‘The Learn’d’ Architectural Film by Victor Vroegindeweij for KAAN Architecten.

This striking architecture film captures the new Educational Centre of the Erasmus MC academic hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Directed by Victor Vroegindeweij, the film was commissioned by KAAN Architecten after the building was nominated for this year’s ‘Mies van der Rohe’ European Union Architecture Award. Borrowing its title from the poem ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer’ by Walt Whitman, which explores the relationship between objective knowledge and subjective human experiences, the film acts as the perfect commentary on what the role of a medical university’s library could be.

Often referred to as a ‘medical city’, Rotterdam’s academic hospital Erasmus MC is a dense urban complex designed in 1965 by Arie Hagoort in collaboration with Jean Prouvé. What is today KAAN Architecten’s Educational Centre used to be an open courtyard named Level 2, designed by Hagoort as a connecting promenade between different wings. However, as it was rarely used, the decision was made to turn it into the library and learning centre it is today.

[Film by Victor Vroegindeweij. Photography by Mick van Dantzig. With thanks to flodeau.com]