Five Concepts for New Rotterdam 'Landmark'

Shift, billed as a “steward-owned social enterprise founded to enable large-scale societal change,” launched the Shift International Architecture Competition in January 2025, with the aim of building the Shift Landmark, a roughly 30,000 m² building with immersive experience, hotel, conference and meeting center, and a sustainable food court. The Rotterdam structure would be the first of six such landmarks, one per continent. The long-term goal, per Shift founder Don Ritzen, is to change people's behaviors through experiences showing how life can be better: “The Landmark and its immersive experience are built to create that moment, by spotlighting real circularity and sustainability champions and showing that a better future is just one shift away.”

Overseen by New York's DVDL, the competition garnered proposals from 80 teams, five of which were shortlisted in November. In the months since, the teams led by Ecosistema Urbano, Heatherwick Studio, Mecanoo, MVRDV, and Office for Political Innovation developed their designs, which Shift unveiled this week. The jury, consisting of Ben van Berkel, Aric Chen, and Matthias Schuler, among its eleven members, will announce the winning design this spring and then “enter a participation process with input from local communities.” Images and brief descriptions of the five finalists are below, alphabetical by lead architect.

Ecosistema Urbano (lead architect, Spain), Fabrications, ARUP

“Conceived as a regenerative living system, the building operates as a dynamic social organism that integrates public space, ecological performance, and civic life—actively fostering biodiversity and strengthening connections between local communities and wider ecological networks.”

Heatherwick Studio (lead architect, UK), Nudus, Ramboll, Oosterhoff, RAA, RLB

“A new building for Rotterdam, built from six layers of activity that support one another like a reef‑inspired ecosystem. Influenced by natural flows of movement, these layers offer spaces that bring people together, build climate awareness and show how a building can encourage lighter, more sustainable ways of living together.”

Mecanoo (lead architect, Netherlands), ARUP, Tellart

“An inspiring icon for sustainability that places bold upcycling, carbon storage, energy neutrality, and ecological integration at its core. Integrating spaces for imagination, exploration, action, play, and joy.”

MVRDV (lead architect, Netherlands), dGmR, ARUP, Arcadis, Studio Bertels, Joris Laarman Lab

“Rotterdam ROCKS! is a stacked landscape of living rocks that turns architecture into a regenerative, urban ecosystem and a new landmark for the city: rocks that breathe. Strengthening Rotterdam's experimental character, it demonstrates that buildings of tomorrow can merge nature and public life.”

Office for Political Innovation (lead architect, Spain), Kaan Architecten, LOLA Landscape Architects, iart, Pieters Bouwtechniek, Stadium Consultancy, IGG Bouweconomie, WSP, Envirotecnics

“Climate Section proposes a new kind of landmark for the Climate Age: not a monument, but a working section through the world as it is becoming—a place where climate is sensed, understood, and actively reshaped, together.”