Dutch architects DP6 work across a variety of scales, from university campuses to town halls, sports centres and apartment buildings. The Delft-based practice has also turned its collective experience to a small number of exquisite private residential projects, including the secluded Villa Santpoort. For their most recent residential design, a painter's studio in their home city, DP6 is once again working in an urban environment, only this time at a much smaller scale.

Tour a modern painter’s studio and home in Delft

This commission, a house refurbishment and painter’s studio, is located in the heart of the city centre and involved not just the restoration of a traditional canalside row house, but the addition of a dedicated artist’s studio in the rear garden. Making the most of a generous garden plot – ‘a green oasis in the city centre’ – DP6 have inserted a low single-storey studio at the far end. Set apart from the cityscape, surrounded by new wild planting, it feels like a rural space adrift from the urban location.

One of the key aspects of the refurbishment was the re-shaping of the house’s ground floor and the rear façade in particular. By creating a new open-plan living, dining and kitchen space at the rear of the house, along with a new glazed rear façade, the architects have set up a dialogue between the existing house and the new studio. Each façade is fully openable, so in the summer months life can flow between the structures.

The garden includes new patios and an oval pool, along with natural planting that retains existing mature trees and winds new paths and beds around them. The studio has been built from Douglas fir timber, with exposed interior structure and a canopy above the exterior terrace, looking back towards the house.

Vital northern light is harvested via a strip of roof lights at the far end of the studio space; these run the full width of the building. The studio is also self-contained, with a WC and kitchenette and plenty of storage for materials and canvasses.

The architects have made extensive use of oak for the new elements in the main house. These include the kitchen and fireplace, as well as the open tread staircase and upstairs wardrobes. The original house was listed for its historic interest, and the front façade retains its traditional appearance, giving no indication of the new world that lies within.

MVRDV has won the Shift International Architecture Competition with its proposal ‘Rotterdam Rocks!’. Shift, a social enterprise designed to enable large-scale societal change through art and architecture, launched the international competition last year, calling for designs for a ‘Shift Embassy’ – a major cultural destination in Rotterdam that aims to inspire visitors to help realise large-scale ecological and societal change. The competition asked for sustainable concepts for a future landmark which vie to be the next 'Wonder of the World'.

Discover MVRDV's biotopia 'Rotterdam Rocks!'

MVRDV’s proposal showcased a stacked landscape of living rocks that turn architecture into an urban ecosystem, a futuristic take on eco-brutalism that merges nature and public life. This ambition is captured in the studio’s idea of a ‘Biotopia’: a future world where architecture grows like trees, and streets are illuminated by bioluminescent light. The rocky green landmark acts like a living organism, with pockmarked skin to accommodate nature, and will be largely accessible to the public, allowing visitors to explore viewpoints, exhibition areas, and dining areas.

The €240-million purpose-driven destination will join other newly opened buildings in Rotterdam, including the Netherlands Fotomuseum and MVRDV’s Portlantis, a museum dedicated to the city's port. The Shift Embassy will span 25,000 to 30,000 sq m and will include a 200-room hotel, an observation deck, a conference and meeting centre, and a sustainable food court.

Seven stacked 'rocks' are arranged around two key pathways through the building; one for the exhibition experience and another for the project’s hospitality functions. A third exterior route twists up the sides of the 'rocks', leading to a publicly accessible viewing terrace, while the top of the building features a rooftop terrace for visitors to The Elysium: an immersive art space. The building’s façade will be covered with indents to provide a surface for soil, water, plants and animals.

‘Our first step in approaching this design was to expand the brief – we need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to create inclusive spaces for people, trees, plants, water, air, and animal habitats, balancing the need for new built space with new landscapes to compensate for our ecological impact,’ says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. ‘Our design integrates these human and natural spaces, playing with porosity to keep the project compact while maximising its ecological value.’

The Shift International Architecture Competition was launched in January 2025. Eighty teams submitted proposals, which were whittled down to the five finalists, including architecture and design studios Ecosistema Urbano, Heatherwick Studio, Mecanoo, MVRDV, and Office for Political Innovation ( discover the Shift entries here), who have continued developing their designs since November 2025.

Describing the winning concept, the jury said: ‘MVRDV’s proposal is a remarkably bold, powerful statement that we expect will capture visitors' imagination and encourage them to come back again and again. Rotterdam Rocks departs from how sustainability is traditionally communicated, bringing together joy, discovery, and surprise into a new architectural language. We anticipate this building and its program will invite people to rethink their everyday behaviour and encourage new ways of living sustainably together.’

MVRDV entered a short pre-design phase in June to further test and improve its design. The refined version is now being unveiled for the first time, ahead of a local participation process in autumn 2026.

Shift’s longer-term ambition for the landmark project is to create a network of similar structures across six continents, each designed to help create a better and more sustainable way of future living.

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mvrdv.com

Studio RAP describes itself as ‘Architects of Bespoke Ceramics’. Since the Rotterdam-based studio was founded in 2016 by Lucas ter Hall and Wessel van Beerendonk, it’s been on the cutting edge of new ways of manufacturing. The studio has an array of in-house 3D clay printers, working on ceramic designs for façades, artworks and ornamentation in collaboration with architects and designers.

The latest artwork from Studio RAP is Powerwall, which the duo reckon is one of the largest robotically 3D-printed ceramic artworks anywhere in the world. Comprising 322 unique ceramic titles, each 3D printed through a layering process using a robotic clay printer, the artwork began life as an algorithmically generated form.

Powerwall graces the façade of a high-voltage transformer station, Switchstation Beverwijk. The inspiration behind the forms was patterns of electromagnetic energy – invisible, but dynamic, transforming the windowless utilitarian form of the transformer station, owned by Dutch grid operator TenneT and designed by Powerhouse Company, into a piece of urban artwork.

The 300-plus panels form an installation that’s 8m high and 5m wide, gracing the brick façade of Switchstation Beverwijk. The wave forms that appear ripple across the surface were originally shaped by an algorithm, then output as three-dimensional forms via the 3D clay printer. Each tile is then coated with a translucent turquoise glaze and fired, creating a surface that shimmers and shifts depending on time and day and point of view.

The ribbed effect on the surface not only accentuates the form, but lays bare the act of clay printing, where ribbons of clay are extruded along a path, stacking up on each to create an organic feel. The addition of the glaze adds a layer of unpredictability, with different thicknesses of the colour pooling in the depths of the folds.

‘The studio embraces the reality that ceramics shrink and warp during the firing process,’ van Beerendonk and ter Hall explain. ‘The intense heat of the kiln transforms the raw material, meaning the final piece is never an exact sterile replica of the digital model, but rather an organic, highly characterful architectural element.’ Creating the final assembly required that each panel be perfectly engineered with the correct tolerances and stability so that the artwork could be put together in situ.

Studio RAP’s work brings the Dutch ceramic tradition into the modern era – a recent project, New Delft Blue, was a pair of gates incorporating reinterpreted traditional porcelain. Other recent work includes Ceramic House in Amsterdam, with its 3D-printed façade.

StudioRAP.nl, @Studio.RAP

TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation) returns to Maastricht from 14-19 March 2026, and a rare 1950s ‘Folded Aluminium’ chair by Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) will be sure to catch your eye. Presented by Galerie Van den Bruinhorst, the Dutch architect and designer's chair represents his interest in experimental and expressive furniture for mass production.

'Rietveld really believed in the Machine Age,' says Ad van den Bruinhorst, design dealer and specialist of modern design of the interwar period. 'He wanted to play a role in mass production, though his designs were often too daring to appeal to a broad audience, so he became a designer who showed the way for others.'

The ‘Folded Aluminium’ chair captures this innovative spirit: constructed from a single sheet of aluminium, strengthened with a brutal pattern of holes. Never reaching its intended industrial scale, it is one of only six ever made and is being sold at TEFAF with a price tag of just over €500,000.

More specifically, it's one of only two ‘high’ versions of the chair, which was sketched by Rietveld on the back of an envelope from 1951 (ironically marked ‘Do not fold’), which is in the archives of Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The four ‘low’ versions include one early prototype dating to 1942-3, and three made by Rietveld and his son in the early 1960s for the University of Delft’s collection.

TEFAF find: Gerrit Rietveld’s colourful Strandwagen

Part of the ‘Focus’ section of TEFAF, Galerie Van den Bruinhorst’s presentation features other rare Rietveld creations, including the colourful, geometric Strandwagen (or Beach Buggy), estimated to date to the second half of the 1920s, and priced at just over €250,000.

Designed to transport children to the beach, the Strandwagen was designed by Rietveld in 1923, the same year that he transformed his monochrome ‘Slatted Armchair’ of 1918 into the iconic ‘Red and Blue Chair’ with its primary colour scheme. Might this playful Strandwagen have inspired that decision?

This example is one of four surviving Strandwagens, and only around seven or eight are known to have ever been made. 'Before the Second World War, Rietveld made furniture for people he knew and for the houses he designed, so the numbers of these pieces are very low,' says Van den Bruinhorst.

This example has been owned for all this time by one family, who passed it on over generations and photographed it in use every decade from the 1930s, capturing an incredible social portrait of its life. 'I’ve never experienced a piece so well documented,' remarks Van den Bruinhorst. 'Pieces that have proof of good provenance and a good story are the most valuable over time.'

More TEFAF: discover midcentury and architect-designed furniture

There’s much more to see across TEFAF as always, and when it comes to midcentury furniture, further highlights include a 1952 cabinet by Osvaldo Borsani, blending Italian modernism with Chinese decorative arts, presented by Galleria Rossella Colombari, which is also showing pieces by Carlo Mollino and Carlo Zen.

Friedman Benda presents a collection of furniture and lighting titled ‘Formation’ by Formafantasma, employing cherry wood and aluminium, influenced by Shaker design, Frank Lloyd Wright, and George Nakashima.

At David Gill, don’t miss the fluid 2016 ‘UltraStellar’ double seat bench by Zaha Hadid and lyrical pieces in walnut wood and patinated copper by Maastricht-based German designer Valentin Loellmann.

tefaf.com

Shift, a social enterprise designed to enable large-scale societal change through art and architecture, has opened a call for a new 'Wonder of the World'. Last year, the company announced an international design competition to this end, and confirmed a location for the winning project – in Rotterdam's Waterkant neighbourhood. Today (4 March 2026), Shift has unveiled five design concepts in the running to become the Shift Landmark.

The Shift International Architecture Competition was launched in January 2025. Eighty teams submitted proposals, which were whittled down to the five finalists, who have continued developing their designs since November 2025.

The Shift Landmark design concepts have been unveiled

The shortlist includes concepts from Ecosistema Urbano, Heatherwick Studio, Mecanoo, MVRDV, and Office for Political Innovation. Each design is rooted in turning a concept into a place where individuals and organisations can experience circular living and be inspired to act towards a better future. The winner will go on to build the €240 million purpose-driven destination.

The location is aptly chosen, as Rotterdam continues to see new buildings develop and is a hub of urban-forward thinking, from the newly opened Netherlands Fotomuseum to Portlantis, the city’s museum dedicated to the port. Shift’s longer-term ambition for the Landmark project is to create a network of similar structures across six continents, each designed to help create a better and sustainable way for future living.

Each of the concepts has been planned at 25,000 to 30,000 sq m, and will include a 10,000 sq m immersive experience, a hotel, a conference and meeting centre, and a sustainable food court. Based in Spain, Ecosistema Urbano presents ‘A Living Landmark’, a regenerative living system that operates as a dynamic social organism. The aim is to unite biodiversity with local communities and daily life.

The UK’s Heatherwick Studio presents ‘Urban Reef’, a building comprising six layers, all of which support each other, in a reef-inspired environment. The spaces bring people together within a fluid design.

Dutch studio Mecanoo's ‘The House of Shift’ focuses on upcycling, carbon storage and energy neutrality, with a space-station aesthetic.

Rotterdam’s MVRDV presents ‘Rotterdam Rocks’, a stacked landscape of living rocks that turn architecture into an urban ecosystem, a futuristic take on eco-brutalism that merges nature and public life.

Office for Political Innovation, based in Spain, showcases ‘Planetary Landmark for the Climate Age’, designed to sense and understand the climate.

The international jury will complete its evaluation of the presented projects, and a winning design will be announced in spring 2026.

‘Shift aims to turn climate ambition into something people can experience. By combining art, architecture, innovation and education, the Shift Landmark is designed to make a circular future visible, tangible and irresistibly compelling, giving millions a clear pathway from inspiration to action,’ says Shift founder Don Ritzen.

‘People won’t change because they are told to. They change when they experience that life can be better. The landmark and its immersive experience are built to create that moment, by spotlighting real circularity and sustainability champions and showing that a better future is just one shift away.’

competition.shift.world

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of February 2026.

A leafy Hampstead home

A timber-clad extension in Hampstead, London, immerses a family in nature, fully opening onto a lush garden to create a flexible indoor-outdoor living space. The architect, Mata, worked carefully around mature trees, collaborating with arboriculturists to protect roots while extending the home’s ground floor. Glazed walls, tapered stainless-steel undersides and bespoke furniture blur the boundary between interior and exterior, while thoughtfully-crafted terraces and furnishings ensure functionality without compromising the natural setting.

Read about it here.

A minimalist Spanish house

In Gijón, Asturias, Casa Guadalupe by Hanghar blends minimalist aesthetics with prefabricated industrial methods. Its lightweight steel frame and modular panels allowed rapid assembly – in just 48 hours – on stilts, reducing site disruption and preserving the landscape. The house follows the terrain, opening to panoramic rural vistas while maintaining a restrained, methodical architectural language. The project demonstrates a flexible, sustainable approach to 21st-century housing, balancing precision, spatial quality and landscape connection while challenging conventional ideas about prefab homes.

Read about it here.

An Australian architect’s home

Stephen Collier’s home in Scarborough, south of Sydney, sits on a triangular plot near a railway, organised around a central courtyard. Constructed from steel framing, fibrocement walls and tiled floors, it features movable furniture and joinery that allow spaces to be reshaped according to season or activity. The courtyard, open or enclosed, includes a Teppanyaki stove and Japanese-style bath, connecting indoor living to nature. Elevated on concrete columns with operable hatches, the house is responsive to its bush setting and local climate. Designed over 21 years, it balances privacy, playfulness and immersion in the environment.

Read about it here.

An immersive Nova Scotia residence

Perched on steel stilts between rocky inclines, Omar Gandhi’s East River Residence in Nova Scotia embraces its rugged coastal surroundings. The linear structure frames views of the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding forest, while cedar and metal cladding complement open-plan living, yoga spaces and cosy timbered bedrooms. Expansive windows connect interiors to terraces and patios, fostering a strong sense of connection to the outdoors. This is enhanced by the way that the building follows the site’s natural topography, touching only lightly on the land.

Read about it here.

An icon of British modernism

This month, Six Pillars, a Grade II*-listed home in Dulwich designed by Valentine Harding with Tecton in 1932-34 and restored by John Winter in 2000, came on the market. This classic example of British modernism spans 3,500 sq ft over three storeys, and retains original features such as chevron parquet flooring, steel-framed windows and an art deco fireplace. The angled plan creates fluid living spaces including an open-plan kitchen, principal living room, four bedrooms and a rooftop retreat, while the minimalist façade, clerestory windows and six cylindrical pillars define its iconic profile.

Read about it here.

A modern Utrecht house

In Utrecht, a 1992 house by Mart van Schijndel reimagines elements of a former glass warehouse in bold modernist terms. Awarded the Rietveld Prize and now a municipal monument, the home features a lavender-and-grey plaster façade, two trapezoidal patios and folded plywood furniture designed by the architect. Light floods the open living areas, blurring indoors and outdoors, while a mezzanine suite offers a tranquil escape. The house reflects van Schijndel’s innovative vision and Dutch modernist traditions, and is now awaiting a new custodian.

Read about it here.

A green retreat in Paraguay

‘A Forest in the House’, designed by Equipo de Arquitectura in 2025 on Ypacarai Lake, Paraguay, is a 260 sq m indoor-outdoor retreat inspired by jazz. Three pavilions surround a fenced garden, connected by patios, with the main house containing kitchen, dining and living areas. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors integrate the lush landscape, while concrete floors and roofs create terraces and continuity. Trees are incorporated as design elements, and natural light and wind animate the spaces, resulting in a fluid, playful environment existing in perfect harmony with its tropical surroundings.

Read about it here.

An architect-designed Paris apartment

In Paris’s 11th arrondissement, Cyrus Ardalan renovated a 65 sq m apartment into a minimalist, industrial-leaning home. West-facing light fills an open-plan living area that combines lounge, dining and office zones, connected to a glass-paste kitchen. Two courtyard-facing bedrooms, a shower room and integrated storage maintain the home’s clean lines, while custom plywood furniture and a pivot door conceal or reveal the workspace. The apartment reflects Ardalan’s blend of modernist minimalism, functional architecture and craft-inspired materiality.

Read about it here.

Tradition meets modernity in Ukraine

The Reed Roof Guesthouses in central Ukraine, designed by YOD Group, reinterpret traditional hata-mazanka huts in a contemporary, minimalist style. Each self-contained unit features curved glass facades, tall thatched roofs and concrete cores, creating airy, light-filled spaces, while heat pumps and air conditioning ensure year-round comfort. Inside, organic furniture and tactile carpets connect residents to the surrounding landscape, creating a serene, sensory experience.

Read about it here.

An LA gem on the market

Ray Kappe’s Kappe House (1967) in Pacific Palisades, LA, spans 4,157 sq ft over seven levels on a sloping Rustic Canyon site. Interlocking redwood beams, vertical concrete supports and vast frameless glazing define the midcentury modern home, which includes a double-height living room, glass-walled office, built-in timber furniture, lap pool with spa, sauna, and multiple terraces. The house, which was once described as ‘the greatest house in Southern California’ by the LA Times, was owned by the Kappe family until 2025 and has been listed for $11.5 million.

Read about it here.

A modern Utrecht house, one of Europe’s most visionary residences, is up for sale. The architect Mart van Schijndel (1943-1999) built it for himself in 1992 in the historic core of Utrecht, utilising the brick walls and beams of a former glass warehouse. It was awarded the prestigious Rietveld Prize and became the city’s youngest municipal monument. But it’s tucked away and would have remained little-known but for the dedication of current owner Natascha Drabbe, who has lovingly maintained every detail and established a Foundation to offer tours and ensure its survival. Now, Drabbe is moving abroad and seeking a worthy custodian for this unique treasure.

Step inside this modernist Utrecht house

Nature compelled the Dutch to be inventive: much of their land was reclaimed from the sea. Architects have built on that tradition, from the canal houses of the Golden Age to the playful post-modernism of van Schijndel, the exuberant expressions of MVRDV, UN Studio and other adventurous offices.

This is matched by a lasting legacy in 20th century architecture, and the city of Utrecht boasts several buildings by the modernist architecture master Gerrit Rietveld, most notably the colourful geometric house he built for Truus Schröder in 1924.

That brilliant experiment may have inspired Van Schijndel to create a total work of art for himself. Behind the enigmatic façade, with its plaster walls striped in lavender and grey and a few small windows, you step into a lofty living room, bathed in natural light from two trapezoidal patios. Glass walls swing open, blurring the boundary between indoors and outside.

An unrailed flight of steps ascend to the primary suite and office-bedroom on the mezzanine. The architect designed cut and folded plywood furniture, bookshelves, lighting and vases - almost everything but the Rietveld armchairs and sofa.

Newly graduated as an architectural historian, Drabbe began a freelance project at van Schijndel’s studio and eventually married him. She describes the house as an autobiographical project: 'His passions and fascinations show through in the details.' It cast its spell on her and prompted her to launch the Iconic Houses Network, a support group for over 200 modern house museums around the world.

Tirelessly, she acts as its public face and advocate for preservation, steadily expanding the membership, organising conferences, making videos and encouraging curators to collaborate. But the van Schijndel house remained her first love, and it challenged her to maintain its integrity. Its tranquillity and privacy, spatial daring and ingenious furnishings should prove equally rewarding for the next fortunate owner.

The Utrecht house by Mart van Schijndel is on the market through DSTRCT Real Estate | Forbes Global Properties

iconichouses.org

A visit to the Netherlands Fotomuseum will not only allow visitors to enjoy the organisation's vast archive, which traces a fascinating, broad and rare visual history of the country – it will also anchor this to its location, now housing said collection within a reimagined building on the rich and layered Rotterdam waterside. The national photography museum’s new location, which opens its doors this weekend (7 February 2026) in the Rijnhaven dock area, contains a collection of more than 6.5 million items and sits within a listed industrial warehouse in what used to be the Dutch city's enormous port (before it gradually moved its operations further out towards the sea).

Be of the first to tour the Netherlands Fotomuseum

The structure has been revamped, both delicately, so as not to disturb the building's heritage fabric too much, and smartly, combining exhibition, archive and restoration spaces with hospitality, artists' residences and more. The sensitive project included a full redesign and a rooftop extension, all done by Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten from Hamburg and the locally based WDJArchitecten – previewed in 2024, when plans for the museum’s move from its old Wilhelminapier location were starting to take shape.

The new site comprises a period structure, known as the Santos warehouse, built between 1901 and 1902. It was originally designed by Rotterdam architects JP Stok Wzn and JJ Kanters, and served as storage for the Brazilian coffee trade. It was acquired, as a donation, by the Fotomuseum in 2023.

Working with the existing warehouse fabric was challenging for the renovating architects, as they were only allowed to implement light alterations due to the building’s heritage status. The team addressed the issue of circulation and natural light in a building that was not made to consider either, particularly, by cutting a void through the structure's heart. This opening unites the different floors and becomes the heart of the building – its main circulation core as well as a light well.

Architect Sander Nelissen of WDJArchitecten explains: 'Going up, the void and stairs move and break the strict organisation of the building. The beautiful beam structure is on display. We had to take into account the city policy that says we needed to reuse what we demolish.'

Meanwhile, to avoid touching the existing fabric too much and to respond to the demands of creating highly controlled areas for storage and restoration of artworks, the architects worked with a 'box within a box' concept. Nelissen says: 'This, and separation from the general area, manages sensitive pieces that need special climate control.'

The archive depot and restoration ateliers are indeed given a rare spotlight (although Rotterdam has been pioneering in this realm, with the Boijmans Depot nearby too), with large glazed openings offering views in for visitors to enjoy previously unseen areas, such as the restoration labs. This occupies two entire floors in the museum, which spans eight public levels in total, including the ground floor with its shop, library, café and event areas, offices, three floors of permanent and temporary exhibitions, and the two archive ones (levels four and five). The restaurant sits at the top of this sequence, offering long views of Rotterdam, its river and the new port in the distance.

The Fotomuseum opens with a permanent display on Dutch photography and a show dedicated to the city of Rotterdam, as well as two temporary exhibitions. The institution's collection is broad and diverse, and many of its treasures have never been seen by the public. This, the museum team vows, is about to change.

'We want to show that photography is not just images on a wall but heritage,' explains Martijn van den Broek, head of collections. He highlights how rare it is for a museum to plan its depot at its heart in this way, as well as include its art storage among its main exhibitions.

The museum has been designed in a way that allows visitors – and the displays – to breathe, offering flexibility to the curators as they plan their shows. There are large/expanded and small/compressed spaces; 'hidden' seating corners to be discovered; and nooks that invite a break to rest. Both the building design itself and the exhibition set-ups within it give agency to the visitor, offering different routes and choices.

This makes what could have been a stiff and unwieldy warehouse structure relatively light and transparent, but also unexpected and quirky – and all this without losing its utilitarian character: a heavy-duty old port's working building, now refreshed and embracing its city’s character with zest, reimagined as a cultural destination.

The Netherlands Fotomuseum opens on 7 February 2026, Brede Hilledijk 95, 3072 KD Rotterdam, Netherlands

nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

Dorte Mandrup’s Wadden Sea World Heritage Centre, the Danish architect’s second work within the Unesco-protected region, connects landscape, science and emotion in a spiral of movement on the Netherlands’ northern shores. It’s located in Lauwersoog, a little-known coastal community, just north of Groningen, with a palpable sense of rhythm. Between the brackish calm of the man-made Lauwersmeer lake and the tidal expanse of the Wadden Sea, the Dutch harbour village sits where land, water and sky blur into one another.

The recently completed project consists of a sculptural timber spiral rising from the water surface. Both a building and a landscape, it is a place of movement, observation and return, and forms part of a family of structures, including the Wadden Sea Centre in Ribe, Denmark (completed in 2017), and the soon-to-be-finished Wadden Sea World Heritage Visitor Centre in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Together, they form a trilogy exploring humankind’s fragile relationship with this immense intertidal world – the largest of its kind on the planet, stretching across the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Explore Dorte Mandrup's second Wadden Sea centre

‘It’s fascinating,’ says Mandrup. ‘The Wadden Sea is one continuous system, yet it changes as you move from Denmark to Germany and the Netherlands. The landscape looks the same from above, but what lies beneath it – culturally, historically, emotionally – is always different.’ If the origami-like Ribe centre folds the flat Danish landscape upward, Lauwersoog brings the idea of a spiral or a twist, inspired by the rhythm of the tides and the turning of the harbour.

Unlike more conventional museums, it functions as both an exhibition and a field station. This is a place of cohabitation, where scientists, conservationists, volunteers and visitors share space and knowledge. Behind the walls, researchers can observe the Wadden Sea’s microscopic life; in adjacent tanks, rescued seals undergo treatment before returning to the water. The idea is to encourage empathy not through spectacle, but through proximity.

‘The architecture creates a physical and curatorial journey,’ says Mandrup. ‘Visitors move past laboratories and recovery areas, seeing the seals as they progress from treatment to being released back into the wild.’ The permeability between frontstage and backstage is intentional. ‘You can witness research and care as it happens,’ says the architect. ‘It makes the experience of the Wadden Sea more tangible. It’s about understanding that we are part of the same system.’

A sloping path leads visitors from the harbour to an open reception hall and the exhibition, laboratories and rehabilitation areas beyond. The journey culminates on a rooftop terrace with a 360-degree panorama where land, water and sky converge. Mandrup notes that the project, originally conceived as a raised structure on stilts, gradually settled onto the ground through years of local negotiations. Yet the idea of movement – of ‘rising and turning with the water’ – remained a constant. ‘It’s about movement on a physical and psychological level,’ she says. ‘A building that lets you understand the landscape by moving through it.’

Much of Mandrup’s recent work takes place in what she calls ‘the edges’; places where nature and culture overlap, where human intervention meets raw geography. From The Whale in Andenes, Norway, to the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre in Greenland, her architecture is a dialogue between shelter and exposure, intimacy and vastness. ‘The periphery is never static,’ she says. ‘There’s a constant negotiation between what is cultivated and what is wild. Architecture can’t control it – it can only make us aware of it.’

In Lauwersoog, that awareness is amplified by context. The centre sits at a literal and symbolic threshold: between the productive harbour with its fishing vessels, and the protected sea, home to organisms, animals and migratory birds that travel thousands of kilometres each year. From the roof terrace, one can trace the horizon through farmland and wetlands to the open sea – a continuous gradient of human and more-than-human worlds.

If the building’s movement evokes the tide, its material palette speaks of endurance. Timber, glass and steel are layered with restraint; the composition quiet, almost austere. ‘When a building works, its story is usually quite easy to grasp,’ Mandrup says. ‘That clarity allows complexity to unfold naturally. You sense both the human and the more-than-human. The building becomes a bridge – not an object in the landscape, but a way of seeing it.’

Inside, the atmosphere shifts from the grounded tones of the harbour to the light-infused upper spaces. As in all Mandrup’s projects, craftsmanship is inseparable from context: the detailing of joints, the rhythm of boards, the precise calibration of light. A façade of reclaimed and weatherproof basralocus wood, salvaged from a former military harbour in Kiel, bears the patina of salt, wind and time. More than 200 mooring posts were cleaned, cut and mounted to provide both solar shading and filtered glimpses of life inside. ‘The materials have lived a life before this one,’ says Mandrup. ‘They carry the story of the harbour and its culture. When you touch the façade, it’s like touching something that has travelled through decades of human use and exposure.’

As one reaches the end of the spiral, the view opens wide, with the Lauwersmeer behind and the Wadden Sea ahead. Standing there, one senses the building not as an object in the landscape, but as a lens through which to see it. ‘Architecture can’t create meaning from nothing,’ Mandrup reflects. ‘But it can point to the meeting of forces – where the human, the historical and the natural overlap.’

dortemandrup.dk

ontdekwec.nl

Piet Oudolf is a rarity in the ever-evolving world of landscape design, in which few leading lights come close to household recognition. Garden designer Oudolf is not only venerated but has become shorthand for an entire landscape aesthetic: of bold perennial plantings and dynamic textures, and great drifts of gently shifting colour.

Who is Piet Oudolf?

Internationally celebrated for commissions in public parks, botanical gardens and cultural institutions alike, Piet Oudolf (b. 1944) is a Dutch designer whose work is both instant and instantly recognisable, combining cultivated elegance with the transportive drama of the wild meadow – as seen at New York’s High Line, Chicago’s Lurie Garden and RHS Wisley, to name just a few.

Piet Oudolf: the beginnings

As with all revered masters whose body of work bears a measure of idiosyncrasy, it is easy to forget the pioneering vision and enterprising experimentation that preceded the acclaim. Back in the 1980s, spurred by a lack of diversity in commercially available plant material, Oudolf began trialling different species at his home in Hummelo, Netherlands, taking inspiration from natural landscapes and plant communities - most notably the vast, perennial-rich grasslands of North America.

Developing a specialist plant nursery at the garden with horticulturist Romke van de Kaa – which, up until its closure to the public in 2010, was a place of pilgrimage for many gardeners – Oudolf developed an approach to planting design which championed ornamental grasses, integrating them with bold brushstrokes of perennial species including the likes of vibrant echinacea, amsonia and persicaria.

Alongside a handful of other pioneering Dutch gardeners such as Henk Gerritsen and Ton ter Linden, he became a leading figure in what would later be dubbed the ‘New Perennial movement’, one of the most influential styles in the history of garden design, and one that has continued to evolve ever since.

Signature style: the New Perennial movement

At its heart, the New Perennial movement is a naturalistic planting style underpinned by an appreciation and deep understanding of the full lifecycle of a herbaceous perennial plant (which regrows from the ground every year), from emerging green shoot through spring and summer colour to faded bloom and brittle winter seed-head.

Rather than designing gardens to be enjoyed only at peak times of the year, Oudolf and his peers embraced the dynamism that comes with seasonal change, conceiving planting schemes that, much like wild, natural perennial meadows, morph across the year. Most strikingly, the movement embraced the beauty of senescence – plants in natural decay, which Oudolf considers a ‘fifth’ season. Indeed, the plantsman once remarked that flora is only worth growing if it looks good when it is dead.

Month by month, the character of an Oudolf garden transitions as different species flare and fade: contrasting textures and structural forms carry the eye across the planted canvas, while literal movement is drawn from the air in the flutter of grasses in the breeze. By the early 2000s, this impactful approach had been adopted by many influential European and North American garden designers, and the employment of grasses as a unifying ‘matrix’ for a planting scheme – notably varieties of North American switchgrass, bluestem and deschampsia – was increasingly popularised.

A landmark moment: the High Line, New York

One of Piet Oudolf’s most distinctive attributes as a practitioner is his straddling of the horticultural and art worlds. From his rhythmic, ‘painterly’ planting schemes to the much-revered hand-coloured plans that accompany his work, Oudolf’s approach to landscape design has the rare quality of being regarded as an art form.

This has no doubt contributed to his frequent patronage by galleries, museums and cultural institutions, from London’s Serpentine and Somerset’s Hauser & Wirth galleries to the Spanish sculpture garden Chillida Leku (indeed, his drawn designs often feature in gallery catalogues and are sold as framed prints). The landscape Oudolf is most prominently associated with, however, is undoubtedly New York’s High Line, a 1.4-mile-long, raised public walkway crammed with engaging, dynamic plantings.

Formerly a disused railway leading from the Meatpacking District through the west Manhattan neighbourhoods of Chelsea and Hudson Yards, the High Line was transformed into a vibrant urban park by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf.

Oudolf was commissioned by the Friends of the High Line and the City of New York to make a garden of multiple zones and atmospheres. Taking inspiration from the wild plants that had naturally colonised the deserted tracks – many of them North American natives – Oudolf’s design ranges from a dappled birch grove to areas of wetland, sunny meadow and grassland-inspired matrix plantings. First opened in 2009, and now one of the city’s most popular attractions, the park is considered a major achievement in urban greening, and a rare example of high-design horticulture in the public realm.

Career development

As in all creative disciplines, Oudolf’s practice has developed and refined over the years, with the bold block-plantings of his early career structurally loosening and often softened through the use of lighter, more airy grasses and perennials. Continued observation of wild landscapes has driven his aesthetic evermore in the direction of the ‘naturalistic’ perennial meadow, which is perhaps best exemplified in his revised work at RHS Wisley in Surrey.

Here, Oudolf’s original design for Wisley’s glasshouse borders – implemented at the turn of the millennium – took the form of a wide lawn path dividing two large sections of perennial planting. Remodelled and reopened last year, the borders now envelop the visitor fully, as they follow snaking, looping pathways that facilitate a more immersive experience amongst the plants. The new design features almost three times as many plant varieties as the original garden, selected as much for sustainable climate resilience as their multi-seasonal beauty.

11 key works

Hummelo, Netherlands (1982-present)

Though the garden at Oudolf’s home and studio in Hummelo, Netherlands, no longer houses his once revered plant nursery, it remains the designer’s showpiece landscape, and experimental ground for new ideas and planting compositions.

The Battery Bosque, New York (2002)

Oudolf’s masterplan for the gardens of Manhattan Island’s popular, 25-acre Battery waterfront park – which offers views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – features areas of contrasting plantings, from shady woodland, sunny bikeway and broad perennial garden schemes.

The Lurie Garden, Chicago (2004)

Featuring many native North American prairie plant species, downtown Chicago’s three-acre Lurie Garden – Oudolf’s first commissioned garden in the USA, designed in partnership with landscape architecture firm GGN – reconnects the city with the surrounding Midwestern grasslands: a place of urban greening shared by people, pollinators and rare plants.

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2014)

At the Somerset Gallery outside Bruton, Oudolf converted a former agricultural field into a living artwork. An intoxicating mix of richly coloured perennials and grasses, the ‘Oudolf Field’ draws visitors along curving lawn pathways towards the Radić Pavilion, designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić (and originally commissioned as the 2014 Serpentine Pavilion).

RHS Wisley, Surrey (2021-2024)

Having first designed the glasshouse borders at RHS Wisley in 2001, Oudolf’s new 2024 design immerses visitors within naturalistic perennial plantings via a snaking, rather than linear, footpath.

Oudolf Garden Detroit, Michigan (2021)

Situated on Detroit’s Belle Isle state park, opposite downtown, this three-acre public garden is entirely volunteer-run, channelling the city’s urban-greening, grassroots vitality.

Serpentine Pavilion planting, London (2011)

In providing an isolated strip of planting at the heart of Peter Zumthor’s Serpentine Pavilion of 2011, Oudolf put plants centre-stage. The rare, contemplative setting of Zumthor’s structure, and its inward-facing periphery seating, allowed visitors to pause and experience the magic of Oudolf’s seasonally-shifting palette of perennials, which included carmine-coloured eupatorium, dark-leafed actaea and scarlet monarda.

Chillida Leku, San Sabastian (2019)

Welcoming visitors to Chillida Leku – a museum and sculpture garden outside San Sebastian dedicated to the work of Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida – is Oudolf’s perennial border: a gently mounded exhibition of brilliant herbaceous colour. Here, the resulting seed heads of pink echinacea and bold blue globe-thistle are left standing, providing winter structure.

Maggie’s, Royal Marsden Hospital, London (2019)

At Maggie’s Royal Marsden, Oudolf’s interconnected zonal plantings are designed to make productive use of a tricky site with varying light levels, and offer a soothing setting for visiting patients. The garden’s 12,000 plants fill out across areas of shade, dappled light and full sun, with ornamental grasses knitting the space together.

Vitra Campus Garden, Germany (2021)

In 2021, renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf created a lush 4,000 sq m perennial garden for Vitra, bringing a touch of nature to the company's headquarters in the southern German town of Weil am Rhein. Its opening could not have been more perfectly timed: having endured long stretches of domestic confinement in the preceding year because of the Covid pandemic, visitors craved gardens, fresh air, and horizons afforded by wide open spaces.

Vandalorum, Sweden (2025)

Among Oudolf’s most recent projects is the garden masterplan for the Vandalorum Museum of Art and Design in Värnamo, Sweden. Completed in 2025 and designed to be truly immersive, the eight-hectare site features a perennial meadow courtyard set out in ‘bowl’ shape with meandering walkways, providing space for reflection, respite and outdoor education activities.

oudolf.com

Rains Amsterdam, the new flagship store of the Danish lifestyle brand, has just thrown open its doors in the Dutch city's trendy Canal district. The new space, created with Swedish multidisciplinary architecture studio Stamuli, is not only the company's biggest foray into the city and its first flagship, but also the debut of a new global concept for Rains – an interior that reimagines its retail expression and brings together the urban outerwear and accessories business's minimalist and utilitarian approach with a sense of contemporary playfulness.

Rains Amsterdam opens, with a joyful and unexpected interior

Just as with the company's main home, the Rains headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark, the retail concept is elegant, yet dynamic and full of potential. The space, which spans 123 sq m and two levels, including a generous, double-height shopfront main floor, was conceived as a place of experiences – taking the brand's architectural commercial expression to the next level.

In 'very simplistic terms, it is bigger and better', says Daniel Brix Hesselager, founder and CEO of Rains, who worked with Stamuli on stores in the past, but aligned with the practice this time to carve an entirely new take on space.

Emanuele Stamuli, CEO of Stamuli, explains that the new interior is composed of concrete, steel, glass, and textiles – all materials that are, in a sense, commonplace, as well as durable, clear and functional. They reflect the Rains products' ethos and the wider Scandinavian attitude carried within the brand. At the same time, through a fresh play between colour and pattern, the interior here becomes joyful and unexpected.

The Rains Amsterdam flagship is composed of continuous grids, bespoke furniture and an organic, yet industrial surface palette. Technology, such as LED installations on the ceiling depicting the feeling of an ever-changing sky, adds further dynamism to the whole, which is otherwise defined by a raw, almost brutalist feel, pleasantly disrupted by bold shapes and pops of colour.

'What really attracted us to Stamuli was that they have a more organic and more playful approach to retail design than we have had before,' says Brix Hesselager. 'We are rooted very much in strict, minimalistic Scandinavian aesthetics, which can, for some, appear “cold”.’ In this context, refreshing the Rains retail experience was much about balancing things – adding vibrancy to the space, without losing the brand's spirit.

At the same time, it is important to remember that these are 'boutiques', not just 'stores', stresses Stamuli. To achieve the distinction, the studio crafted three parts to the store to reflect the customer's retail journey. First comes the presentation of the collection (which is 'more about identity than lots of product', Stamuli explains). Then comes a deep dive into the collection, through browsing and engaging with it. Finally, the conclusion of the 'shopping ceremony' is the most intimate of all – trying the garments on. This procession helped create distinct areas in the interior.

'We wanted to create a natural flow and an environment that feels almost like an ancestral cave,' Stamuli adds. 'Something cocooning. We wanted straight lines and clean surfaces, but also more of a rough, organic environment, something that brings softness. This is the role of the furnishings and the circular openings. And then some visual elements, like the ceiling-mounted LED screens, can change the overall feel. It is important to us that we can renew and that the customer gets a new experience every time they enter.'

Rains Amsterdam will soon be followed by brand boutiques in Stockholm and Hamburg.

rains.com

Some artists treat fabrication as a means to an end; Job Smeets is not one of them. He likes to get his hands dirty. His work is loaded with conceptual metaphors, but he speaks most passionately about the tactility of majolica, the plasticity of bronze or a wall tapestry’s interlaced warp threads. Since founding Studio Job in 1998, the Belgian-born designer has sculpted and moulded a language of his own that hovers somewhere between ornate sculpture and pop-influenced design, folkloric and kitsch. His work has both fans and critics, but no one has ever questioned his material prowess or the sincerity of his craftsmanship.

We visited Studio Job weeks before the October 2025 soft opening of House of Delft – at 2,000 sq m, the largest commission of Smeets’ career. When completed (before its official inauguration in October 2026), it will also be the largest artwork in the Netherlands, surpassing the 1,680 sq m Panorama of Scheveningen by Hendrik Willem Mesdag in The Hague.

House of Delft encompasses three galleries in a Frits van Dongen-designed building of the same name (where work in progress is viewable from the street and, as of this week, tours can be booked for the first gallery). Like Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelung, it is a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) comprising interconnected forms, including 120,000 tin-glazed tiles, a 40m tapestry and a 7m-high stained-glass window.

The work’s technical complexity and fantastical imagery make it feel like a contemporary reboot of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Like Wagner’s operatic cycle and Bosch’s triptych, House of Delft is a grandiose vision that takes multiple viewings to unravel. Fortunately, visitors can decode House of Delft’s dense symbolism 24 hours a day through enormous ground-floor glass panes. The artwork is a gift to the city of Delft by billionaire native son Chris Oomen.

‘It came at a perfect time in my life. Ten years earlier, I could not have done it,’ Smeets says. ‘A project of this size and complexity is beyond the capabilities of a single artist. It would have taken me an entire lifetime.’

Arguably, preparation for House of Delft began in 2019 when, a few years after splitting up with his life and studio partner, Smeets set about transforming his atelier into a sort of renaissance workshop. He sought out the best illustrators, sculptors, casters, weavers, painters and metallurgists, and convinced them to join him. ‘I spent years assembling this incredible pallet of skills and talent, and this was one of the rare opportunities where I could use them all in a single work.’

But unlike practice at the factorylike studios of many contemporary artists, Smeets is still very much involved in the physical execution of his ideas. A prolific illustrator, he begins every work with his pen.

When not fronted by his Mercedes 450 SE, pimped with bronze emblems of his own making, Smeets’ Tilburg atelier is easy to miss amid the drab industrial landscape. Inside, however, it is a bright, bronze-filled space whose order and calm seems to clash with the whimsical ornamentation and erratic structures for which Studio Job is known. Save for the stacked plaster moulds, a giant glitter globe and a controversial artwork featuring two smoking chimneys inspired by Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Hell, everything on display – including a bed of hand-painted waterlilies, an enormous clown’s shoe and a sculpture of a virus – belongs to House of Delft.

For the past five years, around 50 artists, artisans and constructors have contributed significantly to House of Delft, including textile engineers at Tilburg’s Textile Museum and glazing specialists at Royal Tichelaar Makkum, both world-class institutions and long-time Studio Job collaborators. What can be done at the studio is done at the studio.

There is a station for knitting upstairs, large metal and woodworking shops below. Three women balance on scaffolding while sewing three-dimensional aliens and ice cream cones on to an elaborate tapestry. Occasionally, they glance at scale models for guidance.

‘I have always been fascinated by the total designs of cathedrals and castles, with their fully integrated ornamentation and storytelling,’ says Smeets. ‘This is my attempt to do something similar. It literally feels like I have been lying on my back for five years painting the Sistine Chapel. Every millimetre has a story of its own.’

House of Delft is an homage to the rich history of Delft, which, Smeets notes, was the Silicon Valley of its day, a Dutch golden-age hotbed of scientific and artistic innovation that birthed the microscope, Delftware and Vermeer. But House of Delft is also a Studio Job production, with its earnest morphing of fact, fiction and human folly. Future historians will scratch their heads trying to decipher the connection between cherubs and hotdogs, denim-clad nobles and the rear end of a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz.

In Studio Job’s surreal world of warped time and space, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Delft’s 17th-century father of microbiology, is on equal footing with Boyan Slat, the city’s 21st-century inventor of a system that removes plastic from the ocean. The only person who understands these relationships is Job himself, and often he doesn’t get them, either.

‘I’ve included sculptures that represent me as an artist, self-portraits. Crazy stuff like a bent gun, a clown shoe, an apple tree. Moments and memories. I think it’s important for an artist to add their own signatures. Or maybe it’s just exhibitionism.’

Delightfully, there are a number of recurring Studio Job themes in House of Delft, such as kooky clockwork, oversized hot lips and a pageant of heavy machinery. True to form, the work is a composition of stark contrasts – medieval and modern, wool and bronze, handmade and 3D-printed, upside-down and right-side-up.

A scene depicting a 1654 convent explosion (the ‘Delft Thunderclap’) is offset by Dutch ships conquering whitecaps at sea. There are references to wealth, but also the slave trade that helped fuel the embarrassment of riches. Johannes Vermeer baroque in one gallery gives way to Jan Schoonhoven minimalism in another. Enigma is often the whole purpose. Why is a giant caterpillar devouring a bridge? Is the stained-glass glow another explosion or a beautiful sunrise? Some will see commentary on today’s climate apocalypse in the many fires and floods, but tumult and chaos have been Studio Job motifs for decades.

‘I feel the world lives in 80-year cycles of destruction and resurrection,’ he says. ‘Horror and gloom, but also discovery and light. This is the history of humanity, and it’s all a little bit gothic. I’ve always found inspiration in that.’

Of the three galleries that make up House of Delft, the auditorium is the artist’s favourite, perhaps because of its challenging acoustic demands. In addition to three-dimensional acoustic tiles lining the walls, Smeets created two ornate tapestries. The ceiling tapestry ripples in cartoonish fashion, ruffled by a Caterpillar bulldozer.

Rather than opening as a completed work, House of Delft remains a work in progress whose installation is in full public view. Smeets actually prefers it that way. ‘You know, they’ve been working on the Sagrada Família for something like seven generations, but now that it’s nearly completed, it’s just not that interesting anymore,’ he says. ‘I like the idea of the public interacting with the studio while we are laying tiles or hanging stained-glass. I think then they’ll see that House of Delft is not one artwork but hundreds of artworks working together. Each has a specific role to play. I’m just the conductor.’

Contact the Delft Tourist Office (within the Huis van Delft building) to tour House of Delft as the three spaces are finished and open ahead of the full launch in October 2026; the first space is now available to view, and work in progress can also be seen from outside.
studio-job.com

Three Dutch houses from the Wallpaper* archives reveal an enduring architectural fascination with the horizontal – a gesture in tune with the country’s flat, expansive landscapes.

Each project celebrates design precision, innovation and a respect for the environment. They veer away from the expected organic materials, opting instead for modern components and industrial supplies. The result offers a welcome contrast against natural landscapes, while low-lying, open plans unify the interiors with the surrounding flatlands.

House 1: Paul de Ruiter's Villa Kogelhof

Completed in 2013, a private house by architect Paul de Ruiter in the south-west of the Netherlands, keeps a low profile, raised by slim concrete posts. Seamlessly merging with the landscape in spite of (or, perhaps, aided by) its materials of metal, glass and concrete, it certainly fulfils de Ruiter’s goal of acting as ‘non-intrusive, integrated in the panorama and sky.’

De Ruiter’s principles of sustainability were not neglected in this project; 71,000 new trees were planted in the hopes of the project becoming a ‘villa in the woods’. A climate-active façade (a special air cavity incorporated into it to help control temperature) means the ventilation and heating inside the house adjust to respond to the weather.

Take a tour of Villa Kogelhof

House 2: Jan Benthem's 10 de Fantasie

Jan Benthem’s High-Tech capsule house in Almere - the first he built for himself - was completed in 1984, soon after his graduation from architecture school in Delft (with an extension added in the 1990s). ‘I don’t think I could have designed anything simpler,’ Benthem told Wallpaper* in a 2013 interview. The house was designed in under a week, as it was entered into a competition, for which the prize was a plot of land to build the house, which his design won under the understanding that the land would be taken back by the council after five years. Over four decades on, the glass house remains on this plot; an icon of High-Tech architecture.

Benthem relied on easily available industrial materials such as panels normally used for making refrigerated truck bodies, which make up the floor decking, front wall and partitions. The project was intended to encourage people to self-build, a method which has endured in Almere, with its culture of self-building still incentivised by the local council.

Take a tour of 10 de Fantasie

House 3: WillemsenU's The House Under the Ground

The House Under the Ground, completed in 2023, is a building hidden within the land on the edge of a nature reserve in Eindhoven. The plot formerly hosted a goat house, and now a flora-covered concrete roof curving over the building is the only thing hinting at its presence.

The house, in spite of its subterranean plan, is filled with natural light throughout thanks to large windows, skylights and open-plan living and dining rooms. The home’s sustainable use of energy comes directly from the earth around it, which insulates it, acting as a natural regulator of temperature, keeping the house warm in winter and cool in summer (while using a ground source heat pump for its heating needs).

Take a tour of The House Under the Ground

Balancing on little more than two slim concrete posts, Villa Kogelhof barely touches the landscape it sits in, a 25-hectare wild wonderland typical of this seaside region in the south-west of the Netherlands. ‘The house is designed to blend into the landscape,’ says architect Paul de Ruiter. ‘I wanted it to be non-intrusive, integrated in the panorama and sky.’

This ambition could have led to organically sculpted architecture, with materials disguising themselves among plants and trees, wood and stone. Instead, de Ruiter opted for a long horizontal volume of concrete, metal and glass. Yet, for all its modern brutalism, its floating, white, no-nonsense, glass-enclosed body does integrate with the landscape.

Step inside this unapologetic Dutch house

Not many people make it to the district of Noord-Beveland, and fewer still to this house’s exact location, Kamperland. Despite the Netherlands being both small and flat, the Dutch seem to struggle covering the psychological distance to the second of three interconnected peninsulas that make up the south-western province of Zeeland. Whoever does make the journey, though, is charmed by the striking location. Surrounded by flatland, it is as far away from urbanity as one can get in this country. It is also within a stone’s throw of the North Sea and the 9km-long Oosterscheldekering (the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier), the largest of the area’s 13 Delta Works dams, locks and barriers.

The approach to the villa is along a deserted road across the estate. After a ten-minute drive, you reach an underground car park via a sloping driveway. For a high-density country like the Netherlands, such a prologue is astonishing. In fact, the site is part of a larger programme initiated by the government, which aims to connect regional ecological zones throughout the country. The current owner bought the site, once farmland, five years ago. Open to the public, it is a protected habitat for animals and plants and a major tourist draw in the area. Permission to build a house on the land was given only on condition that it was returned to its pre-agricultural state.

Villas are not what Amsterdam-based de Ruiter specialises in. He has devoted most of his career to developing and implementing designs that enhance sustainability in buildings – his own studio’s office comes with a generous patio and an inventive cooling and heating system regulated by a two-tank air circuit, the volumes stored under the premises. But he takes on a private villa or two each year, especially if they pose new challenges – and this one certainly did.

The sheer numbers impress. The planting of some 71,000, six-year-old trees hint at the future of the estate as ‘a villa in the woods’. Plans also included digging a generous rectangular pond, requiring the removal of 70,000 cubic metres of soil. Circling the whole area by foot takes an hour. Although his office frequently does larger-scale works, de Ruiter admits the project was quite elaborate for a villa.

The client, an international trader in onions, camped on-site during the three-year building process, while his family sought refuge elsewhere. His shower was a ritual dip in the pond. Now it is part of the view from his office at the north end of the structure. ‘He likes to be on top of things, and it’s always been his dream to build his own house,’ says de Ruiter.

The villa’s main body hovers 4m above the ground, its two ‘legs’ housing a concrete staircase at one end and forming a steel V-shaped truss at the other. The house itself adds another 4m in height. Built like a bridge, the 40m by 8m interior reads as one big void, with floor-to-ceiling glazing. Sliding doors and curtain rails offer the residents, a family of four, the option of privacy in some areas.

Structural elements are integrated and invisible as much as possible. A climate-active façade (a special air cavity has been incorporated into it to help control temperature) means the ventilation and heating inside the house adjust to respond to the weather.

The owner has plans to make the house entirely self-sufficient; solar panels installed on the roof will be the first step towards that aim. With birds already flocking to the immense ‘garden’ and deer and smaller animals finding their way back to Kogelhof’s nature reserve, it would be fair to say that at least the better part of the client’s extravagant mission has already succeeded.

This article was first published in the April 2013 issue of Wallpaper*

Jan Benthem may be one of the Netherlands’ most successful architects, yet when it comes to his own home, he likes to live modestly. Or ‘efficiently’ as he would have it. So while his classic cars occupy a 400 sq m space in a former factory in Amsterdam, he lives in a compact 17th-century cottage on a canal.

It’s the first house he built for himself, however, that really shows his interest in diminutive dwelling. 10 De Fantasie, in Almere, has so little wasted space that from the time it was built in 1982 until an extension was added in the 1990s, Benthem and his wife slept on bunk beds, just like the kids. ‘I don’t think I could have designed anything simpler,’ says Benthem with pride, of the house he completed when fresh out of architecture school in Delft. ‘If you come up with a clever and logical solution, a beautiful building will soon result.’ He still sees it as one of his most successful projects, and hasn’t been able to let go of the house despite having moved out long ago and rented it out.

Explore this Almere house, a Jan Benthem-designed gem

Benthem not only designed 10 De Fantasie but largely built it too. He considers the experience as one of the building blocks of his career. ‘At architecture school we learned nothing about construction or dealing with contractors,’ he says. ‘The build boosted my understanding of practice very quickly indeed’.

The beauty of the house is in its basic build – it’s constructed on a two-metre grid, largely from what Benthem calls ‘catalogue materials’. A steel space frame is bolted onto four precast concrete slabs, while the walls that support the roof deck are entirely made from toughened glass. Panels normally used for making refrigerated truck bodies were picked out of a catalogue by Benthem to provide the floor decking, front wall and partitions. The house was designed, Benthem recalls, in under a week.

The speed of its conception was down to it being a competition entry, for which the prize was a free plot of land on which to build the house. Benthem was one of ten winners who were given a site in the new town of Almere on the understanding that in five years the local council would want the land back.

Although the council eventually allowed him to keep the house and land, Benthem had planned to dismantle the property and move it elsewhere after the initial five years – an idea that informed its wonderfully lightweight appearance. The fact that there are no deep foundations but a delicate lattice of steel supports, combined with the transparency of the walls, gives the sense that the house could float off into the clouds, or at least bob along the canal that runs alongside it.

Benthem’s approach of using easily available industrial materials, and making this a key part of the aesthetic of the building, was not radically new. In the UK, in particular, a group of architects, including Richard and Su Rogers, Norman Foster, and Michael and Patty Hopkins, had already created what became known as the High-Tech style. Benthem admits that he pored over pictures of these architects’ work. The fact that 10 De Fantasie is such a distilled and elegantly realised version of the High-Tech vision, however, marks out this house as arguably the high-water mark of the style.

Benthem’s design, and the other homes built at De Fantasie, became something of a cause célèbre when they were completed, featuring widely in the international press. Almere was a young town at the time and the De Fantasie project was intended to inspire a local self-build boom. Almere remains a beacon for self-builders, with the local council still incentivising people to construct their own homes. Housing ministers from across Europe have snooped around the town to see if this model of self-building might be the answer to the continent’s chronic housing shortage.

In some ways, then, Benthem’s efforts can be seen as setting a trend, although he says that his diaphanous design has never convinced the general public. ‘Although in lots of ways the international interest in the house really helped to start my career, it also meant that I never got any commissions to design any more houses.’ He puts this down to the fact that ‘people are afraid houses like this won’t stand the test of time’. Many locals in Almere have told Benthem over the years that his design looks more like something that would take you into space than a place to make a home.

Although Benthem has yet to work on space travel, travel of a more mundane sort has since formed the backbone of his career. What started as a commission to design a small bike shelter for Schiphol Airport has led to his practice, Benthem Crouwel, becoming the airport’s primary architect for the past 25 years. Indeed, for a long time Benthem Crouwel had an office located at Schiphol. Continuing the travel theme, the practice has also designed a set of impressive steel and glass buildings for Rotterdam’s main train station [and since this article was first published, Utrecht Centraal station as well as metro stations in Amsterdam].

Although he is clearly not afraid of thinking big – projects such as airports and train stations are not for the faint-hearted – Benthem is an architect who adheres to the Miesian maxim of ‘less is more’, particularly when it comes to living. While many architects have tried to master the form of the microhouse, very few have reached a solution as elegant and efficient as Benthem’s. The irony is, of course, that a house that was only supposed to stand for five years has created a legacy that will last considerably longer. 

This article first appeared in Wallpaper* May 2014, and our interview with Jan Benthem took place that year

benthemcrouwel.nl

Fenix, a new international art museum dedicated to migration, has just opened in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Located in a historic 1923 shipping and storage warehouse, a new spiralling reflective double-helix staircase emerges from its heart.

'I knew immediately that I didn’t want to touch the façade or exterior,' explains Ma Yansong, founder and principal partner at MAD Architects, the Chinese architecture firm that led the transformation of the building, 'but I did want to do something visible.'

Yansong wanted to 'open up' what he felt was a heavy-duty building made of reinforced concrete that 'was like a piece of infrastructure.' He also wanted to make it more 'architecturally transparent and uplifting.'

Taking a tour of Fenix's sweeping curves

The focal point of the new project, which was funded by Rotterdam-based philanthropic foundation Droom en Daad, is the 30 m-tall double-helix steel staircase, or ‘Tornado’, as it was almost instantly dubbed by the locals and teams on the ground.

The latter punches through a new glass roof in the now airy and bright central reception atrium and takes visitors on a 550 m journey up to a 24 m-high viewing platform. From here, they are afforded panoramic views across the city and the mighty Maas River. A little lower down, the Tornado also features a striking 12 m-long cantilever in one of its sweeping staircases that allows visitors to 'float directly above the water.'

The double staircase is both sculptural and functional but also part of the storytelling experience explains Yansong, referencing as it does the movement involved with migration and the 'metaphor of the journey' through its ‘choices’ of different staircases. The walkways and platform are lined with planks of Norwegian Kebony wood, bringing to mind the external flooring of a steam liner and scenes of farewells from the top deck.

According to Yansong and the museum team, the sinuous steel structure is also a way of connecting the history of the building, which belonged to Dutch cargo and passenger company the Holland America Line, and carried more than two million emigrants from Europe to the ‘New World’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to its multi-cultural present and future.

'We wanted a contrast in terms of material and geometry,' says Yansong, 'but we also wanted the two structures to seamlessly become one, which is why we tried to reduce the columns to a minimum and hide the support.'

The Tornado’s highly polished steel panels are designed to reflect the shifting light during the day, as well as provide 'reflections of people in movement.' Close up, the 297 steel panels, which were made in Groningen in the Netherlands (by the same company behind some of Anish Kapoor’s oversized steel artworks), are joined together in a way that seems effortless but that belies the complexity of the task. 'Each panel is a unique size and shape, so they have to meet perfectly,' explains Yansong.

Fenix is the first cultural project designed by MAD in Europe and the first museum in Europe to be designed by a Chinese architecture firm. It is a fact that carries even more meaning given that the museum looks out from its southern façade on to a district called Katendrecht, which housed the first Chinatown in mainland Europe and was, at one time, home to 87 lively cafes and restaurants frequented by the Cape Verdean, Surinamese, Chinese and other communities that lived and worked there.

The meticulous renovation of the rest of the 172 m-long building, which was partly reconstructed in the early 1950s after extensive bombing and fire damage, was led by Rotterdam architecture firm Bureau Polderman. Their task was, among other things, to remove some of the accretions of the past 60 years and restore a rhythm and uniformity to the facades. The characteristic 1920s rectangular lattice windows on the southern side, with their angled corners have been restored and painted the same olive green they were back then, as have the industrial sliding doors at street level.

The gallery space inside, especially at first floor level, is airy and bright with attractive original board-formed concrete walls, while a large 2,275 sq m flexible space, called Plein (or ‘Square’) on the ground floor, will be open for events, performances and community uses by local residents even when the museum is closed. Entrances to the museum on both sides of the building make it accessible from the riverfront but also permeable and open to residents in the neighbourhood to the south. The aim of the museum is to 'welcome the world' while being very much rooted in the city.

i-mad.com

fenix.nl

‘As you may see, Rotterdam is not Rome. It is not Paris, and definitely not Amsterdam. We are different,’ says Robert Simons, vice mayor of Rotterdam’s port and economy. ‘We do have a rich history which allowed for our architectural journey to take a different turn. After the Second World War, our city centre was destroyed. From this, Rotterdam decided to make a bold decision, to rebuild and restore. This allowed us to focus on innovation and our connection to the river mass.’

Enter the new Rotterdam visitor centre: Portlantis

His notes mark the opening of Portlantis, a new educational centre built on the cusp of the port in Rotterdam, where the land meets the sea. Its main purpose is to offer an interactive journey which takes visitors through the story of the city’s rich maritime history, while projecting a glimpse into the future.

The building was designed by architecture studio MVRDV, with interior design by Kossmanndejon, who worked closely with each other to make sure the structure was built with sustainable architecture in mind, while informed by functionality requirements and the surrounding environment. The result is a demountable building with reusable façade panels. It is fully energy-neutral, drawing from its own wind turbine and 266 solar panels.

Located around 45 minutes from the city centre, Portlantis is a modern marvel overlooking the sea. Comprising five cubic volumes, its geometric façade is intriguing and playful, taking on the shape of a Rubik's cube in play. Each level holds distinct character and educational purposes to ignite a spark within the young children who visit, perhaps inspiring them to pursue a future career in Rotterdam’s maritime industry.

Winy Maas, the architect leading the project for MVRDV, says of the design concept: ‘The port is the opposite of the cuteness of the Netherlands. When designing this project we had to think, “How on earth do we compete with this? The cuteness of the windmills or the considered eyesore of gigantic stacks of cargo containers?” Here we wanted to be inspired by [the windmills]. Which is why we created the building as a “cute stack”.’

Maas continues, 'It all started with materials from the port. The façade is constructed with sandwich panels, which are most robust against the wind, salt and dust. We made them shiny because they [happen to] help monitor the levels of dust and wind – signalling when the façade needs to be cleaned and maintained. [For us] it is a poetic interpretation of the harshness of the surrounding environment and a beacon in the landscape.’

Matte black, cylindrical revolving doors guide visitors through a series of swirling lights and deep hums, before they enter the core of the building. Here, the history of the port is unveiled. A large interactive screen highlights the area's development from the Second World War to the present day. Suspended above and taking up the full 22m atrium height are yellow models of parts of a large boat, its propeller and anchor chain, for example, moving and creating different compositions during the day.

The second floor is about the impact and influences of the port on the region's economy, employment, and environment; while the third floor looks to the future. ‘We are in a world of climate change,’ says Herman Kossman, the exhibition designer for Portlantis. ‘We need to think about energy transition and geopolitical changes. This is something the port wants to present, to showcase answers on how to deal with these issues in the future.’

The fourth and fifth floors host a restaurant and an accessible rooftop offering a panoramic view where you can put everything that the exhibition has relayed into context.

The centre is predicted to host 150,000 visitors per year. It is designed to allow visitors to find their own way through the building in order to connect with the port’s maritime spirit.

‘Portlantis’ interior and exterior are designed to be connected,’ explains Kossman. 'Its content and form are interconnected. In our professional world [many projects] start with a building. The architects design it, and then exhibition designers come in and set up their displays. This isn’t just a building with a story inside. The building is also part of the story.’

Portlantis is located at Pr. Máximaweg 301, 3199 KG Maasvlakte Rotterdam, Netherlands portofrotterdam.maglr.com

mvrdv.com

kossmanndejong.nl

On the opening days of TEFAF Maastricht 2025 (15-20 March), high-rolling collectors and art advisors, together with experts from museums and institutions, gathered in suitably stealth-wealth style, elegantly clad in Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and Hermès. When we visited, Raf Simons and Viktor & Rolf’s Rolf Snoeren were padding the aisles of this, the 38th edition of the fair – TEFAF standing for The European Fine Art Foundation – which blends antiquity and the contemporary with pep and showmanship flair.

Best of TEFAF Maastricht 2025: what we saw

Eyes are always firmly on the prized at TEFAF, as visitors weigh up potential acquisitions in whatever niche they collect, whether 18th-century snuffboxes or Flemish tapestries. But there’s also always time for a glass of something and some sushi in the aisles, and to discuss the prevailing trade winds, including fierce new import/export tariffs. AXA, JP Morgan, Ruinart and Alaïa were key sponsors in this edition, bringing a dose of fashion, luxury, investment and tech into the nexus.

In an effort to woo the new-generation client, galleries were working hard to blend and merge genres, whether that be art nouveau glass and tribal art, or new makers with ancient artisans, in booths that delivered a distinctly domestic appeal, complete with parquet floors and library walls. Such arresting juxtapositions inspire collectors to recalibrate their own domestic environments.

‘In Paris, we held a show last year called “Serendipity” with mixed genres and it worked so well that here at TEFAF, we are continuing that idea,’ said Lucas Ratton, of the eponymous Paris gallery, founded by his great uncle, that was showcasing jewel-coloured art nouveau glass alongside its speciality, tribal art. The booth with its dark green walls, bookshelves and seating evoked a stylish abode. ‘People feel the resonance and it piques curiosity,’ said Ratton.

For Francis Sultana, director and CEO of David Gill Gallery, it was a chance to show off contemporary works and the furniture of German maker Valentin Loellmann, known for his sinuous pieces fusing metal, stained wood and olive velvet in curvilinear forms. ‘All art was once contemporary and the work attracts new customers. Between the museum-quality antiquities, clients can find the relevance and we want to open their eyes,’ said Gill, applauding the fair’s rigorous vetting and educational approach.

At Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, things looked lively with a baroque sculpture by Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654), Executioner (Bozzetto for the Beheading of St Paul in the Church of San Paolo Maggiore, Bologna) (c. 1634), sold to a private collection in America for in the region of €2 million. The display was juxtaposed with exquisite floral works by Shota Suzuki (b. 1987), including a delicate Camellia in copper, silver and gold powder with an asking price of €9,500. The flower studies next to religious relics were a neat marriage of past and contemporary orthodox and pantheistic faiths. Five of Suzuki’s wall sculptures were sold on the first day.

Ceramics are a relatively low entry point compared to old masters and here Pierre Marie Giraud gallery excelled with a mix of contemporary ceramicists including Takayuki Sakiyama, crackled glaze glass mushroom lamps by Jos Devriendt and furniture by Herzog & de Meuron. ‘People have been collecting ceramics for civilisations – it is one of the most ancient expressions of art and it is exciting to see the growing taste. We are in a small, lucky place in a crazy world,’ said director Cedric Beukels.

While prices can reach well into the multi-millions, to attract new customers, Dominique Savelkoul, the new managing director of TEFAF, is launching initiatives to attract a new generation of collectors, including an interactive map that spotlights work under €20,000. Ancient Roman and Greek antiquities can offer comparative value, with a black glazed Greek amphora at Charles Ede for €7000 and an Egyptian carnelian falcon pendant jewellery at €2,000 from Kallos Gallery.

In the hierarchy of painting, Alberto Giacometti, Gerhard Richter, Tracey Emin, Titian, Ai Weiwei, Hokusai, and Jan Davidsz. de Heem are among the fine art highlights from across the centuries. The most expensive artwork this year is a 1965 Picasso painting, Les Dormeurs, with an asking price of $50 million at Landau Fine Art. There was a beeline for Richard Saltoun’s solo display of surrealist paintings and drawings by the Palestinian-born Lebanese artist Juliana Seraphim (1934-2005), chiming with the desire for underplayed female artists.

In another life, I’d have gone home with the dreamy metalwork bed with phoenix and cabbage-leaf motifs by Claude Lalanne at Galerie Lefebvre, on the market for €250,000. With its sheepskin and wool coverings, in a room set featuring an Alberto Giacometti wall sculpture of a white bird, it was love at first sight. ‘There is a good amount of work by Les Lalannes around but not too much, and the bed is one of a kind. The appeal is so universal: it is humorous, joyful, surreal,’ says Yana Mihailuka of Galerie Lefebvre, Paris. Architect Peter Marino, the Rothschilds and Yves Saint Laurent are among the roll call of patrons past and present. Sweet collector dreams.

tefaf.com

As of 10 February 2025, Eurostar has resumed running direct trains from Amsterdam to London. The route had been suspended as a new terminal was built at Amsterdam Centraal, meaning that passengers travelling to London had to go via Brussels, where they were required to go through passport control. Eurostar is now running three return services between London and Amsterdam per day on weekdays and Sundays, and two on Saturdays. The journey takes three hours and 52 minutes, with prices starting from £39 for a one-way ticket.

With quick, cheap and painless rail travel back on the menu, there’s no better time to book a long weekend in Amsterdam. Known as the ‘Venice of the North’, the Dutch capital is criss-crossed by canals, which are now a Unesco World Heritage Site. A weekend in Amsterdam might include perusing the Rijksmuseum (new exhibition ‘American Photography’ is on until 9 June), strolling through Dam Square, or taking in the gabled façades of the city’s charming canal houses.

Recently, Amsterdam has come even further into its own, partially due to an injection of sparkle courtesy of new mayor Femke Halsema. The city has recently seen the opening of the Van Cleef & Arpels Benelux boutique and the Audemars Piguet AP House, as well as art museums such as Drift and Zamu, with the launch of a new Rosewood hotel on the horizon.

Wallpaper* takes the opportunity to revisit some longstanding favourite spots in Amsterdam – read on for the travel desk’s picks.

The hotel: W Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s 238-room W Hotel has to be one of the most attractive stays in the city, and it’s right next to the train station. The hotel – which is spread across a former telephone exchange and a bank – embodies the capital’s cool, with trad-meets-modern interiors encompassing Dutch heritage and avant-garde design. Guests are privy to two restaurants, a rooftop lounge overlooking the Royal Palace, and a rooftop pool.
marriott.com

The bar: Bar Botanique

Situated in the always-lively Amsterdam Oost (East), Bar Botanique is open from morning coffee and acai bowls to late-night drinks and salsa dancing. Its appealing green interior and plant-covered walls curate a tropical feel, housed in a building that was once a primary school gym. Bar Botanique calls itself a ‘neighborhood living room’ – the perfect spot for a cosy drink and weekend party.
barbotanique.nl

The restaurant: Jansz

This is a great spot for effortless yet refined all-day dining in Amsterdam. Jansz is inspired by the Netherlands, serving well-crafted modern-Dutch cuisine made with locally sourced ingredients. The space is beautiful, too – modelled around the memory of founder Volkert Jansz, a 17th-century craftsman with a taste for the finer things, a keen eye for style, and an love of hosting.
janszamsterdam.com

The cafe: Lebkov and Sons Café

Lebkov and Sons is a local favourite in Amsterdam, with numerous outposts across the city. It’s a solid place to go for organic coffee and homemade food, all with a sustainable ethos. If you find yourself in Amsterdam’s ‘Financial Mile’, grab a stylish bite at the Zuidas branch, which is within the distinctive The Rock tower, designed by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat in 2009.
lebkov.nl

Rotterdam, as is often commented in the built environment circles, is a deeply ‘architectural’ city. Today part of the most populous metropolitan area in the Netherlands and Europe’s largest seaport, Rotterdam saw its city centre nearly entirely razed to the ground in 1940 during Second World War bombing. It was rebuilt post-war at a 20th-century pace around its few surviving downtown buildings, such as modernist architecture gems Sonneveld House and Chabot Museum. This gave birth to an influential generation of architects along the way, who dominated the world scene at the end of the century and the first quarter of the next – such as Rem Koolhaas’ OMA/AMO, MVRDV, and Neutelings Riedijk.

Rotterdam: now and in the future

Today, Rotterdam is changing again, responding to an entirely different challenge – a mix of the worldwide climate emergency that is upon us all, and the city’s own site-specific challenges, such as its intense densification in the past 15 years (its centre is one of the densest in the country); its location on the mouth of the River Rhine; and the gradual (over several decades) move of its enormous port and all the logistics and places that come with it to a site further outside its main urban core towards the sea.

As a result, Rotterdam is respectively facing unpredictable weather patterns; addressing its increasing population’s needs for housing and well-being; and needs to restore the ecosystem in its old port (an area currently spanning 12,600 hectares and 40km in length) and repurpose the building stock left behind.

A range of new initiatives and live projects prove that this extremely architecturally active city is not only not resting on its laurels, but has sprung straight into action in the face of these difficulties. As part of the country’s recently announced ‘New Dutch’ movement, a platform that focuses on its 21st-century innovation, Rotterdam has generated a wealth of schemes that aim to safeguard the city’s longevity and health – both in terms of its urban fabric and inhabitants.

The city authorities have initiated a series of key projects that aim to bring nature back into the fold, creating new, important green lungs in several neighbourhoods, including Rotterdam’s own ‘high line’, Hofbogenpark, a bio-inclusive raised park set on the site of an old rail line. Designed by landscape architects De Urbanisten and with its first test area now complete, the project is due to open to the public in 2027.

Meanwhile, beyond creating new housing and more mixed-use buildings around the old harbour of Rijnhaven, the water is now being rewilded by elevating the seabed so that, in combination with the tidal movement, marine species can thrive (it was previously dug in to allow for large ships to moor, which consequently meant the floor was too deep and dark for them to survive). Gardens on its banks and floating parks accessed via jetties are also created to restore local wildlife and planting.

A bit further away from the city centre, De Urbanisten has also just delivered Keilehaven Tidal Park, west of the centre. It’s part of a larger public project to turn the entire Rotterdam shoreline into a large-scale tidal park that will bring nature back to the entire city, combining the benefits of an urban park and its location on a natural estuary system. Replanting with native species is matched by using recycled materials from local building sites for quay cobblestones and the filling of gabions.

More projects aim at tapping into the power of the elements to bring balance to our environment – built and natural. Local biotech design studio Nova Innova has recently launched Pond, a device using microbial fuel cell technology to highlight water quality levels in lakes and rivers. It is also currently studying ways to harness the energy from photosynthesis to sustainably illuminate parks.

The same approach was also applied to the introduction of watersquares across the city, such as Benthemplein (opened in 2013), a public plaza acting as a ‘sponge’ and designed to absorb rainwater during periods of increased rainfall. This is then stored for plant irrigation during periods of drought, balancing out potential extreme weather conditions in the future. Benthemplein is on ground level but other watersquares are built below ground, acting almost as mini reservoirs.

These are all long-term plans, many of whose seeds were planted more than a decade ago, and whose fruit won’t be fully experienced for a few more years; but they are all projects that show how Rotterdam has been slowly and steadily moving towards future-proofing its built environment. In more immediate plans, two big museum openings in 2025 – Fenix by MAD and Nederlands Fotomuseum by Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten and WDJArchitecten – both set in reinvented warehouses within the old port, flag how reuse can play a key role too, promising an exciting year, and decade, ahead for the Dutch city.

en.rotterdam.info

Read about more architecture winners from the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025.

The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 winners are also featured in full in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 9 January 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Decorating your own Christmas tree is certainly an art form – although for most of us it may not extend too far beyond choosing a colour scheme and whether to go with or without lights. However, hotel Christmas trees are often elevated to the next level and will wow even the most discerning amateur. Whether adorned with AI baubles or 400 bellboy teddy bears, these are some of the most intriguingly decked-out trees around the world this year.

Hotel Christmas trees around the world

The Tokyo Edition hotels

The Tokyo Edition Toranomon, and The Tokyo Edition, Ginza, offer an alternative take on a classic Christmas tree. This year, the hotels have unveiled two sculptural installations by art director Yuni Yoshida in collaboration with the design brand 130 One Thirty. The concept was to create a ‘hotel within a hotel’. The result is two white ‘trees’ which have a delicate paper quality, and glow from within. Small windows have been carved into the installation to mimic that of lights or tinsel around a tree. Each ‘tree’ incorporates delicate design variations unique to each property.

The Tokyo Edition Toranomon is located at 4 Chome-1-1 Toranomon, Minato City, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan www.marriott.com

The Tokyo Edition, Ginza 2 Chome-8-13 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan www.marriott.com

Ritz Paris

At Ritz Paris, the hotel’s bespoke Christmas tree has a focus on childhood nostalgia. The tree was designed by florist Anne Vitchen, who filled the tree with over 400 Ritz bellboy teddy bears. The hotel’s beloved mascot hasn’t just taken over the tree, but can be found in every corner of the hotel in a playful manner.

Ritz 15 Pl. Vendôme, 75001 Paris, France ritzparis.com

The Ned

The Ned has collaborated with whiskey brand The Macallan to unveil a collaborative Christmas tree which focuses on heritage and craftsmanship. The 22ft tree is inspired by the stunning distillery and the natural beauty of Speyside. The tree is adorned with red velvet bows, with copper baubles, an elegant nod to the distillery’s copper stills

The Ned is located at 27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ thened.com

Claridge’s

The unveiling of Claridge’s Christmas tree is always a momentous occasion. Last year, Paul Smith took over the 19ft tree in an ode to traditional toy making. This year, it is the turn of Burberry and its creative director Daniel Lee to imagine Claridge’s 2025 Christmas tree. At the centre of the 16ft tree’s design are the numerous bows that adorn it, each one crafted from surplus Burberry fabric (Lee said he chose the leitmotif because the bow was a ‘Victorian symbol of unity’). The top of the tree features a golden crown in lieu of a star or fairy, while the floor around the tree is piled with Burberry cushions and populated with oversized chess pieces.

Claridge’s is located at Brook St, London W1K 4HR www.claridges.co.uk

The Barcelona Edition

With avant garde flare, The Barcelona Edition has collaborated with Fabricio Giordano, founder and creative director of Flore Studio, a floral design studio and flower, plant and orchid boutique. Giordano gave a classic Christmas tree a contemporary twist by wrapping it in a net casing. Sharing on Barcelona Edition’s Instagram, Giordano said, ‘To wrap is to embrace, to contain, to turn inward, and a loving gesture. This year’s festive tree stands as a manifesto to embrace who we are and what we live, through abstract beauty.’

Barcelona Edition is located at Av. de Francesc Cambó, 14, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona, Spain www.marriott.com

The Rome Edition

You can find the Rome Edition's tree nestled in the hotel entrance. Designed by Milan-based artist, Sara Riccardi, she worked in close collaboration storied Turin workshop, Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio for this commission. The result is a striking tree comprised of textile compositions and cascading fringes in various shades of red. More than just a visual spectacle, it also engages sight and sound, with aluminium rods which echo vibrations. This is a contemporary tree not just to be admired, but also experienced.

The Rome Edition is located at Salita di S. Nicola da Tolentino, 14, 00187 Roma RM, Italy editionhotels.com

The Connaught

Outside The Connaught stands a 31-foot-tall Nordmann Fir tree, sourced from Denmark and designed by contemporary visual artist Urs Fischer. This is Fischer's 10th tree for The Connaught, and for 2025 he has taken inspiration from his installation ‘People’. AI-generated faces are placed within spheres, each lit with LED light – the tree captures people sharing collective experiences, and is rooted in togetherness.

The Connaught, Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL www.the-connaught.co.uk

45 Park Lane

At 45 Park Lane, the evergreen Nordmann Fir has been designed by British sculptor Ian Turnock. For this year’s tree, Turnock was inspired by the stillness of winter, which he captured through sculptural decorations which reflect light and shadow in intricate patterns. There are metal finishes to the decorations which elevates the tree into a mesmerising installation, rather than a decorative object.

45 Park Ln, London W1K 1PN dorchestercollection.com

One can argue that going to the cinema to watch a film these days has all the nostalgic charm of receiving snail mail. This is especially true for Visum Mundi, a rehabilitated arthouse cinema in Wageningen, an hour’s drive southeast of Amsterdam.

There is plenty to admire here, not least because the 1935 building was the site for the signing of the peace treaty between Dutch and German forces to mark the end of the last World War. Visum Mundi is the latest project of Dutch businessman Martin Ruiter and builds on an investment portfolio grounded in sustainability.

Step inside Visum Mundi, Wageningen

For the design, rather than start from a tabula rasa, the London-based studio, Fare Inc. worked within conservation codes to infuse the two-storey building – a 119-seater cinema above and bar/lounge below – with a handsome palette of warm colours and nostalgic decorative features that pay respectful homage to the building’s past.

‘As we couldn’t touch much of the historical fabric of the building,’ says Fare Inc’s principal, Annie Harrison, ‘we focused on sustainable upholstery and fabric using a palette of military greens, sky blues and beiges to reflect a war-time past with a peaceful, hopeful ambience.’

The fidelity to this careful balancing between past and present runs through Visum Mundi - the name, incidentally, is Latin for ‘view of the world’ – with Harrison using warm woods and dandelion chandeliers to line the pitched ceiling of the cinema, and fabric inspired by camouflage prints in light blue, alongside a judicious selection of vintage furniture scattered around the horseshoe-shaped bar.

For Harrison, Visum Mundi reflects the preoccupation of her studio of three with creating soft, warm spaces that integrate location with culture. She recently completed the interiors of a Sri Lankan restaurant within a historic East London warehouse, and is now working on a nightclub set in an old South London department store.

Visum Mundi, she adds, was challenging because the design needed ‘to feel like a new, exciting venue for Wageningen, whilst complementing the buildings’s history and architecture, and resonating across multiple generations.’

If you ask us, that’s a show worth booking.

Visum Mundi is located at Generaal Foulkesweg 1, 6703 BG Wageningen, Netherlands, visummundi.nl

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has just welcomed the latest phase in its 150-year evolution – a journey that has included a major renovation and extension by Benthem Crouwel Architects in 2012, the launch of the Stedelijk Base designed by AMO in 2017, and now, the unveiling of its brand-new Don Quixote Sculpture Hall.

Inside the Stedelijk Museum's new wing

Located on the entrance level, the Don Quixote Sculpture Hall features an indoor space that allows the museum to display works from its collections while reintroducing the space's legacy as a sculpture garden. The renovation also aims to return the space to the public to diversify its offerings and activities in the future.

‘It’s a new beginning for the museum. The Stedelijk is constantly transitioning and transforming, and we believe that today, accessibility is more important than ever. By opening up to the public, we strive to inspire people to engage with art,’ says Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk.

Making the Stedelijk Museum addition

French architect Paul Cournet, founder of Cloud in Rotterdam, was tasked with redesigning the entire entrance level to align with the museum's vision. The goal was to create adaptable, future-proof solutions that would ensure the space remains relevant for years to come.

‘It is as much an architectural question as one of identity for the museum – what direction should we take? On one hand, it’s a beautiful 1895 brick structure; on the other, it’s the iconic contemporary addition from the early 21st century. We had to create something new while still giving space to the arts. The new design is present, but we intended for it to remain in the background,’ says Cournet.

Rather than making a bold statement, the architect opted for a more subtle approach with small but precise interventions. A thorough clean-up was done, and modular elements were introduced to create varied functions and flows throughout the space. The information counter in front of the main entrance, where visitors check in, also acts as a transition between the public areas and the ticketed sections.

To the right is the Fonda Bar, which consists of two simple, unadorned volumes that serve as the kitchen and the serving area. The bookshop is now located to the left of the bar, with 1 x 1m storage and display units forming a modular system that can be adapted to different layouts. Taking advantage of the space’s height, 17 vitrines extend above the 2.5m wall-mounted bookshelf, created to highlight the museum’s design collection alongside its art.

‘The kind of innovation we wanted to discuss with the museum in terms of materials is: how can we be contemporary?’ Cournet answered the question with a single materiality: ‘We went for brushed stainless steel for the entire scheme because of its timeless quality – these [elements] could have been built 50 years ago, or they could be designed in 50 years and still feel like they belong here.’

Over the past two years, the team has worked with the Dutch company Rovasta to refine both the engineering details and the finishing. All pieces in the space are crafted from wood and clad in a 2mm layer of stainless steel. The labour-intensive process begins with folding sheets of steel, with each joint welded and hand-brushed to ensure a seamless final appearance. This is how the 10.2m-long information counter appears as one continuous piece of metal; it was fabricated in the factory and brought to the museum as a single unit.

Cournet’s intervention also aimed at enhancing the overall visitor experience. A digital screen was added above the information counter to provide more timely communication, replacing traditional printed collateral, while also doubling as a digital showcase for hosting digital artworks. The existing graphic signage system, originally designed by Mevis & Van Deursen, was transformed into illuminated light bars with an LED system that can customise colours for different events.

The Stedelijk has a long tradition of commissioning design pieces, including the BZ slatted bench by Martin Fisser, designed in 1960 and still produced by Dutch manufacturer Spectrum. ‘We felt it was time for another piece directly connected to the museum,’ says Wolfs. This led to the commission of Sabine Marcelis, whose resulting ‘Stedelijk’ chair features an aluminium form with smooth, flowing lines that extend from the legs to the backrest, accentuating its materiality.

It is the very first chair Marcelis has ever designed: ‘It was difficult because the chair had to be stackable, lightweight, durable, consciously produced, and recyclable, and it is a new material for me. But I think the biggest challenge was working within all those constraints while still trying to create something with its own character.’

Manufactured by the Spanish brand BD Barcelona, the chair appears to be cut from a single sheet of aluminum, but its structure is actually more intricate. It possesses a certain anonymity – detached from any specific aesthetic, time, or trend – that enables it to adapt to various settings, with its longevity rooted in that versatility.

stedelijk.nl

In collaboration with filmmaker Juan Benavides, the behind-the-scenes movie showcases Paul Cournet's process, working with the Dutch company Rovasta, which specialises in custom stainless-steel solutions, and Hypsos to realise the design and installation.

cloud-ism.com

Expandable Trailers sits in the grey area between a high-end travel trailer or motorhome and a tiny home. Pitched primarily at the entertainment and sports industries, the Dutch company builds rigs that can be deployed for months on end, then packed up and shipped on to the next job.

The company’s Red Dot award-winning Expandable Mansion is the latest iteration of its platform, a portable living space that does an excellent impression of permanence, with 60 sq m of flexible accommodation and high-end finishes and fixtures.

We spoke to Expandable Trailers’ Damian Kropiewnicki about the project and its applications.

Expandable Mansion: what’s the big idea?

Wallpaper*: Who is the target market for the Expandable Mansion?

Damian Kropiewnicki: The primary target market for the Expandable Mansion consists of individuals and professionals frequently on the move, especially in high-profile industries like film and motorsports. This includes actors, Formula 1 teams, and other motorsport crew members – anyone who desires more than the transient experience of a hotel room.

For these clients, having a consistent, personal space that feels like home is invaluable. The Expandable Mansion caters to those who seek comfort, privacy, and the sense of ‘home away from home’, offering a tailored, luxurious environment that travels with them.

W*: What sort of interior finishes and approach do you envisage?

DK: The Expandable Mansion is meticulously finished to a high standard, ensuring it feels like a true residence rather than a temporary accommodation. Interiors come fully equipped, including with integrated appliances like a TV, dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer. The design emphasises spaciousness and luxury, with features such as master bedrooms, high-spec bathrooms, and substantial water tanks of up to 2,000-plus litres for extended comfort and autonomy.

Our approach prioritises delivering the feeling of a complete home, paired with Expandable’s hallmark of being ready to hit the road in just 20 minutes. Additionally, each Mansion is customisable to reflect the individual preferences and needs of our clients, making each unit a uniquely personal retreat.

W*: What sort of plot size and legal permissions are required to install the Mansion in Europe?

DK: Unlike standard campers or similar solutions, the Expandable Mansion is engineered for those who place high value on both the aesthetic and functional qualities of their personal space. Technically classified as a lorry trailer, it adheres to regulations applicable to this category across Europe. This simplifies installation, as the Mansion does not require additional permissions beyond those needed for a conventional trailer, offering a seamless set-up experience for our clients.

W*: How much does it weigh, and what is required to tow it?

DK: The Expandable Mansion weighs approximately 18 tonnes and requires a standard HGV (heavy goods vehicle) licence for towing. This ensures it is manageable for any driver licensed to operate large vehicles, adding to the Mansion’s accessibility and ease of transport.

W*: What are the key features that make it stand out from the competition, such as RVs or travel trailers?

DK: The Expandable Mansion distinguishes itself through its premium finishes, innovative design, and the substantial weight that speaks to its robust construction. Unlike a typical RV or travel trailer, it offers a true luxury experience that rivals a permanent home. Key features include ground-level access for easy entry, a full array of high-quality appliances, and a setup that can be achieved in 20 minutes by a single person. This level of convenience and sophistication, paired with durable build quality, sets the Expandable Mansion apart in the mobile living market.

W*: What are the key dimensions and technical specifications?

DK: The Expandable Mansion is substantial in scale, with a length that varies between 13.8m and 14.7m. When retracted, it’s 2.55m wide, but 4.83m when all the elements are fully extended. Empty, it weighs some 18 tonnes. These dimensions, combined with our unique and patented Touchdown technology, allow the Mansion to lower fully to ground level, providing easy access without sacrificing internal space.

This cutting-edge design, which includes retractable wheels, enhances both the usability and aesthetic appeal of the Mansion, making it an ideal choice for clients who expect the best in luxury and convenience on the road.

Indeed, many of our clients choose the Expandable products with a strong focus on luxury and design. Our Expandable Mansion, in particular, is tailored for high-end applications. It’s been embraced by some well-known figures in both the racing and film industries, adding to its appeal in luxury markets.

Expandable-Trailers.com, @ExpandableNL

The new Nederlands Fotomuseum, set in Rotterdam's wider Rijnhaven dock area, has been rapidly taking shape. The structure, a beloved existing building's redesign and extension by Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Archtitekten, Hamburg and WDJARCHITECTEN, Rotterdam, is well underway; with its building works now completed and the development focus turning to its interiors. The estimated opening date is in 2025.

Nederlands Fotomuseum: work in progress

The Santos warehouse, the period structure on site which the museum project is breathing a new life into, first opened in 1903. Designed by architects JP Stok Wzn and JJ Kanters, it served as storage for the Brazilian coffee trade.

The new photography museum's home is set to boast eight floors for exhibitions, including space for its own collection, alongside studios, a specialist photography bookshop, education areas, and a rooftop restaurant.

The leisure facilities at the very top promise to offer striking vistas of Rotterdam's skyline, one of the Netherlands' finest architectural ones, including landmark buildings such as UNStudio's Erasmus Bridge and OMA's De Rotterdam.

Come 2025, the institution will officially move from its current location on the Wilhelminapier (where it's been since 2007), to the neighbourhood of Katendrecht, across the water. The new building, funded with the help of the Droom en Daad foundation, was acquired in 2023.

The museum's director Birgit Donker has said: 'We are excited about the completion of the renovation phase and look forward to the opening of our new location in Katendrecht next year. This new chapter allows us to continue our mission to celebrate, explore and promote photography as a powerful medium. '

nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

The Buitenverblijf Nest house takes the idea of a 'folly' and gives it a nature-inspired take, with its oversized birdhouse form and whimsical love-nest nods. 

A structure of its typology is defined, as its architects i29 explain, as 'a non-conventional structure that serves an artistic or playful purpose'. The Nest does just that, tucked away as it is in a peaceful, verdant location in the woodlands near Arnhem, within the artistic enclave of Buitenplaats Koningsweg – a former barracks reinvented into a creative community. 

A nest house for nature lovers

Conceived as a ‘tiny house’ holiday home, the Nest, with its slim, raised-on-stilts volume and timber nature, blends with the surrounding trees easily. It was designed to create a sense of tranquillity and offer seclusion and connection with the outdoors, explain the architects, who worked together with Namo Architecture & Hagoort Bouw on the project. 

'[The] design refers to the archetypal image of a bird house,' the architects write. 'The folly is built with respect for nature, using high-quality materials that have little or no impact on human, animal and environmental health.'

Indeed, environmental concerns from the architect-and-client team meant that sustainable architecture was important in the design development. As a result, Nest is equipped with economical all-electric installations and a highly insulated building envelope, while solar panels on the roof cater for energy needs. 

And while the structure of course responds to the needs of human inhabitation, it also offers a home to the local flora and fauna, as birds, tree climbing plants, and insects gradually take over parts of the Nest and are encouraged to settle in. For example, behind the cladding, nuthatches, woodpeckers and bats can seek shelter.  

The cabin comprises two internal floors. The lower one contains a kitchen and living room, spilling out to a large terrace. The top level features a large, four-person bed. The minimalist interiors, smartly enhanced through hidden storage and built-in cupboards, allow for the residents to truly immerse themselves in nature, and feel part of their green surroundings at every turn. 

i29.nl 

Available to book on Airbnb

This ultra-cute sporting EV takes design cues from classic Porsches but makes an original statement of its own. The Carice TC2 is an ultra compact convertible, loosely based on the proportions and form of the first-ever Porsche, the 356 from 1948. Announced in summer 2023, the first run of TC2s sold out straight away, but the Dutch company is currently taking orders for another batch. 

Carice has been around since 2011, as part of a start-up initiative developed by YES!Delft and Delft University of Technology. It launched its Mk1 back in 2014, but the new model substantially improves both performance and range, up from around 112km to 200km (or 300km with a larger battery pack). 

Whereas the Mk1 had more in common with the Speedster variant of the 356, with a vestigial windscreen and no weather cover at all, the TC2 is much more refined. Just 3.5m long and 1.6m wide, it is still a minnow amongst modern cars and the range is helped by its low, low weight of just 630kg (equivalent to two regular EV battery packs).

Carice TC2: a beautifully detailed electric sports car

While the company’s founders, Niels van Dril and Richard Holleman, are paying obvious homage to the German manufacturer – and carefully avoiding any mention of the name – the TC2 also follows the pattern book established by all midcentury sports cars, with a turned aluminium dashboard, wood-rimmed steering wheel, toggle switches and centrally located dials. Everything is beautifully detailed and extensively customisable.

‘We distilled the car to its purest form, and everything that's in there has been created with love and an eye for detail,’ say Holleman and van Dril, adding, ‘We've brought the essence back into driving…  It's about feeling the ride in every fibre of your body.’ They might have a point; to date, EVs impress with their straight-line speed and acceleration, but even the best-handling models – the likes of the Lotus Eletre or Porsche Taycan, for example – have their technical work cut out trying to counter all the weight they carry.

In contrast, the TC2 is a true lightweight, and emphasises this fact through the simple design approach and heart-string tugging evocation of the golden age of small sports cars. It also starts at a very competitive price, especially when compared to the sporting offerings from the big manufacturers, or even the many retro-fitted EV classics on the market. The catch – or advantage, depending on your viewpoint - is that Carice’s modest operation ensures this will always be a rare car. We think it’s close to perfect. 

Carice TC2, from €44.500 plus tax, CariceCars.com

Eindhoven-based architecture studio WillemsenU has hidden a house in an undulating meadow on the edge of a nature reserve in The Netherlands. Surrounded by wild flowers and meandering streams, the house has a curved concrete, green roof that rises from the ground and could easily be mistaken for a grassy hill.

The House Under the Ground

Occupying the plot of a former goat house, the two-bedroom house has a compact footprint yet feels generous and expansive inside. The poured concrete roof hides three levels of living spaces beneath it, two of them below ground level. Though, contrary to what you might expect from a mostly underground house, this one is filled with daylight and cleverly connects its inhabitants to the outdoors.

The plan of the house has been carefully modelled to balance both privacy and openness. Reached by a narrow path that intersects the ‘hill’, the entrance leads into the upper (ground floor) level of the house where there is an open plan kitchen and dining space with an outdoor terrace in the midst of the meadow. The lower levels are reached by a glass lift (the house is future-proofed for later life) or via the floating, crystal-clear-laminated glass staircase. A skylight is located above this void, so daylight flows down through the translucent materials.

At level minus one, there is an open plan living room overlooking a private subterranean garden that looks like you have sunken into a small valley with naturalistic landscaping by Bert Huls. The principal bedroom is located at minus two, where daylight still reaches easily down. There are also added benefits from being mostly underground; heat is extracted from the earth by a heat pump and it is energy efficient as it is naturally insulated by the earth, keeping warm in winter and cool in summer.

Whilst working with nature, the house also offers protection through resilient, modern materials. The facade is clad in rhythmically board-marked concrete, wooden slats (nodding to the old goat shed) and Corten steel. It has floor-to ceiling windows and inside, floors, walls and ceilings are finished with concrete facing – all providing a cool contrast to the green landscape, yet softened by the defining curve of the roof.

'Life – human and non-human, flora and fauna – is always central in my designs,' says Marrit Winkeler, project architect, WillemsenU. She compares designing architecture to poetry. 'Using literary techniques can bend the restrictions of the real world for a while, and open up possibilities for unconventional architecture,' she says. 'And like poetry, architecture can reveal and evoke hidden layers of emotion and meaning.'

willemsenu.nl 

Open Park Villa sits in a leafy, yet unusual plot. Located in the Dutch region of Limburg, the home occupies what used to be military land, which has now been repurposed for housing and parkland. The resulting wooded environment is a green oasis that makes an ideal setting for peaceful living close to nature – something its architects, Amsterdam-based studio i29, made the most of with their design, which opens up towards the outdoors. 

Open Park Villa: a minimalist, green oasis

The architecture team opted for a clean, minimalist architecture composition made up from a series of five, simple, orthogonal volumes. These, in turn, have been opened up internally, so that the verdant surrounds can seep in at every turn, bringing the residents at one with the greenery throughout the interior. 

Level changes, large openings and strategically placed seating areas are orchestrated inside, so that the users can appreciate their enviable green setting while spending time in their home. 

The five 'pavilions' that make up the property interlock smartly through both open air and enclosed connections, pathways and corridors. This arrangement helps form terraces and courtyards which dot the floorplan. 

Timber cladding and details – such as the canopies' clip bamboo structure – add warmth and invite nature indoors. Meanwhile, customised furniture and built-in elements ensure everything feels streamlined and of its place. 

Indoors and outdoors have been gently coordinated too, as the architects write: 'The garden design complements the carefully crafted outdoor space, tailored to the villa's volume and façade openings, completing a harmonious interplay of architecture, interior, and landscape.'

The studio applied here the same principles it adopts in much of its work – working with a certain frugality in material use and a refreshing, nature-inspired minimalism. Another recent design by i29, Câpsula, a series of tiny homes, champions 'living large with less' – and it feels the same values have been applied to Open Park Villa too. 

i29.nl 

Offering simplicity and design led thinking, Câpsula, a tiny homes concept initiated by architecture studio i29, has launched at Dutch Design Week 2023. The project's scale may be small, the team behind it highlights, but it has big ambitions and a richness in 'bare essentials.' The idea is to hone down the notion of slow living, creating the perfect cabin architecture and opting for fewer, but better, options, because 'To be happy, how much do we need?'

Câpsula: a carefully distilled tiny home series

As a result, Câpsula is a carefully distilled series of prefabricated cabins and tiny homes. The family of designs contains three iterations: Soft Lodge, Writer’s Block Hut, and Tiny Holiday Home. The mix allows for a variety of scales and approaches to fit different needs, uses and settings.

Minimalist architecture here does not equate blandness or a cold atmosphere, as every inch and detail in these tiny retreats has been lovingly perfected and imbued with meaning. A connection between interiors and exteriors is central, as is the use of timber as the main material - alongside more natural textures and colours. A pared down approach throughout, innovation and sustainable architecture are also central to the Câpsula DNA.

Prototypes of two of the structures in the series - i29's Soft Lodge and Writer’s Block Hut - are built for Dutch Design Week 2023 and will be on display, available to be experienced in real life in the garden of DOMUSDELA. Additionally, Writer’s Block Hut will serve as the location for a podcast broadcast, crafting discussions with creatives about their work process, and its relationship to space.

It's all about 'living large with less,' i29 write; and the concept is aiming to grow as the business does. While these initial designs are by i29, the idea that there will be opportunities for more designer and architect collaborations with the company in the future. Watch this space.

i29.nl 

Kunlé Adeyemi’s fascination with water cities goes back years. The Amsterdam-based Nigerian architect conceived his now-famous Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2011, and similar ideas have been in development throughout his career as an architect. Now, his research and concepts around floating structures and living on water are coming to Rotterdam, as Het Nieuwe Instituut has just launched its annual installation under the leadership of its creative and artistic director Arik Chen – welcome to ‘Water Cities Rotterdam. By Kunlé Adeyemi’.

Water cities and alternative urban futures

Adeyemi's ideas about alternative urban futures, city growth and different ways of living can be found as early as an essay he published in 2007 in the journal Log, entitled 'Urban Crawl'. Makoko Floating School followed, its construction completed in 2012. More floating models after that included one at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016, one in Bruges, and one in Chengdu, both in 2018. Adeyemi’s Floating Music Hub in Cape Verde won Best Music Venue at the 2021 Wallpaper* Design Awards, and opened to the public the same year. 

All the projects used the architect's Makoko Floating System (MFS), a prefabricated, modular, A-frame, sustainable timber structure that offers alternatives for living on water – something, Adeyemi points out, many cultures already do, in many parts of the world. 

'Every time I do an incarnation of it, the thinking evolves,' Adeyemi says. 'I am always developing it and trying to understand its challenges and functions, developing new solutions and technologies on how to live and build on water. This is just one of many building typologies that are part of the ecosystem of what we call water cities – in Africa, but also as a wider concept around the world.'

‘Water Cities Rotterdam. By Kunlé Adeyemi’

For 'Water Cities Rotterdam. By Kunlé Adeyemi', Chen invited the architect to take charge of the Het Nieuwe Instituut's annual summer installation. They discussed it and decided to offer the public a chance to experience his proposals and floating models – building one on the pond outside the institute, which the public can board and visit. 

The structure used is in fact the 2016 Venice one, adding an element of sustainable architecture and circularity to the project. 'I realised that I had the original Venice installation in storage, so we upcycled that for this installation. We tweaked it a little, as it was too tall, but it's the same one,' Adeyemi says. 

The evolution here is that the architect worked with specialists on marine life, and added underwater cameras to observe how the wildlife behaves around the structure. 'We wanted to use it to observe underwater life through the project, to see the impact. We haven't done this intentionally before, although we have examined things casually in the past. Now we are installing cameras and observing and reversing the gaze, to see what it looks like and see what the underwater life sees. There will also be a projection, where visitors can adopt the same view,' the architect explains. 

Adeyemi hopes that through this creative display, awareness will be raised and people will feel more open to exploring living alongside water. 'I think it’s not only a valid path to take [to expand cities on the water] but it is also an inevitable [one],' he stresses. 'It will suddenly be the only way, because of sea level rises and the increase in water flooding all around the world. It’s alarming and cities and communities have to adapt. You either retreat from water, and try to fight it, [or] another way is to learn to live with it. Many communities have done it around the world in the past already –especially in Asia and Africa.'

African Water Cities, a book expanding on these themes, will be released in June 2023, while the display at Het Nieuwe Instituut will include collaborations with artist Thijs de Zeeuw and graphic artists Opperclaes. 

nieuweinstituut.nl 

Located within a system of dikes and small islands, this Rotterdam house appears serene and idyllic; yet it was designed to withstand harsh weather conditions and works cleverly and hard towards a sustainable architecture result. The brainchild of local architecture practice Studio AAAN, Terphouse, as the project was titled, balances contemporary architecture and environmental friendliness, set upon a low mound engulfed in low greenery and flowers. 

A modern Rotterdam house: Terphouse

Terphouse is situated in the suburbs of the city of Rotterdam, within an environment that brings together nature and constructed context – both in terms of buildings and humanmade landscape. ‘The house is dug in the artificial mound on the island, situating the living spaces on the first level and the bedrooms and secondary rooms underground. This means that from the living spaces the open landscape is perceived over the dikes. By folding the landscape around the house, a connection with the garden is made possible and the house is perceived as a modest solid in the landscape,' the architects write. 

While its setting heavily informed its overall design, the architects took care to ensure Terphouse looks suitably modern too, featuring low, clean volumes made of brick walls, large expanses of glazing and a distinctive, flat timber roof. A range of patios, both external and internal, dot the arrangement, offering open spaces and connections to the outdoors at every turn. 

The wooden roof and its low slung, linear nature was definitive in the design's overall impression. The architecture team, headed by studio founders Hilbrand Wanders, Luuk Stoltenborg and Rik de Ruiter, explain: 'The pronounced wooden beam structure is continuous from the interior to the exterior and forms a canopy on the south façade. As a result, the boundary between the living room, veranda, outdoor rooms and the patio becomes indistinct and the landscape flows into the house.'

aaan.nl 

Explore our pick of the best Amsterdam photography exhibitions for this Autumn

Amsterdam photography exhibitions: a spotlight on the best

Foam Talent 2022Foam16 September 2022 – 18 January 2023

Each year without fail, Foam Talent presents an impressive new generation of artists. Now, as the talent call moves to a biannual structure to further its development programme, we’re keeping an extra keen eye on this year’s edit, which is one of the must-see Amsterdam photography exhibitions of the year. Each artist responds to the world’s challenges in myriad dynamic ways; climate change, political conflict, discrimination, displacement, and social justice issues are all explored from global perspectives. 

foam.org

‘The Showcase: unboxing the Coda collection’ Scheltens & AbbenesUntil 15 January 2023

Dutch duo Scheltens & Abbenes create unique perspectives through their visual interrogations in ‘The Showcase’. After being given free rein to explore the museum archives at Apeldoon’s Coda, the often hidden away histories are revealed in photographic form. Through their box compositions, the icons of still life photography explore the carefully composed act of conservation and the past lives of these objects, noticing a frayed edge or creased tissue paper. Lots of curious questions arise for the viewer, yet we’re encouraged to go astray as we wander through the exhibition that Scheltens & Abbenes, true to form, interpret as a large-scale still life. 

coda-apeldoorn.nl

The Rotterdam Rooftop Walk, a 600m-long orange carpet set 30m up, has opened to visitors. The temporary installation, designed by Rotterdam Rooftop Days and architecture studio MVRDV, encompasses a bridge across one of Rotterdam’s key streets, the Coolsingel.

Offering the opportunity for a new take on the city, the Rooftop Walk encourages visitors to consider issues such as the housing crisis, the possibilities of renewable energy, and the problems posed by climate change. The heightened perspective allows the 18.5 sq m of flat roofs in Rotterdam to be observed, raising possibilities as to their potential.

‘In 2006, for the celebration of 75 years of Rotterdam’s reconstruction, we designed the Stairs to Kriterion, which attracted almost 370,000 visitors,’ says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. ‘That’s when the idea arose that it would be good to make a sequel to the project. During the Eurovision Song Contest [in 2021], the idea was to make a high stage to honour the winner, but that was cancelled due to the pandemic. I am glad that Rotterdam Rooftop Days has managed to achieve this, and I want to argue for a further sequel: we should not only occupy our roofs and make them greener but also connect them so that we can offer Rotterdammers a new rooftop park. For this, the orange carpet and the bridging of the Coolsingel are a nice initial test case.’

The new space above the city has attracted designers, architects and artists, who are showcasing how roofs can be used for water storage, energy and food production, and greenery. They have created everything from a virtual village to a green design for De Bijenkorf department store’s roof in a demonstration of the potential utilisation of the space. The creatives have set up a hub part way along the elevated route, which navigates the World Trade Center building as well as that of De Bijenkorf.

INFORMATION

Rotterdam Rooftop Walk is open from 26 May to 24 June from 10am to 8pm (entrance €3.50 for adults, children free). Tickets can be booked via rotterdamsedakendagen.nl or rooftopwalk.nl

Het Hem’s latest exhibition ‘Chapter 5IVE’ is the result of long conversations between curator Rieke Vos, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, director of AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The installation of 15 groups of artworks is being shown at the cultural institution’s former munitions factory space in Zaandam, the Netherlands.

The framework of the exhibition was the extensive study of the relationship between city and countryside, which Koolhaas and Bantal began in 2012 and was first presented in the Guggenheim in 2020 under the title ‘Countryside, The Future’. ‘Globalisation’s initially glamorous image seems to be rapidly losing its shine in various parts of the world. Increasingly, mechanisms of the modern city seem to make life more uniform and upset our balance with nature, and people in the countryside are no longer willing to accept this,’ says Bantal. In other words, we must look to the countryside to help us achieve sustainable life on Earth. This is a key part of our battle against climate change and our fight for food security and an inclusive balance with nature.

‘The artworks give space for a critical reflection on our relationship with rural life and nature, now and in the future,’ says Vos. The journey starts with a prologue: in German artist Christian Jankowski’s The Hunt (1992-1997), the artist walks into a supermarket with a bow and arrow like a primitive hunter gathering his life supplies – only to be faced by an unconcerned checkout assistant, who simply charges him for his ‘captures’. Humans tend to place themselves outside or even on top of nature. This comical anecdote questions whether there is an inherent conflict in the way we live and how we position ourselves in the ecosystem. 

Our economy demands continuous growth, which outpaces nature’s clock. Hungarian-American artist Agnes Denes’ Tree Mountain – A Living Time Capsule – 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years (1982, 1992-96) is one of the earliest ecological artworks, in which thousands of silver firs were planted on a former gravel pit in Finland in a mathematical manner, using the Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio to encourage future civilisations to reflect on its cultural origins. ‘Rural areas are likely to be hardest hit by climate change, but they might also have the best solutions to deal with it,’ says Vos. Nature may work slowly, but on the other hand, Denes sends out the message that it is possible for humans to adapt to its rhythms if we have the will to do so.

The exhibition moves towards a more futuristic sentiment. Vos describes Bantal and Koolhaas as ‘in a way techno philosophers’, whose open minds seek ways of using new technologies to change our behaviours while at the same time maintaining our values.

The Great Decline (2019) by Belgian artist Maarten Vanden Eynde is a copper memory chip, showing the floor plan of Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which opened in 2008, covered with a large variety of seeds. ‘Seeds contain a lot of knowledge,’ says Vos. ‘They are one of the most complex rural technologies.’ The design is reminiscent of a lukasa, an ancient memory device created by the Luba kingdom (now part of the Democratic Republic of Congo) to document topographical and historical information about political events, people and places.

At the end of the exhibition hall is Emissary Forks at Perfection (2015-16), a live algorithmic simulation by American artist Ian Cheng. It portrays a far future, in which humans have become extinct, where a human is brought back to life by Al to see how they would react to the dystopian environment. ‘Perhaps the most intimate crisis we face today is the limit of human consciousness to really grasp non-human scaled complexity,’ says Cheng.

Vos adds, ‘Humans tend to think that we can control everything through technology. Cheng’s work paints another picture in which we are reminded that we will always be part of a holistic environment.’

INFORMATION

hethem.nl

oma.com

How do you make a substantial dance performance out of mist? That was the question that faced choreographer Damien Jalet, artist Kohei Nawa, and designer Sruli Recht as they developed their new project for Nederlands Dans Theater.

Their answer is seen in Mist, an operatic video depicting cadaverous dancers writhing in and out of plumes of smoke inspired by the thick ‘Dutch fog’ that comes off the North Sea. 

Mist dance performance

The show is one of a series of three collaborations between Jalet and Nawa, beginning with 2016’s critically acclaimed Vessel, which saw dancers engage in the staccato, almost primordial movements that have characterised Jalet’s previous work; he has also worked with film director and Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Luca Guadagnino on horror movie Suspiria, and his opera Pelleas et Melisande (with a set by Marina Abramović). Jalet’s choreography for Mist is more fluid than his previous work, with elastic, undulating movements that are accentuated by costumes designed by Sruli Recht.

Recht’s designs for Mist are a technical marvel. The skin-tight, whisper-thin costumes are made out of fabric spun from spider silk so that they cling to the body like clouds. Recht is no stranger to working with unconventional materials, having previously made clothes from fragments of the oldest meteorite to have landed on Earth, leather made from dolphin skin, skunk fur, and aluminium-infused lambskin. Yet, working with spider silk proved a particularly intricate problem.

To make it work, Recht and his atelier partner Flavia Bon made an entirely new type of material by knitting the filament into fabric-like sheets and then fitting them to each dancer’s body. The final result is, as Recht puts it, ‘a costume as light as mist, as graphic as anatomy, as elegant as choreographic motion, and strong enough to be punished through movement over time’.

Mist debuted on the Nederlands Dans Theater website in January 2022.

INFORMATION

ndt.nl

JOINT WINNER

‘Sunne’ solar light, by Marjan van Aubel

Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel’s solar light both captures the sun’s energy and mimics its glow, evoking sunrise and sunset in your living room. Dubbing herself a ‘solar designer’, van Aubel works to promote energy efficiency through intelligent design; ‘Sunne’ employs technology developed in collaboration with Dutch energy research centre ECN.

At first glance, her design couldn’t be simpler: an elongated panel, shaped like the horizon, is designed to hang on a window and capture sunlight during the day. Behind the scenes, a pattern of solar cells captures sunlight and recreates its intensity with three settings. ‘I love this moment where we can see the last bit of the sun before it sinks down under the horizon and that is what you can see in the light – imitating different states of the sun during one full day,’ she says. The lamp is the first in a range of solar-powered products for the home that van Aubel is developing.

Key features: a solar-powered lamp that recreates the different stages of the sun, from sunrise to sunset

marjanvanaubel.com

Read the full story here.

JOINT WINNER

Space of Mind cabin, by Studio Puisto, Made by Choice and Protos Demos

A collaboration between architects Studio Puisto, design company Made by Choice and interiors manufacturer Protos Demos, Space of Mind is a contemporary modular Finnish cabin, light enough to transport and install even in the remotest locations. ‘Space of Mind is a modern cabin that acts as a dedicated space to think, recharge and unwind – somewhere we can find our own peace of mind,’ explain the team.

A clean, minimalist, contemporary design, the cabin is made as a mass timber construction using ecologically sourced Finnish wood. At just under 10 sq m, the compact space comes with its own custom furniture that attaches to the wooden structure. ‘As a concept, Space of Mind was initially developed in response to the ongoing pandemic,’ say the team. Yet it could be easily applicable to several post-pandemic scenarios, and would make the perfect atelier, yoga studio or guest bedroom. 

Key features: a sustainable wooden cabin design with custom furniture, offering flexibility and that coveted extra space to breathe

studiopuisto.fi; madebychoice.com; protosdemos.com

Read the full story here.

SHORTLIST

‘Masuku One’ face mask, by Pentatonic and Natalia Vodianova, for Masuku

Design firm Pentatonic and entrepreneur and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova’s new Masuku brand focuses on producing innovative and sustainable face masks with a perfect fit. Named after the Japanese word for ‘mask’ and initially devised as an anti-pollution mask, the project has acquired new urgency during the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘Masuku One’ features a sharp and colourful ‘spacer mesh’ fabric cover in 100 per cent recycled performance polymer, as well as a high-end compostable filtration membrane – made in the new state-of-the-art AirLab in Yorkshire, UK – that uses over 100 times less filtration material by weight than common mask filters.

Every material is either bio-based or recyclable at the end of its life. ‘Between the fit and comfort, filtration and breathability, we created a mask that you can wear for many hours a day without undue inconvenience,’ says Pentatonic co-founder Johann Boedecker. Vodianova concludes: ‘Our masks offer a truly safe and comfortable breathing experience, with no impact on the planet.’

Key features: a comfortable, sustainable face mask combining cutting-edge technological innovation and a sleek design

pentatonic.com; masuku.com

Gardenwear capsule collection by Fiskars by Maria Korkeila

A collaboration between the Finnish home tools icon Fiskars and fashion designer Maria Korkeila, this 11-piece capsule collection re-envisions traditional gardenwear through the lens of the brand’s Nordic design heritage. Made from organic and recycled materials, along with some vegan leather, the collection – Fiskars’ first foray into fashion – blends functionality with a cool streetwear aesthetic.

Korkeila, who works as a fashion and textile designer in Paris and Helsinki, has fused her flair for handcrafted punk aesthetics with rich textures, nature-inspired prints and colours. The styles range from a water-repellent coat with removable hood and sleeves, to a gardening apron that boasts tear and abrasion-resistant pockets. ‘The collection found its roots in Fiskars’ immensely rich history,’ says Korkeila, ‘as well as in the activity of gardening itself, and the different positions you would take while working in the garden.’

Key features: a unisex and functional gardenwear collection with a cool streetwear aesthetic, made from recycled and organic materials

fiskarsgardenwear.com; mariakorkeila.com

‘Second skin’ gift packaging by Ruinart, James Cropper and Pusteria 1880

Champagne house Ruinart’s ‘Second Skin’ is a recyclable casing made entirely from pulped paper that mimics the memorable curves of the champagne bottle. It reflects two years of research by Ruinart, English paper manufacturer James Cropper and Italian packaging specialist Pusterla 1880. Colourform, a thermoformed packaging solution launched by James Cropper in 2017, has been made more opaque to protect the champagne from light exposure, and moisture-resistant so that it is able to withstand several hours in a bucket of ice. Designed as a single piece, it locks together satisfyingly by way of a snap button, recalling the white napkin that maîtres d’hôtels wrap around champagne bottles.

Its impressive sustainability credentials include using only cellulose harvested from FSC- or PEFC-certified forests, and reducing the carbon footprint by 60 per cent compared to traditional gift boxes. Unusually, Ruinart has not sought to patent its design, in the hope that it will kickstart a revolution in industry practices.

Key features: an unpatented, beautifully designed, sustainable gift packaging protecting champagne from light and moisture

ruinart.com; jamescropper.com; pusterla1880.com

INFORMATION

The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 feature in the February 2022 issue of Wallpaper*. Subscribe today!

Het Nieuwe Instituut's newly appointed general and artistic director Aric Chen feels excited about the future. The architecture and design curator, and long-term Wallpaper* contributor, was based in Shanghai when the offer to take the helm of Rotterdam's seminal architecture, design and digital culture organisation came up. ‘I'd been in China for 13 years at the time, and I was very contented and happy, so I wasn’t really looking,' he says. ‘But this came up; it was just an irresistible opportunity. For me Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI) is an institution that is unique in the world, in its multidisciplinarity, covering architecture, design and digital culture as well as having a historical collection.' After a soft start in May 2021, he relocated and kicked off his tenure fully this September, heralding an exciting new era for the institute, the city, Dutch architecture and beyond. 

‘Rotterdam is a can-do city, and the institute is a can-do place too,' he says. And given the cultural organisation's recent internal changes, there was lots of scope to try out new things (HNI absorbed what used to be the Netherlands Architecture Institute – moving into its headquarters in 2013 – as well as Premsela, Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, and the Virtueel Platform, a knowledge institute for e-culture). ‘The institute has the possibility to experiment and start anew,' adds Chen. 

Chen is keen to maintain the institute's strong reputation for research and critical thinking, and expand it. ‘I’d like to see if we can take it a little further, exploring the interdisciplinarity and even shifting the emphasis from thinking to doing. I’d like to push us to become even more of a testing ground and put words to actions – in a way that only a cultural institution can,' he explains. 

A case in point is his plans for the HNI’s shop, which is currently in redevelopment. Chen questions the role of consumption in the current era, challenging its purpose and perception, asking how our consumption habits are contributing to the problems the world currently faces. ‘A lot of younger designers are proposing new models that cause less social and environmental damage,' he says. The new shop is set to not only offer products that are better suited to our times, but also challenge the whole way of operating a store, in order to test, along with thinkers and consultants in the field, ‘where the friction is'. Plans will be revealed next year.

More is yet to come. Zoöp is another ongoing research project at HNI, a practice-based investigation ‘into the design and application of a new kind of legal format for collaboration between humans and collective bodies of nonhumans, in order to support ecological regeneration'. This is linked to plans to reveal a new garden for HNI's home, which is currently being transformed around the principles of multi-species urbanism. Other plans include a global architecture summit at HNI in 2022; the first ever solar biennale (aiming to ‘shed light on solar futures and technologies'); as well as constant efforts to find ways to ‘make our own building more sustainable', Chen adds. 

For now, the institute is celebrating the opening of its show on architects MVRDV's archive – ‘MVRDVHNI: The Living Archive of a Studio'. Timed to open with the official launch of the Boijmans Depot, the multimedia exhibition explores the world renowned Dutch practice's archive, which the organisation holds (including some 400 items, from its inception up to 2015). Chen hopes that the immersive show invites visitors to discuss different perspectives and look and learn from the prolific studio's body of work – organised here under three thematic sections, Human, Green, and Dream. 

Rethinking and reframing HNI’s existing collections, as well as exploring new practices and actions seems to be at the heart of Chen's vision for the dynamic organisation. ‘It is about rethinking our past, revisiting the archive, expanding, telling different narratives, innovating the past and the future,' he says. We can't wait.

INFORMATION

hetnieuweinstituut.nl

Impact on people, nature, and society: these are the criteria that guided the jury for the Dutch Design Awards 2021, announced in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week (until 24 October). The eight winners, the judges wrote in a statement, ‘mark a new impetus for the design world with a lot of innovation and the power to change. This year’s winners underline that designers thrive on change and cross-pollination and radiate hopeful optimism.’

Dutch Design Awards 2021 winners

The Dutch Design Awards are split into eight categories, covering creative disciplines from product design to fashion and graphics. 

The winner of the product design category was Borre Akkersdijk, founder of innovative textile label Byborre, for his Byborre Create project. The initiative consists of an accessible tool and platform that simplifies textile design for customers, preventing textile waste and allowing freedom of creation. ‘ByBorre Create makes clear that an intrinsic problem in textile production can be solved, while at the same time paving the way for greater innovation,’ said the jury. 

The award in the communication category went to Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn for their ‘Stay Sane, Stay Safe’ campaign, developed at the start of the pandemic as an open platform for users to upload, download, print or share posters. The project so far has gathered 2,200 posters from 87 countries, and was described as ‘an outlet for designers and everyone who could use a little support’. The initiative, the jury said, ‘shows just how valuable the reactive role of designers can be on the zeitgeist’.

The Marker Wadden (an artificial archipelago developed within lake Markermeer) won the prize in the habitat category, as ‘an urgent and exemplary project; an impressive, non-human oriented approach that largely leaves nature to shape the landscape’. The newly developed nature reserve was developed with nature itself, and consists of five islands with

marshlands and shallow water protected by two rows of dunes, with the aim of recovering the ecology and biodiversity of the area. 

Created by Raw Color, Popma ter Steege Architects, and Buro Bordo, the Circulair Warenhuis is a project in collaboration with the Netherlands' largest secondhand department store, created to explore new ways of reusing everyday objects in collaboration with leading designers such as Max Lipsey and Studio Makkink & Bey. The project involved over three million kilos of goods from the store, which were then repurposed into scalable furniture designs. ‘This is the application of design in its broadest sense,’ reads a statement from the nominating jury. ‘The Circulair Warenhuis is not based only on a few products or pre-conceived flavour formulas, but is all about a diversity of input, processes and possible outcomes. It encourages a varied approach to tackling waste flows and making them relevant.’

Other awards include Affect Lab’s Good Neighbours, a timely project exploring community building; Leela, a beta test of a new digital fashion platform by digital fashion house The Fabricant; and Globalance World, a project commissioned by Swiss private bank Globalance that demonstrates the global impact of investments (hence dubbed ‘a Google Earth for Investors’).

Dutch Design Awards Young Designer 2021

The Dutch Design Awards’ Young Designer accolade was awarded to Audrey Large, whose 3D-printed sculptural works are the result of extensive research into digital cinema and image theory. The French designer combines animation and 3D software to create her colourful abstract objects, merging techniques, function and the viewer’s perception. ‘Audrey Large sits atop the zeitgeist with the new visual language she creates,’ said the jury. ‘She makes tangible the blurring of boundaries between the digital and the physical.’

INFORMATION

dutchdesignawards.nl

Dutch Design Week returns to Eindhoven (16 – 24 October 2021), with a city-wide programme of events, exhibitions and initiatives that mark its 20th anniversary. This edition’s theme, ‘The Great Number’, responds to humanity's addiction to growth. Divided into four sub-themes, projects explore the topic through ideas, research products and proposals. 

Dutch Design Week 2021: The Great Number

The event’s 2021 theme is inspired by Italian architect and designer Giancarlo De Carlo, who coined the phrase for the 1968 Milan Triennale, which he curated. For that event, the theme was chosen to ‘raise the issue of the world's population rise, the conquests of modern science, and the discrepancy between Western abundance and poverty in the Third World’. The exhibition was destroyed a few days after its opening, by a group of students who had joined that year’s Europe-wide protests and saw the Milanese institution as the ‘epitome of elitism’.

The subject is still very current in 2021: ‘With this theme, on the one hand [we] call for less,’ reads a statement introducing Dutch Design Week 2021. ‘Less consumption, less production, and therefore less waste. On the other hand, we know less isn't always possible and that when it comes to more, it should be better.’

With this premise, designers and creatives were invited to think about the current state of the world, and consider the pandemic as well as themes such as the climate crisis, inclusivity and wellbeing. ‘Designers want to make a difference: thinking about fully circular products, introducing new forms of local production, or designing products that make consumers think about the product's use and true value,’ continues the statement. ‘Designers are critical in this exploratory, experimental phase. They can use their imagination to design a changing society.’

Dutch Design Week 2021 Ambassadors

Floris Alkemade, Natsai Audrey Chieza, and Christien Meindertsma have been named ambassadors for Dutch Design Week 2021. Each will develop a unique project for this year's event, offering a personal interpretation of  ‘The Greater Number’. Every year, key figures from the design field are enlisted as advocates for design and take on the role of Design Ambassadors with specially curated projects in Eindhoven. According to the Dutch Design Foundation, ‘the appointed trio represents the modern and most urgent voices of the design field of today and the future like none other’.

Design destinations to discover in Eindhoven

‘Between No-Longer and Not-Yet’ at Kazerne

Kazerne's 2,000 sq m exhibition space is set within former military barracks connected to an industrial warehouse, and the spaces will be showcasing design talent under the title ‘Between No-Longer and Not-Yet’, featuring work by Adaptism, Jet and Pieke Bergmans, Social Label, Giulia Pompilj, Edward van Vliet, and Teun Zwets, among others. Beyond the design week events, Kazerne is an unmissable design destination in its own right, home to eight luxury hotel rooms, a design shop and two restaurants, making it the perfect destination in the city. 

Paradijslaan 8

Dutch Invertuals

Dutch Invertuals and The Future Laboratory joined forces to explore how design can foster Equilibrium Cities: ‘future urban zones where collective ownership, fluid identities and nature are empowered to thrive’. The project combines the Future Laboratory's forecasting expertise with Dutch Invertuals' power to imagine and build on these ideas. 'We need to rethink our relationship with objects and our role as designers within our society,' says Dutch Invertuals design director Wendy Plomp. The pieces in the exhibition include Johanna Seelemann's ‘Hortulanus’, taking into consideration maintenance, change and decay of our daily objects through nature-centric technologies and production materials, and Wen Zhan's concept of ‘undesign’ developed through a series of street furniture objects made from found materials from the streets of Hong Kong.

Fuutlaan 12B

Piet Hein Eek’s factory and hotel

Piet Hein Eek’s creative destination is a must-visit in Eindhoven. His studio-factory is open to visit, with a restaurant, shop and showroom that allow guests to delve deeper into the Dutch designer’s universe. Since October 2021, he extended his reach with a hotel (located in the same block as his factory, housed within an old Philips ceramics workshop), featuring some of his signature design motifs and produced in collaboration with local creatives including Studio Rens and Teun Zwets

Factory: Halvemaanstraat 30
Hotel: Beeldbuisring 201

‘Meanwhile’ by Kiki & Joost 

Designers Kiki Van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk present a show that reflects the optimism and healing qualities of the making and creative processes. ‘The exhibition is a joyful and energetic presentation of our one-off pieces,’ they say. Called ‘Meanwhile’, it includes new collections for Maison Dada and Moooi, an installation for the Queen of Hearts Foundation, and the results of a design residency at Cor Unum.

Gabriël Metsulaan 1

Van Abbemuseum

Eindhoven's contemporary art museum hosts ‘Budget Airlines’ (until 14 November 2021), a project by the Geo-Design exhibition platform in collaboration with Design Academy Eindhoven. The exhibition explores the impact of budget airlines globally, on humans, the environment, politics and the social climate. ‘Over the past three decades, the airline industry has undergone dramatic change as a result of the tactics and mechanisms behind these low-cost carriers,’ say curators Martina Muzi, Joseph Grima, who gathered proposals through an open call to Design Academy alumni to develop the project. 

Stratumsedijk 2

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduate Show

Design Academy Eindhoven's graduate show is among the unmissable highlights of Dutch Design Week, showcasing work from graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. This year's iteration includes the first edition of the Critical Diversity Conference, addressing topics of diversity and inclusivity within art and design education.

Beursgebouw, Lardinoisstraat 10

INFORMATION

Dutch Design Week takes place from 16 to 24 October 2021
ddw.nl

Installation view of ‘10 Years Muller Van Severen’, celebrating the studio's decade in design, until 6 March 2022 at Design Museum Ghent. The exhibition features work from the studio's history as well as a curated selection from the museum displays and archives. Piece pictured above include a rug by Muller Van Severen for Ashtari, a table by Jean Prouvé, and a black chair by Maarten Van Severen

Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen started their collaboration in 2011, coming from backgrounds in photography and sculpture respectively. In this time, they have crafted a visual style based on the juxtaposition of colour and material, a unique language that has placed them among the strongest figures in the contemporary design panorama. A new exhibition at Design Museum Ghent in the pair’s hometown (until 6 March 2022), titled ‘10 Years Muller Van Severen’ celebrates the past decade of creative collaboration, and invites the designers to share their vision through a curated display of pieces from the museum’s archives. 

Muller Van Severen: ten years of design

Muller Van Severen made its design debut at Antwerp’s Valerie Traan Gallery in 2011. The collection on display, simply titled ‘A Furniture Project’, featured pieces that combined what have since become known as some of the studio’s signature elements. The furniture was designed as mini-landscapes featuring tables, lighting and shelves in bold colours and essential shapes. ‘When the gallery asked us to collaborate we were in the throes of renovating our house and were in need of several things, including a light above our dining table,’ recall the designers. ‘One of our first solutions was to design a table with the table-leg extending and merging into a cantilever lamp. From this first design, a whole family of functional objects emerged. We are still very happy and thankful with this beneficial turn of events.’ 

The visual language of this furniture debut was further developed through several exhibitions, with the addition of seating and interlocking furniture functions into each piece, combining rigorous steel frames with the curved leather or textile seats and colourful surfaces of tables and shelves. The duo’s unique colour sensibility was developed over a series of palettes that have since become a signature chromatic touch for Muller Van Severen, making their work instantly recognisable. A defining moment for the studio was the meeting with Clémence and Didier Krzentowski of Galerie Kreo, in 2013. ‘They saw our work and immediately wanted to work with us: we discovered that we were appreciated at a high level,’ they say. 

Over the past decade, Muller Van Severen has added its unique approach to colour, shape and material to traditional household objects such as cutlery, salt and pepper shakers, rugs, mirrors, cutting boards and shelves; the duo also designed a kitchen for Reform (winner of Best Domestic Design at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2020) as well as furniture and objects for Hay and a sofa for Kassl Editions. 

Muller Van Severen at Design Museum Ghent

Within the setting of Design Museum Ghent’s historic Hotel de Coninck, the designers present key pieces from their studio’s history, and photographs and sculptures created before 2011. Designs on display range from the wire furniture originally created for Office KGDVS’ Solo Houses development to the ‘Alltubes’ collection, whose design is defined by a repetition of aluminium tubes creating a motif adapted for different forms of seating and cabinets. 

These designs are placed in conversation with the museum’s collections, with a hundred pieces from the archives shown alongside Muller Van Severen’s works. Presented through a large, site-specific architectural installation by the duo, made using colourful paper to define the space, the curation includes pieces by Alvar Aalto, Ron Arad, Marc Newson, Studio Alchimia, Marcel Breuer and more. Each piece in the exhibition was specially selected by the designers with a ‘kindred spirit approach’, and the connections between the modern designs and their creative attitude are evident throughout. 

Among the pieces on display, the designers explain, they feel particularly close to Huub Hoste’s designs. The Belgian architect’s work was influenced by Dutch modernism and De Stijl, and the pieces in the exhibition include a cabinet created in 1926 for the Geerardyn residence in Bruges, consisting in a composition of yellow and green geometries. ‘The cupboard is a very inspiring work,’ say the designers. ‘The handling in form and colour and the direct appearance of it is related to our work.’

The exhibition is accompanied by a book titled Muller Van Severen: Dialogue, published by Walther König and exploring the studio’s creative DNA through contributions by Jan Boelen, Beatrice Galilee, Arno Brandlhuber and Sam Chermayeff. 

‘After a ten-year interval, we are staging our first major exhibition in our home city of Ghent: we are bringing our work back home,’ say the designers. ‘[It’s] a great way to make it more tangible here.’

INFORMATION

‘10 Years Muller Van Severen’ is on view until 6 March 2022
designmuseumgent.be
mullervanseveren.be

ADDRESS

Jan Breydelstraat 5
9000 Gent
Belgium

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Over the last 60 years, Michael Craig-Martin has documented the evolution of objects that have defined our lives. The Irish-born artist, who has just turned 80, will soon unveil his first solo exhibition The Netherlands at Reflex Amsterdam, turning his attention to the most recent additions to our visual vocabulary. 

The Dublin-born artist spent his formative years in the US. He moved to London in the 1960s and began taking the conceptual art world by storm with his majestic take on the mundane. As a tutor at Goldsmiths in the 1980s, he had a searing influence on the then-fledgling Young British Artists, including Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas, and Damien Hirst. 

In the 1990s, the artist pivoted to painting, but his powder-coated steel sculptures – bold-coloured, linear structures that appear like drawings in mid-air – remain an instantly recognisable facet of his work. Fountain Pen (2019), recently installed outside the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, imbues an object synonymous with function with a sense of regal grandeur.

‘All Things Considered’ at Reflex Amsterdam features paintings from the last six years alongside new works. Mostly in 2020, these works emphasise our new over-familiarity with our domestic spaces and the intimacy of household consumer objects. Among his subjects are a bunch of blue bananas, an Apple Watch, and a coffee cup, all reduced to bold, minimal, exacting lines and reimagined in all-consuming planes of colour. 

‘I am always looking for new things to draw and several objects quickly took on a new importance: masks, bottles of sanitising gel, and our laptops’, says Craig-Martin, who created the majority of these new works in 2020. ‘Those objects, but especially the mask, will, in future, immediately recall these times for all who lived through them.’

The paintings are not rendered on canvas, as one might readily assume, but aluminium. ‘There are many attractions about canvas, but for my work, aluminium makes obvious sense. My paintings are made using tape and small rollers, both of which require a surface that resists (which canvas does not do)', he explains. ‘Painting on aluminium allows me to see exactly what I am doing and work directly.’

‘The paintings always start with drawings. I make drawings of individual objects directly on the computer with the mouse. I never make one of these drawings with a particular work in mind. I simply add it to my now vast compendium of such images for possible future use,’ he says. ‘Because of the precise nature of my work, changes when painting are difficult and sometimes impossible. The spontaneity in their creation takes place in the planning which again is all done on the computer. It is a wonderfully flexible tool.’

This bold replication of the ‘things’ that accompany our newly-altered world feels profound; yet the exhibition title, ‘All Things Considered’ feels optimistic. Craig-Martin has turned objects of necessity, banality and consumer culture into luscious, candy-coloured objects of desire.

INFORMATION

Michael Craig-Martin, ’All Things Considered’, 2 October - 15 December 2021, Reflex Amsterdam. reflexamsterdam.com

ADDRESS

Weteringschans 79A
1017 RX Amsterdam

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Daniel Libeskind and Studio Libeskind have just unveiled the National Holocaust Memorial of Names in Amsterdam, a powerful design shaped by reflective volumes and dramatic geometries. The piece, commissioned by Dutch Auschwitz Committee (Nederlands Auschwitz Comité), aims to commemorate the Dutch Jews, Sinti and Roma who were murdered during the Holocaust, and the names of more than 102,000 victims are engraved on the brick plinths’ walls. 

The project is defined by a labyrinth of passages. This is created by a series of relatively low brick volumes arranged at different angles. They support four mirrored architecture pieces clad in stainless steel sheets, each forming a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and together forming a word that translates as ‘In memory of’. While the word can be only fully read from above, the striking composition creates a powerful dialogue with its surroundings, reflecting buildings, light and passers-by and drawing them into the composition. 

The memorial sits in the city's Weesperstraat, covering a generous 1,700 sq m, and is open to all, featuring landscaping and seating areas designed by Studio Libeskind in cooperation with Rijnboutt (also the local architect of record). The site was carefully selected and sits within the Jewish Cultural Quarter. It is adjacent to the Hermitage Museum, and just a stone’s throw from the Amstel River and its Jewish community and landmarks. The use of brick on the structure reflects the local urban fabric. 

‘The Dutch lost the largest percentage of their Jewish population in the Holocaust,’ says Libeskind. ‘The National Holocaust Memorial of Names is the first Holocaust memorial to commemorate the Dutch victims and the first of its kind in Amsterdam. My personal connection as a child of Holocaust survivors has made it increasingly important to be a part of this significant project. I hope it will become a place for contemplation, hope, and an important reminder to fight hate in all its forms for the people of the Netherlands and beyond.’ 

This important memorial is officially inaugurated on 19 September 2021.

INFORMATION

libeskind.com

In the early 16th century, the aristocratic family of Thurn und Taxis bought a 45-hectare parcel of marshy land on the then-outskirts of Brussels. They had been appointed postmasters by Philip the Fair, the Duke of Burgundy, and held a similar position for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Their acquisition would become the centre of Europe’s first international postal service, a Thurn und Taxis enterprise connecting the Spanish Netherlands, Burgundy and Spain with the rest of Europe. The road that crossed the site’s collection of industrial buildings and horse-feeding pastures took the family name, translated into French as Tour et Taxis, giving birth to the district of Tour & Taxis.

By the beginning of the 20th century, it had evolved into a busy logistical ecosystem; goods arrived via train and canal and from there, they were dispatched. Everything passed customs and registration at the Gare Maritime, the complex’s central station. Unfortunately, with the arrival of the EU Customs Union, and later the Schengen Area, customs gradually became irrelevant and the operation obsolete. Tour & Taxis remained disused for 20 years until it was bought by local private developer Extensa in 2001.

Since then, Tour & Taxis has been undergoing something of a reimagining, swapping logistical revolution for sustainability as it seeks to reinvent itself as an eco-friendly district. The area, situated by the Brussels canal and just to the north-west of the Belgian capital’s centre, currently mostly consists of large converted warehouses and offices of brick, iron and glass next to the magnificent, historic, castiron-frame freight station. Extensa’s vision is anchored in the refurbishment of the existing historic buildings to ‘return Brussels’ heritage’ to its inhabitants, as well as a few new-builds. The first renovations and completions started opening in 2005. The aim is to create an eco-led, mixed-use district by restoring as many existing buildings as possible and introducing renewable-energy and energy-saving technologies.

The district’s industrial heritage means that most of the existing buildings are characterised by large volumes, so are well suited to become event spaces and offices. One of the first buildings to open in 2005, the Sheds – a sawtooth storage warehouse designed in 1903 by Ernest Van Humbeeck and reimagined for Extensa by local studio Archi 2000 – has four event spaces, accommodating 10,000 guests each, while Maison de la Poste – a 1904 Frédéric Bruneel building renovated by architects Altiplan in 2019 – is now a conference centre consisting of 15 event spaces that showcase its carefully restored industrial architecture. There are galleries in the refreshed Hôtel des Douanes (a 1907 building also by Van Humbeeck) and more are to come, repurposing the remaining historic buildings in the area. Meanwhile, the few new-builds on site include offices by Neutelings Riedijk (a project that is currently the largest Passivhaus scheme in Belgium), Cepezed, and Samyn and Partners.

The district’s flagship building is the Gare Maritime, whose architectural works were completed in autumn 2020. The retail and food hall within are scheduled to launch in September 2021, marking an important landmark in the area’s redevelopment. At around 45,000 sq m, it was Europe’s largest freight train station at the beginning of the 20th century. The building has now been refreshed, and 12 new cross-laminated timber (CLT) pavilions have been added within.

Gare Maritime is the area’s commercial heart, housing hospitality, shops and offices. It has been carefully restored and redesigned by a team consisting of architects Neutelings Riedijk, Bureau Bouwtechniek and JDMA, and engineers Ney & Partners and Boydens. One of the key design drivers was adherence to the circular economy, salvaging existing materials but also making sure that all interventions are both light-touch and demountable. It boasts the largest CLT structure in Europe and the building is energy neutral. Gardens, designed by landscape architects Omgeving, help regulate the internal temperature and are watered using the rainwater harvesting system.

Additionally, the site uses geothermal heat and 17,200 sq m of photovoltaics on the roof, marking the biggest move to solar energy in the capital. The developers are even bringing a tram line to the area by creating a new bridge over the canal (the water created a barrier that had so far been an obstacle in bringing public transport to this part of town). This, and the fact that many of the streets in Tour & Taxis are pedestrianised, means car use will be discouraged, although there will be underground parking space.

A number of apartment buildings are currently in construction. They are the start to what Kris Verhellen, Extensa’s CEO, hopes is a whole new residential neighbourhood, called Park Lane. Verhellen is acutely aware of the inevitable gentrification of the neighbouring area of Molenbeek, which has a sizable Maghrebi immigrant population. He talks about the scheme’s tax contribution and the state’s responsibility to create an economic system where immigrants aren’t priced out. While the scheme’s sustainability credentials are undeniable, one wonders whether more could be done to ensure links are created to existing communities.

It is true that some of the residential offerings will be rent-capped so that they remain affordable, while future plans include a school and a retirement home. A nine-hectare publicly accessible park, currently in construction, will include a community farm and a garden in an expanse of green that connects the site to the canal, making it one of the biggest parks in Brussels.

Do these interventions go deep enough into the fabric of the existing local community to engage them with the scheme in a meaningful way? Could more be done? One thing is for certain; if Tour & Taxis does deliver, it will provide a precedent of reuse and eco-friendly redevelopment that can be used in other historic settings. Which is exactly why it is important to ensure that social balance takes the same priority as environmental, as it has become increasingly clear that they are inseparable in the quest for sustainability.

INFORMATION

tour-taxis.com

Located on the beautiful North Sea island of Texel, off the Dutch coast, the compact but sculptural Holiday Home is nestled among trees. The work of Rotterdam-based studio Orange Architects, the seemingly monolithic yet carefully articulated, timber-clad volume is at one with its leafy surroundings, while cutting a sharp architectural figure. Add sustainable architecture to the mix, and this boutique escape becomes the perfect contemporary retreat. 

The exterior skin is dark, while the timber takes on a natural, lighter colour indoors, transforming the mysterious shell into a warm, welcoming interior. Large glazed expanses open the house up to its environment – especially in the main, double-height living space, which feels designed to be fully orientated towards the outdoors. Its large glass doors open up to a decked terrace that is sheltered and feels parts of the house's overall volume but is perfectly positioned to connect residents with the surroundings. 

‘We believe that a holiday home is not like any other residential villa,' the architects explain. ‘A holiday is a break from our daily routine, and so is the holiday home that accommodates it. That is why we designed the space of the holiday home around the way we want to spend our time off. During a holiday people tend to spend more time together and there is less need for private spaces. So we optimised the connection of the house to its surroundings and maximised all the spaces inside, allowing most of them to accommodate two functions.’

Holiday Home’s clever internal arrangement reflects this thinking. An open-plan living area wraps around a timber structure inside, which contains and cocoons the sleeping areas, while allowing the rest of the interior to be open and flowing. Wooden panels in this internal structure can open or shut to divide areas or open them up. 

Sustainable solutions were applied throughout, including almost invisible solar panels on the roof, natural ventilation, and appropriate insulation on roof, walls and windows. Flexibility, sustainability and a strong sculptural aesthetic come together in this small but perfectly formed retreat.

INFORMATION
orangearchitects.nl

On average, most international museums only show six to seven per cent of their collections to the public at any one time. The rest is often off-site and hidden from view, tucked away in closed depots. The new Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, designed by architecture firm MVRDV, is bucking this trend, making 99 per cent of its building accessible to the public and the entire collection of the neighbouring Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – some 151,000 artefacts – available for viewing, even as they are stored.

Technological innovation was key to this bold move, says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. ‘We put technology on the same level as sociology, ecology and economics,’ he says. ‘Innovations and achievements in all these aspects are equally important.’ Indeed, the Depot’s ovoid, monolithic appearance belies the most sophisticated engineering. The 39.5m-high, bowl-shaped structure is 40m in diameter at the bottom and 60m at the top, and its overhanging part has no direct supports. Additionally, the openings, including the visitors’ entrance, and the entrance and exit for the exhibitions, create weak points on the ground floor. The task, therefore, was to come up with a design in which the lowest (and narrowest) part of the building could withstand the high load from above. 

The solution lay in the foundations: the first two floors were made from concrete poured in situ, functioning as a structurally solid plinth upon which the building’s remaining four storeys could be constructed. These upper floors are made from prefabricated concrete elements. Below ground, the architects were keen to keep the foundation work strong but also as discreet as possible, to avoid obstructing the natural flow of underground water. ‘The foundation piles of the Depot are kept limited and narrow. We trialled this with our design for the Oslo headquarters of the Norwegian bank DNB, where we guaranteed that water could flow through subterraneously using the same principle,’ says Maas. ‘It is important for the environment that no blockage is created by underground parking garages, metro lines and so on.’ 

Covered by 1,664 mirrored glass panels, the 6,609 sq m façade appears to multiply the green scenery of the surrounding Museumpark. A number of different types of glass were used, including standard reflective glass; reflective glass with a film coating, which is used opposite the Erasmus medical centre to safeguard the patients’ privacy; transparent glass for work spaces that need more daylight; and a type of gradient glass that goes from mirror to fully transparent for the entrances and the roof, so that visitors can enjoy the long views from inside, too. The curvature of the glass panels was another challenge. ‘Most of the panels had to go in the oven two or three times to gain the perfect shape. It was a labour-intensive process,’ says Maas. 

The experimentation did not end there. On the roof are 75 birch trees, each several metres high, in an architectural garden. ‘We started growing them in the south of the Netherlands. By keeping the water level just beneath the surface, we trained them to grow their roots horizontally. When we moved them from the nursery, we knotted the roots together, then spread them out on the rooftop, as the overlapping of the roots creates a strong structure,’ says Maas. ‘Growing them was a simple but lengthy process; it took five years.’ The bowl shape means that the building has a limited footprint on the ground floor, while the roof is roomier, also offering wider views over the Museumpark and the city beyond.

To ensure energy efficiency, MVRDV installed underground thermal storage for climate control, solar panels, LED lighting and high-performance insulation. Rainwater is stored for use in irrigation and the toilet facilities, while the remaining water run-off is directed into a neighbouring pond (belonging to Het Nieuw Instituut), which will be converted into a water basin for the surroundings. 

Maas also invited other creatives to contribute to the project. The ground floor comprises two half-moon shaped spaces; one of them contains the entrance hall and the other a loading dock. They are separated by glass. Artist John Körmeling took advantage of the high ceiling here to create a mezzanine, so visitors can watch art handlers at work on the other side of the transparent wall. Amsterdam-based design firm Concrete created a mobile table system for the rooftop restaurant, which means it can be transformed into a gallery or performance space at any time. Artist and photographer Marieke van Diemen designed the atrium’s 13 floating glass display cases: when an artwork is removed from storage, it will immediately be put into a case for protection, but will still be on view. ‘We developed a system where you can see the exhibits at all angles; you can even walk on top of them, or see them below from the glass bridges,’ says Maas.   

There will be storage depots on floors one to five, the education centre will be on the second, galleries on the third and fourth, and the Stichting De Verre Bergen suite (named after Rotterdam’s social investment fund, which covered the building cost of the Depot alongside the City Council) on the fifth. The atrium occupies the central space on all floors and its crisscrossing staircases lead visitors through various public areas, all the way up to the rooftop. Each atrium staircase will have a landing exactly in the centre of the building, allowing visitors a panoramic view from the heart of the Depot. 

An architectural marvel and a landmark for the city of Rotterdam, the Depot marks a new wave of urban development in Europe's largest seaport. The next few years will see the unveiling of MVRDV’s Harbour Experience Centre, the Feyenoord Stadium by OMA, and the Fenix Museum of Migration by MAD Architects, to name a few. As one of the draughtsmen of the city’s bold architecture statements, Maas calls it ‘a kind of laboratory’. ‘Innovations are allowed in Rotterdam,’ he says. ‘The process has actually been going on for 50 years and we have made a very beautiful collection of urban interventions; here you see the experiments of our time.’

INFORMATION

 mvrdv.nl; boijmans.nl 

We have items of clothing in our wardrobes that we reserve for specific locations: a fluid white cotton dress that's fit only for white-sanded shorelines; a tweed blazer that's strictly for the countryside; a snuggly Aran-knit jumper that's saved for self-care in a remote house without Wi-Fi. These pieces have the power to transform us, evolve our character, create personal metamorpohosis through material. When May Kaan was concepting her fledgling womenswear label Francon Editions, this idea was front and centre. ‘I thought it would be interesting to place focus on settings rather than seasons,' she says. ‘I thought a lot about when architects take on a job. They always think about context, environment, how a building is going to be used.'

For Francon Editions’ debut collection – which is available to pre-order – May had a specific archetypal building in mind: the lake house near Rotterdam that she owns with her co-founder and architect husband Kees Kaan, of KAAN Architecten. ‘I dress completely differently there than in the city,' Kaan says. ‘We often have guests to stay, so sometimes I want to show off a little more than, say, when I'm in the office.’

There's an easy elegance to the resulting Lake House collection, dreamt up in collaboration with Francon Editions’ head of design Fira Rietveld, who has worked at The Row and Calvin Klein. Think pieces which are exquisitely well-suited to an evening lounging by an open fire or for flaunting around a swimming pool: a satin jacquard kimono in fiery orange, etched with a hand-drawn floral print; wide-legged wool crepe trousers in frothy cappuccino; and a smocked sleeve shirt dress.

There's a dazzling sense of ‘dress up’ to the Rose jacket, a narrow woven jacquard silhouette with a relaxed zip fastening, its glittering botanical details inspired by the Dutch Astrantia major flower. The Saskia dress, a hybrid piece that can be styled alone or with trousers, for example, has 41 buttons that can be fastened according to personal taste. ‘You could open it very high and wear it with a swimsuit, or layer it with another piece,’ Kaan says. For cooler evenings, the brand's cosy fisherman's sweater has an elegant boat neck and dropped shoulder. 

For Francon Editions’ upcoming collections, May has a host of other archetypal architectural settings in mind: the tower, cabin, palazzo and chalet. ‘The concept behind “Tower” dressing is that you're leaving your home in the city in an outfit that needs to work all day, perhaps if you're going to the office and then to a cocktail party.’

When that way of life is back on the agenda, we know what we'll be sporting.

INFORMATION
francon-editions.com

A sleek, low-lying family house, Villa Santpoort is a Dutch villa set in the heart of a wooded plot in the north of Holland. Architecture studio DP6 was given a specific brief that demanded the architecture make the most of the views through the trees in this countryside design; yet without compromising natural light or privacy.

The resulting design is a long, narrow house with a kink in its plan, which allows the structure to embrace the woodland site and focus on a stand of mature beech trees. The accommodation is arranged over three levels, with a run of bedrooms located in a new basement dug into the ground. A master suite is set at the end of the plan overlooking a private courtyard area.

Upstairs, on the entrance level, the garden-facing façade is entirely glazed, creating a backdrop of shimmering foliage to the living spaces. Above it, the sloping upper volume is clad in timber and bamboo slats and incorporates the double-height volumes of the main living space, as well as a mezzanine area that provides an elevated view of the leafy surroundings.

The core of the house features a combination of exposed, finely detailed concrete and wooden paneling, creating the feeling of a solid, crafted piece of furniture. This is accentuated by the bespoke cabinetry and storage, from the kitchen to storage niches in the dining area and the master dressing room.

The double-height volume extends over the stairwell, kitchen, and main living spaces, while the low wooden ceilings give the dining room a more intimate character. The glazed garden façade opens up onto a wooden deck, seamlessly aligned with the house’s concrete superstructure. A pool is set within this deck, with the trees beyond filtering the sunlight and providing natural privacy.

At night, the glazed volume of the countryside villa design shines through the slender bamboo slats, creating a different spatial perception to its daytime form as a monolithic timber box. The meticulous interior and exterior finishes stand in stark contrast to the natural landscaping of the site, with high-quality exposed concrete paired with wooden joinery and large glazed panels set directly into the ground plane.

INFORMATION

DP6 architectuurstudio

A new solar light by Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel combines sustainability, technology and design to evoke the sun’s glow in an interior setting. It’s ‘a light mimicking the sun and powered by the sun’, she says.

Dubbing herself a ‘solar designer’, van Aubel works to promote energy efficiency through intelligent design. In 2015, she won the London Design Medal for Emerging Talent and has since collaborated with brands and institutions on research-based projects. Her ‘Sunne’ light employs technology developed in collaboration with Dutch energy research centre ECN.TNO. 

A solar light and the path to solar democracy

‘I believe in solar democracy: solar energy for everyone, everywhere,’ says the designer, whose goal was to make solar power accessible and part of everyday routines with a lamp that fits into the domestic space. 

At first glance, her design couldn’t be simpler: an elongated panel designed to hang on a window and capture sunlight during the day. Behind the scenes, a pattern of solar cells captures sunlight and recreates its intensity with three settings – ‘rise’, ‘light’ and ‘set’. 

The solar lamp, van Aubel explains, is inspired by the sun itself and the energy it provides. ‘We are receiving all this constant sunlight, but are not harvesting it (yet). I wanted to create an object that is autonomous and would power itself using the energy of the sun,’ she says. Her piece of solar design is shaped like the horizon. ‘The moment the sun goes down, the light in Sunne will start to glow. I love this moment where we can see the last bit of the sun before it sinks down under the horizon and that is what you can see in the light – imitating different states of the sun during one full day.’

The design process was defined by the technology concealed within the piece. van Aubel and her team had to find a balance between an aesthetically pleasing shape and a surface wide enough to fit the requisite solar cells for the lamp to function effectively. ‘What I like is that some technical elements can have a double function,’ says van Aubel. ‘For example, instead of adding a light sensor that reads when it is getting dark, the solar cell itself can work as a sensor.’

The ‘Sunne’ lamp is the first in a range of solar-powered products for the home that van Aubel is developing. Noting how solar energy is the most widely available energy source on Earth, she wants to find new design solutions to harness it, working with the available technology. ‘My view on solar energy is that it needs an update,’ she says. ‘I think that in the future all products should generate their own energy, and as designers it is our responsibility to build products or buildings for this future. My mission is to make this energy accessible for everyone, everywhere.’

INFORMATION

marjanvanaubel.com/sunne

Rotterdam and OMA have long been intertwined. The Dutch port city has been home to the celebrated architecture practice for over four decades now, and it is also co-founder Rem Koolhaas’ birthplace. Still, the architect didn’t spend a lot of time there until the 1980s. Instead, he followed a more international trajectory in his early years. His childhood was mostly divided between Amsterdam and Jakarta, and after graduating from the Architectural Association in London, he moved to New York to attend Cornell. His book, Delirious New York, published in 1978 to much acclaim, was a kind of love letter to the great American city, exploring its development as well as notions of urbanity and congestion that came to define his career.

OMA was established in 1975 between New York and London (by Koolhaas together with Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp) and by the time of the book’s publication, the architect was heading back to Europe. ‘I was in a strange position, as the book made me relatively well known, but I had never built anything,’ he admits. He decided to return to the Netherlands to pursue work; and if New York played a landmark role in making Koolhaas architecture’s favourite theorist, Rotterdam allowed him to build, to turn theory into practice.

Landing in Amsterdam in 1979, a meeting with a Rotterdam city councillor soon resulted in a ‘dream’ assignment – and one of the first big commission wins for OMA. ‘He was sitting in front of a map of Rotterdam and asked, “So, where do you want to build?” It was very generous. I saw a site on the river and the interesting thing about it was that it was very constrained on one side by water, on the other by a bridge, on a third side by a road and on the fourth by a building,’ says Koolhaas. He picked the site and started designing. The scheme was named Boompjes (‘little trees’ in Dutch) and mixed housing and workspace along the Maasboulevard. It marked the start of a long relationship between the port city and the architecture firm.

Rotterdam, devastated by bombing from both sides during the Second World War, presented a challenge and an opportunity for architects and planners in the second half of the 20th century – large parts of it had to be entirely rebuilt. This was also the reason Koolhaas chose it as his Dutch base in 1980, shortly after the Boompjes commission (two more schemes, the IJ-plein housing and a commissioned study for the possible renovation of the Koepel Panopticon Prison were also in the works in different parts of the country). ‘It made the city very fertile ground for architecture. I had more affinity and interest in Rotterdam. I started an office there almost on a hunch,’ he says. So, in the 1980s and early 1990s, the OMA headquarters was next door to the Boompjes’ plot and the water (a London office had opened in 1975, and Koolhaas and colleagues travelled back and forth as needed). 

Due to its geographical constraints, the Boompjes site could only be experienced in two ways: either passing by the road running parallel to the plot on ground level, or approaching it from across the River Maas via a bridge. These ‘unusually controlled’ views stimulated Koolhaas’ imagination and informed the design. This, combined with the fact that the city authorities allowed him great flexibility, meant the site was ripe for experimentation. ‘We made the design so that it was like an accordion. It could be spread wide or if you approached it from a single angle, you only saw a very narrow side,’ he says. 

The formal response reflects Koolhaas’ architectural preoccupations at the time. The design incorporates a series of five tall, lean highrises set against a horizontal slab placed at the top. Some vertical elements are perpendicular to the slab, others sit at an angle, while one is just slightly apart. The formation became a kind of urban screen, filtering light and framing views from the river to the city and the other way round. ‘Of course, I had written a book about New York, but I was actually much more interested in another typology, the slab,’ the architect points out. ‘Towers are the expression of capitalism and slabs are the main expression of socialism. In the 1980s, it was very interesting to try and create a hybrid shape. Boompjes is a hybrid.’  

The main artwork for the design, produced in 1982, is a silk-screen rendering created by Koolhaas with Italian architect Stefano de Martino, and can still be found in the practice’s archives. It is a triptych – a colourful, geometric composition that brings to mind abstract or constructivist art, and the work of Piet Mondrian or László Moholy-Nagy. A print run of a couple of hundred editions was produced and now many of these sit in museum collections – at MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, CCA and The New Institute, for example. ‘We wanted to explain everything you need to say about this project in a single representation,’ says Koolhaas. The buildings’ colours nod to the passing ships’ bright hues; as port activity was ever-present in the office views, it provided constant inspiration. 

Beyond formal considerations, Koolhaas’ vision for the long and narrow site explored new models for housing development and the future of living. ‘In the 1980s, housing in the Netherlands meant social housing,’ he says. ‘I had just come from America and I was interested in less defined spaces, open spaces. So the building had an industrial quality.’ The design, including a range of private apartments from studios to larger duplexes and loft-style spaces, with its river views, ‘was about flexibility, openness, an uncluttered space’. It also contained a gym and a library on site – a particularly forward-thinking move at a time when amenities in larger-scale residential schemes were anything but the norm. 

Boompjes was sadly never built (‘We presented it to the city a number of times; in the end they sold the site to a developer, but nothing came out of it,’ Koolhaas concludes) but its ideas were pioneering, and live on. In the late 1990s, OMA was commissioned to work on another site by the river in Rotterdam, which faced a similar situation – again, approached by a bridge and its perception controlled by limited viewpoints. That project, just across the water from the Boompjes site, eventually became De Rotterdam, a mixed-use, ‘vertical city’ completed in 2013 beside the city’s Wilhelmina Pier. 

Now, Boompjes is about to get one more incarnation. In 2019, American Express approached OMA for an artistic collaboration with Rem Koolhaas on a new design for Amex’s exclusive Centurion Card. The practice had been working with the card’s signature Roman references, when the client came across the Boompjes project. It became a starting point for the new design, with Rem and his team adapting the triptych visual to the card’s specifications. The result launches from this month. Blending graphic design with thought-provoking architecture that was truly ahead of its time, the product is the smallest item ever designed by Koolhaas. ‘I see graphic design as a crucial domain to project ideas in,’ says Koolhaas, who regularly explores two-dimensional design through OMA’s research and design arm, AMO. ‘Architecture is also a domain to project ideas in. The similarity [between the disciplines] is about ideas, and these can take any form.’ §

INFORMATION

oma.eu

americanexpress.com