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The Park Pavilion, Rotterdam (2025)

For years, the Park Pavilion hid itself behind shrubs and trees, its presence erased from public view and invisible to the countless people who passed it daily while strolling, jogging, or walking their dogs through “the Park” by the Euromast.



Originally, it was built around 1910 as an open-air convalescence hall; it served as a place where Rotterdammers, especially women, could recover in fresh air from illness or from the “fatigue of body and mind.” In 1927, due to the construction of the “Maastunnel”, the building was relocated along with the Norwegian Seamen’s Church and reconstructed at its current site by Rotterdam architect C.J. Hemmes. There, it soon lost its public function and gradually faded from collective memory.



With the recent restoration of the Park (the largest green national monument in Rotterdam, designed by the father-and-son Zocher), the pavilion has stepped back into the light. It lastly functioned primarily as a storage shed for the city’s green maintenance services. Today, it continues to support this daily green care of the Park while also housing the Park Foundation's office. But above all, it has been returned to the people of Rotterdam as a refuge for human well-being.




A place to go without the obligation to consume. An open space where people, culture, and park-nature meet. A place where anyone is welcome, to rest, to recover, to experience, to connect, or even to take part by raking leaves or planting flower bulbs. Here, visitors, volunteers, gardeners, and staff move through the seasons; on heels, slippers, sneakers, or muddy boots, working side by side, quite literally among wheelbarrows, rakes, and hoes, caring together.




To welcome this wide diversity of Rotterdam’s people, we did not seek neutral functionality, but rather local character and honesty. Inspired by the past, the original open hall with its rhythmic columns has been restored and freed from partition walls. Shutters, rediscovered in historical black-and-white photographs, have been reinstated in shades of grey, reviving the distinct identity of the convalescence hall.



In fair weather, the pavilion opens through its southern façade; in poor weather, visitors enter through the kitchen, which also serves as reception, workshop space, and place for cooking. The hall becomes many things at once: a workspace for some, a resting place for others, an event venue, an exhibition space, a workshop setting, or a place for social exchange.



During construction, trees that had fallen within the park were repurposed into pavilion furniture, allowing visitors to sit on wood from their immediate surroundings. The modular cabinetry and lighting, anodised with natural pigments derived from park materials, echo this approach. The Maas gravel floor, inlaid with brass botanical drawings, recalls the original arrangement of beds in the convalescence hall. This meticulous, local approach to detail lies at the heart of the design vision, one guided by care, attention, and a sense of soul. Builders, clients, and users alike embraced this process. Deadlines were adapted to the rhythm of devoted craftsmanship, allowing makers the time to experiment with new techniques and materials, and to shape them with intention.





Client: Droom en Daad
User: Stichting het Park
Design team: Studio Makkink & Bey,
Jurgen Bey ism Michou Nanon de Bruijn
and Pim Bangert, Pichaya Puapoomcharoen,
Anja van Zomeren

Executing architect: Bureau Polderman
Construction contractor: Bouwbedrijf Bakker Arkel
Interior builder: Jasper van der Made
ism Koert Verberne
Lighting design: Studio LoopLoop
Odin Visser, Charles Gateau