Studio Ossidiana floats three circular rooms on Weerwater for Art Pavilion M

Art Pavilion M by Studio Ossidiana brings a land art and multimedia museum onto the waters of Weerwater as three connected rooms: a port, a stage and an observatory.

Built for the 2022 Floriade horticultural expo in Almere, the pavilion responds to the singular geography of Flevoland, the Netherlands’ youngest province and one of the world’s largest land reclamation landscapes. Studio Ossidiana treats this history of water becoming land as the starting point for a museum that remains closely tied to the lake.

The project is organised as three tangential rings. The Port surrounds a water plaza where artworks, plants, music and wildlife can share the same space. Barges and floating installations may dock along its outer edge, while visitors can arrive by boat. Even when the museum is closed, the ring continues to work as public infrastructure for walking, fishing, swimming and, in winter, ice skating.

A second circle forms the Stage. In daily use it is the museum terrace, but its position over the water allows it to become a platform for performances, concerts and outdoor exhibitions. The architecture therefore moves between building and landscape, extending the museum programme beyond the enclosed galleries.

The Observatory contains the exhibition rooms within a lightweight timber and polycarbonate structure. Its translucent envelope reflects the colours of the water and surrounding vegetation like a greenhouse. Inside, overlapping curtains are perforated with cut-out shapes, allowing daylight to enter in changing patterns and turning the facade into an atmospheric surface made by light.

The pavilion is aligned north to south according to planetary coordinates. Four windows face the dawn and dusk axes of the summer and winter solstices. Warm tones gather around the south-facing entrance, while the northern exhibition rooms receive cooler light. Shells across the roof filter rainwater and create feeding places for birds, bringing seasonal and non-human activity into the architecture.

Material research connects the pavilion to Flevoland’s ecological and productive past. A custom “Surf and Turf” terrazzo combines regional shells with expanded clay and charcoal, pairing materials from the former seabed with those of horticulture. Twelve segments in the pier correspond to the months of the year, with changing shell inlays forming a marine calendar around the water.

Completed in April 2022, Art Pavilion M operates simultaneously as a museum, public space, ecological device and navigable landmark. Its rings establish a civic room on the lake while leaving the boundaries between exhibition, performance and everyday recreation deliberately open.

Project Credits

Project: Art Pavilion M.
Design firm: Studio Ossidiana / @studio_ossidiana
Collaborating architect: Klaas van der Molen, Goldsmith Company
Location: Floriade, Almere, the Netherlands
Completed: April 2022
Area: 992.27 m²
Photography: Riccardo de Vecchi / @riccardodevecchi.photo