The building block Hinthamerstraat 72 and 74 will undergo a major renovation in the coming years. The reason is the fusion of two organisations that for many years have used the existing buildings independently as neighbours, the public library and the centre for art education 'de Muzerije'. The intended collaboration requires spatial adaptations: House 73 seeks as much synergy as possible between the different programmes, spaces and atmospheres. In addition, the renovation is an opportunity to make the existing buildings technically more sustainable, carry out spatial and functional improvements and overdue maintenance, and work on a new interior in line with its use as one House for all. House 73 aims to be a versatile, cultural, pleasant, inspiring place that meets all contemporary requirements.

The historical images of the impressive school complex on Onderwijzersstraat evoke different emotions: nostalgia, respect, admiration, but also some aversion. The pupils of that time must have felt very small. The elongated schools grandeur is awe-inspiring yet equally intimidating.

Todays perception of education and the associated spaces is much different than 100 years ago. A contemporary school must be an inspiring learning and living environment that presents itself to its surroundings with an open face, not a walled fortress. Yet in our opinion the strict school has timeless, spatial and architectural qualities that make it suitable for a meaningful transformation. Even without extensive changes, Edison can become a school that does justice to its past and at the same time complies much better than before with current educational views. The large playgrounds and gardens play an important role in this.

In our proposal, the generous, clear and symmetrical layout serves as the starting point for a contemporary school that accommodates different forms of education.

Biestebroeck was, is, and will be a place of production, initiative and activity. A place where working, learning, living coexist side by side. A place for everyone, a neighborhood for all.

Together with AHA, noArchitects and Sergison Bates Architects, we are working on the Citygate II / Petite Île project in Brussel after a competition won in 2019. Over the next few years, a new district with 400 flats, 15,000 m2 of workspace and a large school complex consisting of several buildings will be developed in Biestebroeck, a former industrial area in Anderlecht. The project is part of the 'Canal Plan' of the Brussels city architect, which specifically focuses on the idea of the productive city aiming at lively and productive city neighbourhoods with mixed programmes for working, producing, learning and living.

The Sint-Martinus church in Burcht is a beacon visible from afar in the river landscape to the west of Antwerp. The church stands like a solid fortress right on the Scheldt and separates the village from the river and the church square from water, greenery and panoramic views. The difference between the two sides of the church, between views and seclusion, the vast industrial landscape around the river and the intimacy of the village, gives Burcht its charm and character. Our design proposal is inspired by the important role the church building plays for the village community and the charm of its unique location.

The baroque Predikherenklooster, or Dominican Monastery, is a more than impressive building. In 2011, after several failed attempts to repurpose the ruins of the monastery, the city decided to restore the historic landmark building and turn it into a public library, which will open in the autumn of 2018.

Before the restoration work began, the monastery and adjacent church were a harsh, monolithic block; for many years the expressive texture of the derelict façades told passers-by an enigmatic story of its tormented history.

The baroque monastery was built starting in 1650 and was deconsecrated at the end of the 18th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was mainly used for military purposes and has been abandoned since 1975. Together with the neighbouring buildings, the new Holocaust Museum, the Kaserne Dossin and the new Tinelpark, the Predikherenklooster is part of an ambitious development on the edge of the city center: the Tinelsite.

We developed our design for the library in the Predikherenklooster with the utmost respect for the particular characteristics of the existing edifice. The programming, the spatial design, our concept for the restoration as well as the design of the technical installations, and all structural interventions are intended to preserve and reinforce these characteristics.

The project for the new Cadix school campus on the Eilandje in Antwerp is a complex urban and architectural design task with a long history. The project was implemented in phases from 2017 and will be fully operational from 2022. It involves the integration of two secondary schools and housing in a highly urban port environment. The highly diverse programme components are spread over a large new building block and several existing monumental buildings, all designed by Emiel van Averbeke. The former primary school with kindergarten from 1927 and the former 'recruitment hall for dockworkers' from 1938 or the 'CAD sheds' form the heart of the development. They have been restored, rebuilt and extended.

The monumental school ensemble designed by former city architect Emiel Van Averbeke was built between 1921 and 1925. The large building complex is conceived as a representative palace-like structure with three courtyards and clearly designed hierarchies. In the original design, both style preferences and explicit views on education played a role. In an eclectic composition, we find different façade compositions, floorplan types, roof shapes and very different inner courtyards side by side.

The pedagogical concept of the building as an institute consisting of different departments with distinct pedagogical aims and the stylistic development of architecture between 1900 and 1930 run parallel, creating a building complex that simultaneously refers to the architecture of The English House from the turn of the century as well as to the progressive architecture of Berlage and his followers. The eclectic architectural language positions the entire school at a significant cultural distance from the architectural character of its direct surroundings, the port area of the 'Eilandje' with its industrial hangars and working-class housing.

The new building block on the Kempisch Dok Westkaai replaces a derelict existing school building. The large new school is a compact volume with characteristic, repetitive, pitched roofs whose shapes refer to the repetitive roof structure of the CAD hangars facing the other side of the street. It consists of a total of six-storey front building approximately 16.4 m in depth and four slightly lower wings with three small courtyards in between.

The building application for the recruitment room for port workers dates from 1938; the building was commissioned on 5 February 1940. The architect was Emiel van Averbeke, the city architect who ten years earlier had built the neighbouring school ensemble. The complex consists of four interconnected hangars with saddle roofs. Here, port workers came together in large groups; the raised walkways provided overview and control.

The urban ribbons on the outskirts of Rotterdam traditionally presented a mixed picture of industry, greenhouse horticulture and a few traditionally rather modest houses. Due to the growing scale of new individual urban villas in all kinds of styles and qualities, the informal charm of the place is increasingly under pressure. The new house, turned inwards, is built entirely in CLT and shows greater similarity to the original character of the place than to its new neighbours. From the outside it looks rather small and discreet, but on the inside it feels light, spacious and generous.

VRIJDAG is a house for amateur art in the broadest sense. It is more than a collection of rooms and more than one house. VRIJDAG is a real city block. Several city buildings form a garland of buildings around a enclosed city garden. VRIJDAG is part of the fabric of the inner city of Groningen and fits naturally into existing structures. VRIJDAG is the Forum's neighbour and completely complementary. Not smooth but rough. Not finished but always changing. Not singular but composed. Not an object but an organism. The power of VRIJDAG is to be found inside.

Our competition proposal for the extension of the museum takes the medieval monastery as its starting point. Its spatial beauty is the focus of the reorganisation of the museum. The museum zoning is carefully matched to the natural conditions and limitations of the existing buildings. A few building volumes of wood and brick, added with a careful hand, provide the desired renewal and extra space. The new buildings are timeless and sustainable and, together with the existing ensemble, can grow (preferably very) old.

The monumental fire station on Paleisstraat in Antwerp, an Art Nouveau ensemble with officers' quarters, was built between 1908 and 1911, based on a design by Antwerp city architects Emiel van Averbeke, A.van Mechelen and Jan van Asperen. The impressive ensemble consisting of large halls, workshops, an inner courtyard and several group accommodations was used as a fire station for more than a century, so both the facades and the interior are exceptionally well preserved. From 2023, the building will be redeveloped into contemporary group homes. Five design teams worked on this complex design task, aiming to transform the building complex into a family-friendly, green, inner-city residential environment, while preserving the monumental qualities of the buildings.

In an inner courtyard behind the Lakborslei in Deurne, we are building a large new school. Because of the strange shape and the tight dimensions of the available lot, the many neighbours and urban planning regulations the ambitions of the client and reality do not seem to fit together at first sight. Nevertheless, the sheltered location offers surprising possibilities for a green and homely learning and living environment.

The new pavilion for the Van Eesteren Museum is situated on a triangular plot on the north bank of the Sloterplas. On this particular site, architect and urban planner Cornelis Van Eesteren himself envisioned a small building, which he included in his urban plan. In the last 50 years the plot was covered with hawthorn bushes and its possibilities remained almost unnoticed.

The northern bank still breathes the grandeur of the heroic period in which the Sloterplas was constructed. Located at the western edge of the promenade, the building site forms a pivot point between the vast eastern side of the north bank and the smaller scale of the western side with the marina and recent developments.

The new building for the residential care centre at Parkhof replaces an existing elderly home consisting of two parts, one from the 1960s and the other from the 1990s. Neither building meets present-day standards and expectations. The earlier building has been demolished. The more recent structure, the "Q-building" will be refurbished and used as an office building for the client, the social services agency of Machelen (OCMW).

At first sight Oosterwold seemed to be a place too good to be true. Cheap land, building without aesthetic or any other restrictions, lots of space and a community consisting of like-minded neighbours. With this thought three couples came to us with their plan to pioneer in the polder, with little money, lots of space and great enthusiasm. House N&J is the first of the three related houses that has been inhabited by now, a second is in the making and when the last one will follow is still uncertain. The reality turned out to be more unruly than predicted. The market picked up, building became more expensive, contractors scarcer and pickier. Yet, after various obstacles and some delays, much of the original dream has been preserved.

Within a new development in Leonidas exist many independent family homes built as 'large garden houses'. Between the densely built houses there is little room for real gardens and hardly any privacy, rather there are many strong stucco or masonry volumes that have little to do with a garden house. The informal image that was originally intended by the municipality seems to have become lost. Foekje and Marcel, the residents of no. 9, initially struggled with the difference between dream and reality. They bought a very small plot on which they wanted to build a studio house. Due to heavy sustainability requirements, the outer walls of their small house became so thick that they had to have a 'permission-free extension' on the ground floor from the start. Hefty land prices meant there was no choice but to do it yourself, where inevitably construction took much longer than originally intended. Yet they do not regret their adventure for a moment.

How do we transform a narrow and fully built courtyard in a densely populated neighbourhood into a green and inspiring learning and living environment? How do we build a school on such a location that feels like a home to children and young people from totally different backgrounds? And how do we ensure that both indoor and outdoor spaces are generous, sturdy and light enough to stimulate appropriation and initiative?

Municipal Education Antwerp urgently needs additional school capacity in its inner city districts. The municipality therefore organised an invited competition for a combined school for young children and spaces for youth groups in Antwerp North making use of an existing property. Having won the competition we will transform a number of existing buildings, including a former factory building into a spacious multifunctional facility for the youth. On the adjacent eastern part of the site we replace several structures of lesser quality with a new playground, a new gym and purpose built classrooms for the youngest and oldest children of the new school community.

The "Het Landje" primary school in the centre of Rotterdam was in dire need of additional space for quite some time. Following an extensive search for an appropriate location for an extension, the former building of the Hildernisseschool on the Schiedamse Vest, just opposite the main building of the primary school was refurbished. The existing building, with its comparatively generous dimensions, offered more space and possibilities than any new building would have.

The Hildernisseschool was built in 1968 as an extension to the older, adjacent school building, designed by municipal engineers. The architectural language of the existing building avoided all references to its function as a building for children; however, its rational structure, consisting of concrete columns, beams and floors, made it highly suitable for transformation.

After the refurbishment the outer and inner appearance of the building have been radically changed. The skin of the building was insulated and plastered, integrating an additional volume on the roof. All windows were replaced and the roof was insulated and covered with vegetation. 

To us a school is much more than just a well functioning institution. It's a living environment designed for a specific place and community, with inspiring yet timeless indoor- and outdoor spaces that offer both protection and an open view to the world.  

For those who want to see, the landscape of the Uitkerkse polder is beautiful and abundant. The beauty of the area unfolds for visitors who want to make an effort for it. This concerns small discoveries, water birds close to the ground, salty soil, modest plants. The visitor center is attractive for those who want to discover the small scale, are curious about plants, animals, trees and especially the sky. 

With our building we want the visitor to look at the big and the small. We are not only concerned with the distant view, but also with the many small details that make up the nature of the Uitkerkse polder, with insects, birds and plants. Our tower matches the Uitkerkse polder and the modesty of the current visitor center. It is only spectacular for those who want to see it. The focus of the design is in the details.

The site for the new care campus in Kruishoutem is an exceptionally beautiful place with a long history. The new building replaces the wings of a neo-Gothic monastery, while the church is preserved. The existing park with monumental trees will be part of the new building complex. The project offers the opportunity to make the specific qualities of the site visible and accessible to the village community.

The program consists of residential care rooms, assisted living units and service flats, and it is almost four times larger than the original building. The vast volume needs to relate to the adjoining, graceful church.

In the context of the arts program "Beyond Utrecht", the municipality of Utrecht invited several "artists in residence" to live and work for a certain period in the new residential district of Leidsche Rijn. Their main task was to observe this place, at the time undergoing rapid change, and to develop interventions and responses to it. Their accommodation, a mobile studio, is also part of the art programme and would see multiple changes of residents and location during the planned activities.

Our main ambition was to design a movable building that would feel as large and robust as a house. It had to be versatile, practical and comfortable throughout the year.

In the hilly garden, originally the setting for a tiny temporary chalet, a French family with young children wished to construct a more durable home. Inspired by the publication of our House No. 19 project in a French magazine, they commissioned us to design a timber house around a small pine tree ("the bonsai"); the clients asked for a sturdy yet unconventional place to live for themselves, their many books and their art and design collections.

The sites for the two Freinet schools in Lille and Herentals are overwhelming. Green, spacious, central and yet sheltered and intimate. Simply ideal for a natural learning environment. We designed two small school buildings embedded in nature. With large rooms, high ceilings and lots of light. They are compact schools without hallways. A large greenhouse for playing, running, gardening instead of a conventional corridor. Façades without screens or shutters but with a large pergola covered by plants protecting the classrooms from the sun. Large houses with sloping roofs and grass on them. No classroom without glazed doors to the garden. Learning and living in the middle of nature.

The projects for the Freinet primary schools in Lille and Herentals are inspired by the rich tradition of open-air schools in Europe. The movement mainly created special buildings in the first half of the 20th century, with the contact of students with nature being the main focus of both the architecture and the pedagogical approach. In our opinion, the often radical simplicity of this architecture is utterly timeless and we find it inspiring for our present time.

In 2001, a bright green object sitting on top of the lift shaft of the former Las Palmas warehouse served a three-dimensional logo, visible far and wide, for its host building, the large, industrial spaces of which were temporarily used for various exhibitions during Rotterdam’s year as European Capital of Culture. One of the exhibitions, Parasites, presented designs of small-scale objects intended for unused urban sites, making ‘parasitic’ use of their existing infrastructure. The exhibition was curated and organized by Mechthild Stuhlmacher and Rien Korteknie, involving an international group of architects. Taking advantage of the enterprising atmosphere of the year of culture, one of these designs was built to full scale. The roof of the warehouse, amidst the varied, spectacular roofscapes of the Port of Rotterdam, proved an ideal location.

*Parasites: prototypes for advanced ready-made amphibious small-scale individual temporary ecological dwellings

Pavilion Kobus is a temporary pavilion in the Hague. Located at the Trekvliet, the restaurant and lunchroom form a meeting place for the neighbourhood. In addition, the pavilion is used as a learning and workplace for young people from various schools as part of their education.

The new school site is a children's paradise before we even start. It's vast and green, there are fields, orchards, a broad valley, water, wilderness, groves, endless possibilities to play. 

The strong brick architecture of the Salesians gives the place character and spatial identity. The venerable buildings anchor the new development to the village, the history and the meaning of the place. We would therefore like to give these buildings an important role in the design for the new school.

On the site behind the existing buildings we embrace the landscape and design a building complex that is embedded in the orchards. With its slightly sloping green roofs, pergolas, semi-enclosed outdoor spaces and school gardens, the new roof landscape looks like an extension of nature.

Uitdam is a small, picturesque village on the banks of the IJsselmeer. The clients found a small house to be demolished, next to the church and the dike, big enough for a new dwelling for two. Shape, materials, dimensions and the slope of the roof were almost fixed from the beginning. Spatial regulations in the area are very strict, as the inhabitants of the region, the municipality, and the tourists wish to protect the fragile, historically evolved cultural landscape with its present consistency and small-scale beauty.

The new house fits almost unnoticed in the existing neighbourhood; the dark colour of the façade, the traditional roof tiles and the sparkling white of both the edges of the roof and the window frames underline its familiarity with the traditional architecture of the area.

Villa Escamp is a temporary pavilion and art installation. It is designed to house activities organized in conjunction with the building process of the new, large and monumental municipal town hall of Escamp, The Hague.

This country house on a beautiful site with unobstructed views over the dunes is intended for a large family with many guests. The design seeks connection to the small scale of the region, the traditional, small-scale rural architectural and the vast natural landscape. The pitch and direction of the roofs and the maximum building volume were predetermined by local municipal specifications.

To make room for the new building, an existing, small and slightly dilapidated farm from the 1950s was demolished. It consisted of a small house on the street and a large barn behind it, and despite its vast dimensions, it suited the small-scale character of the site.

The new building, in many respects, owes a great deal to its modest predecessor. The new house is also designed as an ensemble of house and barn, with two roofs, one hidden behind the other. The roadside façades are low and silent while the spacious space inside and the stunning views are revealed only upon entering the structure.

Vedute is a non-profit organisation collecting 'spatial manuscripts', personal and three-dimensional mission statements. Every year a selected number of artists, designers and architects are invited to contribute to the collection, answering a more or less abstract question formulated by the Vedute board. The sizes of the objects have been fixed to the exact dimension of the States Bible of the Netherlands, 7 x 32 x 44 cm. In 2009 we had the honour of making and publicly presenting our object, thinking about our vision of space and landscape.

In the urban plan of Nesselande, a new city extension of Rotterdam, a large area has been reserved for private houses. Various canals give the new neighbourhood a generous and rather natural appearance, despite the high density and the rather limited sizes of the individual plots. In an area where most inhabitants choose their home from standard catalogues, the house for the "T family" stands out. The formal language of the design, with its simple, understated use of materials and its Cubistic shapes, refers to classical modern villas from the first half of the twentieth century. The mesh-like masonry reflects the cultural background of the clients and filters sunlight while preserving the clients’ privacy. 

On the edge of the centre of Winterswijk there is a small detached villa from the second half of the 19th century. In this modest house, Piet Mondriaan spent a great deal of his youth. At the initiative of the Mondriaanhuis and the Freriks Museum in Winterswijk, Wim van Krimpen, under the supervision of the gallery and former museum director, worked on a small new museum focusing on the artist's early years. With the generous support of the States-Provincial and private sponsorship, the project was designed and realised within a few months - a little miracle in a time of recession and substantial cuts to culture budgets. In the Pentecost weekend of 2013, the new museum was opened in the presence of Princess Beatrix.   

Very small houses built according to the strict building regulations of the bungalow park, located in a beautiful spot with grand views over the landscape. We enjoyed the small commissions and took them just as seriously as larger ones. Thanks to the efforts of the excellent contractor and the involvement by and the pleasant communication with the clients, the small series of three similar houses turned into a pleasant design and building process.

The Bosbaan in Amstelveen is the premier venue for people interested in rowing in  the Netherlands. In order to meet requirements for international competitions, the Bosbaan has recently been widened, resulting in the demolition of the landmark tribune building from the 1920s in which the student rowing association Okeanos was accommodated. 

The students consequently worked for many years on the preparation of a replacement building in almost the exact same location. In a joint venture with the Royal Dutch Rowing Association (KNRB), Okeanos was finally able to replace the tribune building with a new structure of appropriate size.

On a generous plot on the edge of Heiloo, a village in the province of Noord-Holland, a derelict house has been replaced by a newly built family home.  Here, different generations and people of different ages and needs live together under one roof. 

On the "Steigereiland" on IJburg, the most recent large-scale city extension of Amsterdam, some of the terraces of private houses have been given to individuals to build their own house. The project follows a successful example of a similar row of private houses built in the 1990s by different architects for a variety of clients on Borneo-Sporenburg.

The ambition behind this project is based on the ideas we began to explore in the Parasite Project from the late 1990s onwards: temporary architecture and temporarily available sites deserve attention, high-quality architecture and healthy materials - particularly when we deal with educational buildings for children.

With the school Parasites project (Hoogvliet 2003, www.schoolparasites.nl) we looked into alternatives to conventional, temporary school extensions, which are unfortunately very common in the Netherlands. As a result three prototypes for high-quality, singular, temporary classroom units were designed by three different architects and given to primary schools in Hoogvliet to test.

For outsiders, entries for German architectural competitions display an amazing uniformity. It is almost impossible to tell whether a building is in the city or in a rural area. The vast majority of buildings are shaped like compact boxes; the façades generally consist of a rhythm of repetitive, vertical windows; the architecture is strictly modernistic and the floor plans are efficient and orthogonal.

Le Medi is a colourful enclave attracting a variety of different inhabitants, young families in particular. Its inclusive character is exceptional for its location, as the neighbourhood is dominated by immigrants. The project therefore contributes to the social and cultural development of the area.

Within the ambitious revitalisation of Rotterdam Bospolder, a building block inspired by the architecture from the countries around the Mediterranean Sea was initiated. Years of discussions and various preliminary schemes have resulted in a dense, colourful building block with several carefully defined semi-public spaces, and simple back-to-back dwellings with a covered parking garage on the ground floor and a formal square in the centre. The project hopes to offer a suitable place for people of various cultural backgrounds to live in. For that reason the scheme consists of a number of basic houses that sell for a small price and can be extended in the future.

The area Strijp S, a wide plot between two colossal former industrial buildings, will in the future be developed as a mixed-use residential area with shops. The urban master plan proposes two large square-shaped building sites with small-scale, kasbah-like buildings with large parking garages underneath.

The Homeruskwartier is a new neighbourhood in Almere, set up with the aim to accommodate future clients' wishes. In 2007 an ambitious competition was organised for developers and architects to develop housing solutions for the different parts of the neighbourhood. Commissioned by housing corporation ‘De Alliantie’, our entry won the competition with the concept ‘Het rekkelijke huis’, an untranslatable Dutch expression for a house that is extendable, expandable and multifunctional. 

A little walk in the Oostvaardersveld on a Saturday afternoon: a fox, a snake, birds, insects, butterflies, flowers. Small-scale nature with a rather un-Dutch variety. Yet something is missing. We hardly realise where we are. Behind the high railway embankment, nature seems inaccessible.
 
Of course the design location for a new visitors centre is beautiful in itself, but we also have our doubts about it. We prefer not to add more man-made things to the area. And preferably as little paving as possible. Even the paths and roads that cross the area now feel like disturbing interruptions in the fragile landscape, as well as the small buildings, streets and cars.

De Kamers is a private initiative. Regarding the pioneering years of Vathorst as a challenging social and cultural task, the initiators of the project, a vicar and an artist, sought to create a place for "sociability, inspiration and expression" in the area, with the generous support of many sponsors and the municipality.

The building and its activities are meant to evolve along with its developing surroundings over time, to offer space for various cultural activities and events, such as theatre, film and creative education. The heart of the building is the "Huiskamer", a public "living room", meant to be a welcoming space for everyone.

On the Kleine Rieteiland (‘little island of reeds’), one of the islands that form the Amsterdam suburb of IJburg, several terraces of relatively wide houses have been reserved for individuals to build their own patio-houses. For a family with young children and parents working from home, we designed a timber house offering generous, simple and flexible spaces, with a combination of large openings and areas of privacy. 

In our eyes houses for private clients are wonderful opportunities to work on the very essence of architecture. Since the establishment of our office, we regularly had the opportunity to work on various assignments for private clients. We built recreation houses, a 20-person cottage, family homes, an artist studio, experimental houses or a stately villa in a suburb. Our houses are located in cities, villages and beautiful landscapes, they are temporary and permanent, large or (very) small, new or old and differ as much as their residents. 

1:1 experiment in care centre 'de Diem' in Diemen, Amsterdam. A care centre opens the door of its garden to its neighbour, a primary school. A previously closed garden becomes a school garden for all generations.