Fenix is a former warehouse of the Hollands Amerika Line, used in the early 20th century for the transshipment of goods at the Rijnhaven in Rotterdam. The 172-meter-long building houses an art museum dedicated to migration, with the Tornado at its heart, a double, spiraling staircase that spirals upwards to a viewing platform above the roof.
In 2019, we began working on the lighting design for the exterior and interior of Fenix. Without knowing the precise spatial design in advance, only the program, we created a lighting design. Our goal was to preserve the building’s original character as much as possible, while also incorporating sufficient flexibility to create a suitable lighting scheme for the building’s final design, which finally opened in May 2025. The 16,000m² building features 7,000m² of exhibition space, a shop, café, lobby, Tornado, covered plaza, and offices. To ensure sufficient flexibility, we use two layers of lighting: accent lighting and diffuse lighting.
Industrial fixtures mounted on cable ducts, complement the building’s character, create diffuse lighting that can be adjusted from cool to warm white. This creates a base that complements the daylight and gives the space the same spacious feeling in the evening and at daytime. During events, the lighting is dimmed in warm tones for a more intimate atmosphere. The accent lighting consists of adjustable spotlights mounted on tracks. Both the beam and the intensity of the spotlights can be adjusted and creating a nice balanced lighting.
The Tornado has many curves and is illuminated using integrated lighting in a cove above the handrail. A bendable fixing profile with a 3D bendable light line has been built in the cove, which details were developed after several mock-ups and thorough consultation with the various Tornado designers.
The goal of the lighting design was to achieve a flexible set of tools to create a balance between the interior lighting and the overall appearance of the building as seen from the outside at night.
Photography: Fenix kunstmuseum over migratie and Beersnielsen lichtontwerpers