Echo listening bar opens in Rotterdam's brutalist Groot Handelsgebouw

Rotterdam's first listening bar opened in early September inside the Groot Handelsgebouw, the post-war office block that faces Rotterdam Centraal station. Creative director Jeff Hoogendijk, DJ and producer Khalil Ryahi and architect Paul Cournet created Echo, a Tokyo-inspired space that treats music as its central experience.

Cournet's architecture and design studio, Cloud, designed the interior. He told Dezeen the idea was to adapt the Japanese listening bar concept to the creative energy of Rotterdam. "We wanted to make it super local," he said.

What does the bar look like?

The main bar doubles as a service counter and the DJ area. Baleart Handlers, a company that manufactures wooden shipping crates for transporting artworks, built it. The choice is deliberate: Rotterdam is home to Europe's largest seaport.

The crate's sides carry the printed words "handled with care", which became Echo's tagline. "We thought it would be so cool make the bar an art crate because we treated everything, from music to hospitality, as if it were art," said Cournet. "We always wanted to do everything in the best way possible."

Rotterdam-based designer Sabine Marcelis, who is Cournet's partner, contributed several works. Her signature ombré mirrors line the walls, reflecting shades of red and gold, while a linear resin lamp hangs above the bar.

Polish brand Tylko supplied much of the furniture, including modular shelving that extends across the walls to display vinyl. Cournet had previously worked with Tylko on its Berlin showroom, a project that led to a collaboration with audio company Form Follows Frequency. Together they developed a colourful system of speakers and subwoofers that slot precisely into Tylko's shelving, launched earlier this year.

Those speakers form part of Echo's sound system, alongside two sculptural speaker towers standing either side of the bar. "There's a contrast between the rawness of the exposed concrete and the more refined elements, like the sound system or Sabine's mirrors," said Cournet. "When you put them together, it creates a tension that I find interesting. The concrete feels a bit softer."

How does the space work?

Echo shifts from a coffee shop by day to a bar by night, with a curated retail offering. It can also accommodate exhibitions, listening sessions of 20 to 40 people, or seated dinners for up to 40 guests.

Since opening, the team has invited local record stores to contribute to the event programme. "Rotterdam has this really long history with music, with a lot of famous DJs and people who were pioneers in the music scene in the 1990s and 2000s," added Cournet. "It feels like the project has really resonated with that community."

Echo joins a wave of recent listening bar openings, including Bar Bardo in Milan and Upstairs at Hausu in London, but it is the first of its kind in Rotterdam. Its mix of retail, dinners, exhibitions and sessions positions it as a flexible venue rather than a conventional bar, and it gives a city with a deep DJ culture a dedicated space built around listening.