The Muse | Rotterdam

Rotterdam design icon is on height

With its powerful contours and impressive facade, The Muse of Rotterdam manifests itself as the new design icon on the Wijnhaven. The imposing residential tower of Wilma Wonen has now reached its highest point. The completion is in full swing.

Iconic about The Muse are its distinct shape, composed of a broad substructure with sloping waist and sturdy tower, and its dynamic facade. The transparent north and south facades with their white, robust balconies form an exciting contrast to the more closed west and east facades in anthracite-colored architectural concrete. 

94 luxury apartments
"The Muse has 23 floors and 94 luxury owner-occupied apartments of various types," says sales manager Wouter van Someren of developer Wilma Wonen. "In the substructure we realize thirteen port apartments and the residential entrance, commercial spaces, parking garage, bicycle storage and private storage. The sloping portion consists of nineteen luxury terrace apartments, two guest rooms and a communal roof terrace. The Muse's tower begins on the ninth floor and continues through floor 23. Here will be 57 tower apartments, increasing in size towards the top. On the top two floors there will be a total of five penthouses. The two largest have an indoor patio and panoramic views all around."

Rough construction finished
Smit's Construction Company began construction of The Muse in June 2017. At the end of March 2019, the structural work reached its highest point. Business manager Ruurd Potma of Smit's Bouwbedrijf looks back on the work done: "We built the part up to the tower with walls and wide slab floors. The sloping part we realized with a steel structure, covered with prefabricated elements in architectural concrete. The tower itself was tunneled in a cycle of seven days per floor using cold cast concrete. We poured the anthracite-colored sandwich elements for the side walls along with the tunnel formwork. After tunneling, we made the floor wind and watertight with aluminum glass facades. We assembled the balconies immediately afterwards."

Image: Architectural Visualizations.

Completion in full swing
"On the lower floors, we are already finishing the apartments," Potma continued. "The finishing work consists of finishing and dividing the apartments, applying tile work and installing the plumbing. The buyer has a lot of freedom of choice in this, so we are actually creating 94 different homes. We are very keen to ensure that every buyer gets what he wants. One of our executives is working full-time on this."

Total concept to the Wijnhaven
While The Muse is heading toward completion, construction of CasaNova is underway. This residential tower will be next to The Muse and, according to Van Someren, will be at least as striking: "CasaNova has a slender tower, in the shape of an equilateral triangle. The facade consists of natural stone in a warm eggplant-like color and rises from the substructure through a slender waist. With the arrival of this spectacular building we can realize the intended total concept on the Wijnhaven. The towers form a single residential environment and will soon be connected via the parking garage and the shared roof terrace on the fifth floor."

The piling work for CasaNova is in full swing. A total of 262 fence-comb piles are going into the ground. This is taking place completely vibration-free. Smit's Bouwbedrijf is expected to start the foundations in May this year and the structural work at the end of October. Potma: "From then on we will deliver The Muse in phases. The construction work will run smoothly into each other. With our dedicated team and again in excellent cooperation with Wilma Wonen, we will make CasaNova, just like The Muse, a building to be proud of."