STUDIO OSSIDIANA
A FLOATING PAVILION
A FLOATING PAVILION AS TESTING GROUNDS FOR MUSEUM-TO-BE M . IN DUTCH NEW TOWN ALMERE
The Dutch city of Almere was built on reclaimed land where once was the Zuiderzee : a shallow sea bay in the Netherlands . The first house in this planned New Town was completed in 1976 . Since then , the city has grown to a population of nearly 220.000 , which means Almere is well on its way to being the fifth-largest city in the country . However , Almere lacks a museum of note , befitting a city of such stature . Local , provincial , and national government administrators agreed that a museum should be on top of the priority list to raise the city ’ s appeal . Instead of establishing one immediately , it was decided to first experiment with a temporary art pavilion for immersive art with plenty of room to develop and test new ideas over the coming years . The museum-to-be was named M ., claiming the first letter of its possible future destiny . In April , M .’ s home base - a beautiful floating pavilion on the grounds of Floriade Expo 2022 – opened its doors . In the ingenious design by young duo Studio Ossidiana , there are numerous links to the history of Almere , a city rising from a former sea .
PIONEERING
In early 2020 , the municipality of Almere and the province of Flevoland invited five up-and-coming architects working at the intersection of architecture and visual arts to submit a design for
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