Temporary stay at Neeltje Jans, 2009

Graduation project, nominated for ARCHIPRIX 2010

The dutch coast is known for its salty winds, the power of the breakers, the lee of the dunes and the vastness of the sandbanks. The dynamics of an area where not one minute is the same due to the continuous play of low and high tide. The dutch have protected themselves against the sea with a so called Deltaplan. Part of this plan is the barrier in the Oosterschelde. Due to the rise of the sealevel and the fact that the barrier influences the (under)current, dunes and sandbanks are about to disappear. We need to act!

The combination of recreational activities and the conservation, or even enriching, of the natural reserve provides new chances for interesting accomodation where people, in different ways, can escape from daily life. The fact that Neeltje Jans already fulfils an important recreative funtion, this location offers an excellent opportunity to expand the existing recreational network of Zeeland with unique accomodations that comply with the surrounding new landscape. more...

Campus de Nayer, St. Katelijne-Waver (B) 2009

For VenhoevenCS I worked on the design of this masterplan for a campus.

Campus de Nayer is an institute for technology situated in St. Katelijne-Waver. The office was invited for the tender to design a masterplan for the future development of the site. The campus is now characterised by a lot of buildings surrounded by asphalt. A clear structure is missing. We proposed to transform the site into a campus with a green heart. This heart also structures the campus. In multiple phases the campus buildings are about to define this central space. The first building we proposed is a laboratory for sustainable technology, combined with offices and a conference centre. This building functions as the entrybuilding. The conference centre is a big wintergarden as well. It contributes to the new, green image of the campus. Because of the tranparancy of the building technology will now be a visible part of the campus.

BSLN, Leiden

For VenhoevenCS I worked on the design of this community school in Leiden.

The wonderfull world of VenhoevenCS architects:

"In the community school four different primary schools are combined with all kinds of local amenities such as a public library, health care facilities and a cultural centre. This project is going to be the first to improve not only the spatial qualities of the neighbourhood, but also its social tissue. The combination of schools brings children from different ethnic background to the same place. Together with all other activities in the building they create a cultural node that supports social life in the neighbourhood." more...

Private house, 2007

The double extention of this house partly lost its function with the moving of the practice for physiotherapy to the building next door. Because of the bad conditions of the first extension, and the fact that the owners wanted a more garden related livingroom and kitchen, we decided to restructure the floorplan, and demolish both extensions. A hugh window provides daylight and a clear visual connection with the garden. Most of the building materials including the foundations have been reused.

Ronde Venen, Groot Mijdrecht Noord

For JoustraReid architects I worked on this study for the transformation of a polder.

"The ground level of the ancient polder of Groot Mijdrecht Noord is gradually sinking, leading to frequent flooding from ground water, the level of which is conversely rising. Combined with the increasing need to seek new means of storing excess surface water this presents the scenario for this study: controlled flooding of the polder will create a new lake-like landscape with the potential for new types of housing settlement and recreational pursuits. We propose a number of housing solutions, of varying type and density, within which one can dwell on or in the new lake. The seasonal fluctuation of water level creates the potential to give some of the house types an amphibious nature." more...

40 Dwellings, Baambrugge

For JoustraReid architects I worked on this housing project in Baambrugge.

"The village of Baambrugge lies on the meandering River Angstel to the south of Abcoude. This agricultural landscape is characterised by the polders which were created in the middle ages. Baambrugge consists of the original ribbon development along the Angstel, free-standing 17th and 18th century buildings on the outskirts and the central village, formed around the church and village hall. In the 1950’s and 60’s new terraced housing estates were built on the edges of the village. While the new housing project is an addition to one of these later developments its organisation is based more upon the topography and more open structure of the older village. It is conceived as a new edge to the village; the houses face outwards towards the open landscape." more...

Van Ostadestraat 61-79, Amsterdam

For JoustraReid architects I worked on this housing project in Amsterdam.

This project is one of two urban renewal projects in the Pijp area of Amsterdam. In this apartment building there are 24 dwellings and parking for 27 cars. The apartments are ‘WIBO’ apartments, a form of sheltered rented accommodation for elderly residents. more...

Van Ostadestraat 226-230, Amsterdam

For JoustraReid architects I worked on this housing project in Amsterdam.

Three existing 19th century buildings, each approximately 5m wide, will be replaced by a new building containing eight apartments and two studios. Nine of the dwellings will be owner-occupied and one will be rented. The two ground floor studios have their own small gardens at the rear of the block; the rest of the outside space is given over to a communal garden for the remaining apartments.  more...

Fitzz body & mind, 2004

Fitzz is a practice for physiotherapy, fitness and energetic healthcare. This cornerbuilding is deep and quite dark. The building has been divided in two parts; the treatmentrooms are within the building and lit with hugh rooflights. The front office, waitingroom and fitness are situated along the facade. At the first floor are the dressing rooms and the big exercise room as well as a place where employees can enjoy lunch. The use of rooflights, a colored wall and wood for the windows make this practice a very pleasant and transparent place.


In cooperation with JoustraReid architecten

Villa Aerdenhout

For JoustraReid architects I worked on this villa in Aerdenhout.

A characteristic of this 1930’s neighbourhood are the long, curving streets lined by hedges and mature trees. The houses, many of them villas, are richly detailed in brickwork with slate, tiled and thatched roofs and finely detailed windows. The new villa interprets this existing palette of materials in a contemporary manner in order to harmonise with its surroundings. The aim is to address the history of the area without historicising: traditional and new building methods are combined, the principal aim being to detail in such a way that in the long term the materials attain a patina. more...

Published in the Yearbook of dutch architecture 2005-2006.

Fishermans house in Leidsche Rijn

The assignment was about transforming a typology, of which three characteristics should be kept and should also be the reason for the transformation. The first interesting characteristic of the dutch fisherman's houses is the fact that you can see the landscape behind the house from the dike. The fisherman's house is also primitive, of a small scale and functions as a safe haven. I kept the very recognisable shape and lifted it above the ground level so you can see the landscape behind the house. The tree in the back helps to experience the deep lot. Inside the house the views from the front to the back are the most important. This is being articulated by the semi open sidewalls of the house.

Cooperation building, Buenos Aires

In 2005 I went to Buenos Aires for a project in a slum called Villa Tranquilla. Together with enthusiastic inhabitants, people from the municipality and students from the University of Buenos Aires, we worked on the reorganisation of this slum, divided from the city centre by the immense poluted river Rianchuelo. Continuing with the results of the workshop and my fascination for the cartoneros, I decided to design a cooperation building for them. On one side, a cooperation can get better prices for collected materials. On the other side, employment is one of the most important factors to 'heal' the district. The building provides ateliers and a production hall where people can work with professionals. Together they create products from 'garbage' collected by cartoneros. Of course, the main purpose is to sell these products. The new building will be built in an abandoned and deterioreted warehouse. At the ground cartoneros can deliver their materials and use the sanitary facilities. The lifted volume contains the ateliers and guesthouses for artists in residence. Everything is built with second-hand building material, collected in Buenos Aires. Next to the building, a small park is created. The shop in this park functions as a billboard for the products created here.

Villa for a writer

At the bank of the IJmeer we had to design a villa for a writer. My writer was in fact a collumnist who chose for a lonely retreat after a tumultuous life. A vast open landscape with only windmills. I used the context not only to shape the villa but also the landscape. The geometry of the polder and the windmills have played an important roll in the design process. The villa is anchored in the landscape by two main axis. One is derived from the windmills, the other axis is a continuation of the route leading to the villa. The villa consists of three, scaleless, main volumes. The enclosed garden, the pool and the actual house as binding element. The plinth of basalt anchors the villa at the scale of the house, referring to the material of the dikes which surround the polder. The aluminium box has a industrial, civil enginered look, and contributes to the feeling of protection and at the same time the surrounding landscape is reflected. Parts of the facade can be opened. The writer is the director of his house, playing a continuous game of security and vulnerability with the brute landscape.

Seeping boundaries

The Dollard estuary is located on the border between The Netherlands and Germany. This is the site where we chose to inverstigate how a series of boundaries might define a new National Park. But the question is, why should one have to draw the line somewhere? The Dollard has many shifting boundaries, including where land meets sea, migration, language, politics and communism. It is the layering of these shifting boundaries that can demonstrate the opportunity for a National Park without bounds. The National Park is a temporary, ever changing condition that seeps through time, space and event.

Developmentplan Markthallen

The terrain of the old makethall in the west of Amsterdam are situated on the boundary of Bos en Lommer, Westerpark and Centre. Because of the compound like character of the site it functions as a barrier. The main problem is the lack of East-Westconnections. The Amsterdam Food centre will be relocated in the Amsterdam harbours to make space for houses and the renovated markethall. Due to morphological reasons the site is devided in four areas. The edges are repaired and connected with the existing urban fabric. Located west at the siteplan is the harbour, referring to her past as a main industrial zone. Big appartmentblocks are separated by inner harbours, each with its own character. The east of the siteplan also refers to her past. Appartmentblocks differ in height and ambrace the houseboats, located in the heart of the buildingblocks. The kasbah is locaded in the central zone, referring to the tradingspirit of the Amsterdam people.

Transforming public space

Albert Einstein monument

The terrain between the campus of the University of Utrecht en the A27 highway was the location to erect a monument for Albert Einstein. His most famous theories, the special (1905) and the general (1915) theory of relativity, inspired me to create this monument. The general theory deals with gravity, the special deals with superfast movement. Einstein concluded that both phenomenae influenced your vision of the world. I transformed the swampy terrain into a park with wooden boardwalks, as an extension of the campus. In the middle of the park is the main monument, based on the special theory of relativity. A translucent tube describes a circle. The tube contains a light which represent a particle of light. This light spinns round in the tube, which represents the light being influenced by gravity. The second moument, based on the general theory lightens the boardwalks in the park. It seems these lamps play with gravity because they move up and down in a translucent tube without being connected to the ground.