A new architectural landmark is set to emerge along Rotterdam’s waterfront.
Shift, a steward-owned social enterprise focused on accelerating large-scale societal change, has revealed five finalist proposals for the Shift Landmark, a €240-million project conceived as an immersive destination where architecture, culture, and sustainability converge.
Planned for Waterkant, a future waterfront district in southern Rotterdam, the building aims to translate the principles of circular living into a spatial experience—an environment where individuals, companies, and communities can encounter tangible examples of regenerative design and sustainable lifestyles.
Envisioned as the first in a future network of similar projects across six continents, the Rotterdam Landmark seeks to reinterpret the historical role of monuments—from pyramids to skyscrapers—as places that bring communities together and embody the ambitions of their time.
Architecture as catalyst
With a projected surface area of 25,000 to 30,000 square metres, the complex will combine a 10,000-square-metre immersive exhibition, a hotel, conference and meeting facilities, and a sustainable food court. Together, these programs aim to connect everyday life with circular practices in energy, consumption, and mobility.
Rather than presenting sustainability as abstract policy, the Landmark is conceived as a place where visitors can directly experience alternative futures. As Shift founder Ritzen explains, behavioural change rarely comes from information alone: transformation happens when people encounter compelling visions of a better way to live.
Five architectural interpretations
The shortlisted teams offer five radically different readings of what a climate-era landmark might be.
Spanish practice Ecosistema urbano, together with Fabrications and ARUP, proposes “A Living Landmark” — a regenerative ecosystem conceived as a dynamic social organism where biodiversity, civic life, and public space interact continuously.
Heatherwick Studio, collaborating with Nudus and engineering partners, envisions “Urban Reef”, a layered building inspired by coral ecosystems. Six stacked strata of activity support each other, forming a porous structure designed to gather people and encourage more sustainable ways of living.
Dutch firm Mecanoo, with ARUP and Tellart, presents “The House of Shift”, an architectural icon centered on upcycling, carbon storage, and energy neutrality. The design frames sustainability as a joyful and exploratory experience.
For MVRDV, the landmark becomes a landscape. Their proposal “Rotterdam Rocks” imagines a cluster of porous, breathing rock-like forms that function as both architecture and ecological habitat, merging urban life with regenerative systems.
Finally, Andrés Jaque - Office for Political Innovation, working with KAAN Architecten and LOLA landscape architects among others, proposes “Planetary Landmark for the Climate Age” — a spatial “section” through the changing planet where climate processes become perceptible and collectively negotiated.
Building in a climate laboratory
The choice of Rotterdam as the site for the first Landmark is far from symbolic.
With approximately 90 percent of the city located below sea level and more than half of the country’s land vulnerable to flooding, the Netherlands represents one of the world’s most advanced laboratories for climate adaptation.
The Waterkant district itself is planned as a forward-looking neighbourhood combining housing, cultural venues, offices, and public infrastructure around a new tidal park.
Towards a new civic monument
Launched in January 2025, the international competition attracted global attention: around 1,500 architects in 50 countries downloaded the brief, and 80 teams submitted proposals.
After presentations helded in Rotterdam on March 3, the international jury—featuring figures including Aric Chen, Ben van Berkel, and Matthias Schuler—will now evaluate the proposals. The winning design is expected to be announced in spring 2026, after which the selected team will begin a participatory process involving local communities.
More than a single building, the Shift Landmark aims to become a new type of civic monument—one designed not only to symbolize progress, but to actively enable it.
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