipei”, says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “It’s exciting to now apply that expertise in accessible, diverse, and informative exhibition-making to an institution as prestigious as the Bundeskunsthalle, and a topic as important as the sustainable revolution in construction.”
MVRDV has revealed their design for “Out of the Box”, a project comprising a 25-storey residential tower as well as a new section of streetscape in Tianmu, one of Taipei’s northernmost neighbourhoods. Taking advantage of its prominent location on one of Taipei’s major roads, the tower stands out with its strongly defined gridded façade clad in marble, and its many overhanging outdoor spaces and bay windows that offer views of downtown Taipei and the mountains of the nearby Yangmingshan National Park. Designed for Win Sing Development Company, the tower occupies the centre of a small block alongside Zhongshan North Road, the main arterial connection between central Taipei and its northern districts. This location, along with the low- to mid-rise character of most of Tianmu’s buildings, mean that the project will become a landmark of the neighbourhood.
Opened in 2024, Tiffany & Co.’s store on the Mexican coast in Cancún features a special façade designed by Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV. Inspired by local coral species and 3D-printed, the Cancún façade is the second in a family of designs produced by MVRDV for Tiffany, sharing many features with the 3D-printed façade of the store in Singapore Changi Airport that opened in 2023. In this second iteration, the techniques developed in Singapore are further refined, with structural innovations that enable a locally inspired twist on the theme. The store is located in La Isla Shopping Village, an open-air shopping centre in Cancún’s Hotel Zone. The store’s proximity to the beach was a clear inspiration for the store’s interior designer Balmaceda, who incorporated some local materials and crafts along with marine motifs to create an elegant interpretation of the rustic Caribbean aesthetic. MVRDV’s design team took this as a starting point, creating a naturalistic façade to complement the interior.
