Baroeg

Baroeg is quite unlike any other concert venue – its line-up of unique underground styles is unparalleled and, according to visitors, is ‘the best place for black metal in Europe’. For more than 40 years, this unusual venue in Rotterdam-Zuid has retained a committed subculture of hard alternative music enthusiasts. Baroeg – a unique phenomenon.

Baroeg remains Baroeg

The extraordinary and the good of Baroeg should be cherished – social engagement, honesty and directness, a focus on people and their life-long connection to the subculture, the music, the intensity, the lived experience, and the rugged but loving atmosphere. All of these qualities can be preserved without compromising the raw, rugged character of the venue. In their early days, many dedicated venues emerged in premises that were not originally designed for them – like churches and factories. In Baroeg’s case, it was a 1980s youth centre that was taken over as a place to celebrate freedom and uniqueness. But, after more than 40 years, that building is no longer entirely suitable. It’s time for an extraordinary new building built around Baroeg’s DNA.

‘This is where my band plays, in my venue, this is my home.’

Cultural ceremony

At the very heart of our design is the ceremonial interaction between the audience and the band and the mutual interaction between members of the audience. A series of rituals for creating, celebrating, and maintaining a truly unique culture is what guides the layout, form, and materialization of the building. The crux of any visit to a music venue is experiencing the concert consciously – for the musicians and the crew as well. An engaged, enthusiastic audience has a positive influence on the band’s performance. Applause makes every musician play better. Our design for the venue creates an interaction that is characterized by its intensity. The hall, with balcony and stage, have width-wise orientation to enhance both the on-stage experience and the acoustics. The audience in the hall and up on the balcony are in the closest possible proximity to the band. To them, this feels like an embrace, with the audience as an intimate setting. Elevations in the hall and on the balcony ensure a good view of the stage from any position, and provide somewhere to sit.

‘Old metal heads never die, they only stand at the back.’

Efficient and understated

The northern and western sides of the building have a more modest design. These areas accommodate the offices and backstage facilities and are a home for the volunteers, employees, crew, and artists. Behind the scenes, every performance starts with logistics. When a band finally makes its arrival at Baroeg after a long bus trip, comfort and efficiency are essential. The spaces have been arranged in such a way as to ensure that equipment can be moved quickly and easily from the buses to the stage. The dressing rooms are well appointed, with a direct spatial relationship with the stage.

Part of Spinozapark

Each side of Baroeg has its own quality and a different response to its surroundings. On the eastern and southern sides, the complex opens up to the public, to the approach from the station, the bicycle and car parks, and the outdoor stage overlooking the water.

Our intention is to make Baroeg an indoor and outdoor experience that will heighten your senses. Around the complex, Baroeg is shaped by primary lines of sight and qualities from its surroundings – an attractively hewn form that creates spaces and picks up and enhances the structure of the park. The kinked façade surfaces provide the all-sided building with scale and dynamism, making it seem more of a moving phenomenon than a solidified shape.

‘A mysteriously attractive exterior that makes culture visible through caverns that allow light to stream from the building at night.’

Inviting and flowing

A visit to Baroeg is the ideal way for audiences to put spatial and symbolic distance between themselves and the ‘ordinary’. If the façade says one thing, it’s ‘here is another world’. The architecture of the new Baroeg has plenty of capabilities. When there are no performances, it hides its concert venue side, while at other times, it draws attention to itself as an urban attraction, as somewhere exciting to be. It’s a fluid architecture that is simultaneously part of the skate track, park, and neighbourhood by day, but that comes to life for Baroeg in the evening. An image that arouses curiosity and asks ‘What mysteries are happening in there?’.

Baroeg has played an important role in the culture of Rotterdam for years. In 1981, it started life as an open youth centre. The hard alternative music played at Baroeg can be traced to its façade – rugged, unconventional, dark, rhythmic, exciting, and timeless. This subculture proudly manifests itself in the city through the Baroeg concert venue.