Showdepot

The Showdepot is a building for the DE.GROEN Collection. A place where the collection can be stored and displayed. We have come up with our own answer to the question: What are you? A museum and gallery? No, we are a Showdepot.

Hovering above the perfect cube is IETS ZIEN. A work by Peter Jordaan
“Iets zien” raises questions, particularly because of the word ‘iets’, as that ‘iets’ does not specify what you are seeing. Yet at the same time, it is an answer to an unknown question, for clearly you are seeing something.

“IETS ZIEN” may indirectly refer to art, but it could just as easily refer to the bridge, the floodplains, the windmills, the buildings and, of course, it also refers to the cube on which the text is written.
Art is extraordinarily fragile; that is also its quality. If you do not want to see it, if you are not open to it, you see nothing. If you see nothing, art is useless. The power therefore lies with the viewer, who must SEE SOMETHING.
SEEING SOMETHING is the quality of life.

Het Gebouw

For the new ShowDepot, DE.GROEN invited architects Space Encounters (Amsterdam), led by brothers Gijs and Joost Baks, to collaborate. They designed a unique building that combines exhibition space and art storage. The design is inspired by a monolith – a large, freestanding rock that towers above everything else. Marjolein: 'This shape symbolises a place that preserves and protects art, as if it holds a great secret.

We see this monolith as a memory carrier for the value of art.

The building is striking with its softly reflective skin, but is entirely at the service of art. At the same time, it fits in well with the surroundings of the industrial park and is clearly visible from the John Frost Bridge and the Pleijroute. With the developments of the Rijnpark, the city is expanding further and further. ShowDepot DE.GROEN can be seen as a cultural point on the horizon.

Architecture

This cube-shaped monolith measures exactly 18 x 18 x 18 metres. It is an abstract volume in an industrial environment. The building is carefully aligned with the structure of the surrounding streets and buildings, thus following the logic of the location. Despite its geometric simplicity, it is also a modest monument.
The façade subtly captures and refracts light through its brushed aluminium cladding. Every change in the weather, from moving clouds to bright rays of sunshine, affects the appearance of the building. In this way, the building distinguishes itself from its surroundings while at the same time blending in. Each façade has a single opening, a carefully (almost typographically) placed window to match the function and orientation of the interior spaces. These windows dance across the surface, as it were, giving each side its own character. This makes the perhaps austere cube subtly playful and accessible.
The interior has three ingredients: concrete floors, white walls and galvanised steel fences. Each floor has a different height, and the spaces vary in size. The dimensions are museum-like, but at times also intimate. There are halls, corridors and cabinets. Unnoticed, the visitor walks through the exhibition and depot as if on a stroll. The architecture of the Showdepot is the perfect backdrop for our private collection of contemporary art.

Cleantech Park

Art is the place where experimentation and the limits of what is possible can be explored (fundamental innovation).
This makes us feel directly connected to this place, Cleantech Park / Nieuwe Havenweg.
In a place where innovation, industry, creativity, and education meet, the Showdepot, as DE.GROEN envisions it, is a valuable player.
In an often rational industry, we want to bring in the hyper-human, the very personal and vulnerable.

The building will be located on the border between the freely accessible and closed parts of Cleantech Park. It has a special position on the quay and harbor, overlooking the city, the Lower Rhine, and the river landscape. Cleantech Park is in talks with various partners about how the harbor area along Cleantech Park can be improved, with as much attention as possible paid to greening, sustainability, and experience. The idea is to turn it into a harbor where there is plenty to do. As a future idea, we envision that every five minutes in the harbor area, you will come across a place that triggers you. The Showdepot is set to become one of those places. In addition, Cleantech Park already has a cluster of creative entrepreneurs. The addition of the Showdepot to this cluster will give an extra boost to innovation and cross-sectoral collaborations at the park.