The FENIX Museum of Migration is the result of a commission from the Droom en Daad Foundation – a Netherlands institution that is helping redefine Rotterdam for the 21st century through the development of new kinds of arts and cultural institutions. The museum will be the first cultural work in Europe by Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects. The project uses the Fenix Warehouse II, an industrial building of 1.6 hectares built in 1923 and which was one of the biggest warehouses in the world. Its privileged location on the Katendrecht peninsula, in the southern port area on the banks of the River Maas, have turned it into an active agent in the history of the city: it was a major building for storage and shipping for the Dutch passenger and cargo line, the Holland America Line. Therefore the building contributed to the migration of millions of people throughout the 20th century.

These social and demographic phenomena serve as starting point to explain the main motivation behind the new museum, which will hold several exhibitions and events that show the emotional dilemma of having to leave one’s home in search for a place to start from zero. The tribute is rounded off with the architectural highlight of the project: a huge metallic spiral staircase that starts out at the building’s ground floor and ascends dynamically and organically to well above the roof, finally reaching a viewing platform that symbolizes the complex process migrants go through.