Nathalie de Vries MVRDV Greatest Hits

Winy Maas

Design philosophy makes use of, and lays claim to, diversity. They proceed as a team, inviting different and at times unexpected disciplines to join forces with them, mixing disciplinary categories. thus either makes its methods systematic, or undoes them in experimentation. Turning the process of conception into spatial or organizational research, in which they involve, from the project’s premises onward, the greatest possible number of contributors and data. In every instance, the spatial consequences, and the limits and potential of a sweeping overview of situations, are examined and shown. The limits encountered are tested by a systematic intensification, so as to reveal the extremities. This constitutes a radicalization that helps to identify these limits, and makes the formulation of a discourse about them possible. The extreme diversity of these data thus finds a pragmatic transcription in a spatial matrix consisting of the superposition of the diagrams that distribute these data (datascapes). At an early stage of the process as many users and advisors as possible are involved. Reactions to the first can be processed quickly, creating a high degree of support for the design and encouraging the sort of new insights that can lead to specific innovative solutions. To allow a wide range of commissions to be handled, special design teams are put together for individual commissions. Advisors in the fields of and installation technology, building sciences, building management and building costs assist a team. In this way ’s generalism and verve is linked with the specialization and thoroughness of the other team members.

Short history of the firm was set up in (the ) in 1991 by , Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries after they won the first prize in the Berlin Europan Competition. is housed in an old printing shop in Rotterdam, designed by architect Kromhout. produces designs and studies in the fields of , urbanism and design. Early projects such as the Light Urbanism study for the Municipality of Rotterdam, the headquarters for Public Broadcasting Company VPRO and housing for elderly Wozoco’s in brought to the attention of a wide field of clients and gave them international acclaim. The continues to pursue its fascination and methodical research on density. It uses a method of shaping space through complex amounts of data that usually accompany contemporary building and design processes. The office first published a cross section of these study results in FARMAX (010 Publishers, 1998). ΣΧΟΛΗ The products of this διάλεξη της Nathalie ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΩΝ·ΕΜΠ approach vary and de Vries στο µάθηµα ΤΟΜΕΑΣ range from της θεωρίας ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΙΚΟΥ of all types and 20•11•2003 ΣΧΕ∆ΙΑΣΜΟΥ MVRDV sizes, to urban έκθεση των MVRDV designs to www..archined.nl ΠΕΡΙΟΧΗ·ΘΕΩΡΙΑΣ publications and στο Μουσείο Μπενάκη Ιούνιος-Ιούλιος 2007 ΤΗΣ·ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΙΚΗΣ installations.

Realized projects include the Dutch Pavilion for the World Exhibition 2000 in Hanover- Germany, an innovative business park ‘Flight Forum’ in , two at Borneo Sporenburg in Amsterdam, an orange Atelier in Amsterdam and the futuristic installation Metacity/Datatown that is travelling around the world. This mixture of projects continues in the current work of the office. Current projects in progress or on site include large housing projects in Amsterdam and , an for a part of Almere and a hotel in Amsterdam. Activities outside the Netherlands include a housing scheme for 100 units in Vienna, , a 50.000 m2 office development in Munich, Germany, a pavilion for a Art Triennial in Niigata, Japan, a conversion of 2 silos into appartments in Kopenhagen, Denmark , a housingproject in , Spain, and a Mobility Park near Hamburg, Germany. is also invited for several European design competitions that currently take place. Around fifty architects, designers and staff members of are organized into teams headed by project leaders. In each team, different fields and scales of ’s projects are reflected, both in the (international) background of team members and in the variation of work. has permanent relationships with engineering firms to activate the exchange of up to date knowledge.

Books MVRDV, FARMAX : excursions on density, Rotterdam : 010 Publishers, 1998. FARMAX is simultaneously a handbook and a manifesto for MVRDV’s central theme, which can also be seen as one of the most important questions that all Dutch designers ask themselves or should ask themselves: how land and space can best be used in a densely populated coutry like the Netherlands. MVRDV, Costa Iberica, Barcelona, Spain : ACTAR, 1998. MVRDV’s most recent book Costa Iberica (Actar Publishing 2000) deals with the Spanish and Portuguese coasts that have become the densest ‘’ in Europe. A leisure city with specific assessments, but also condemned for its mono-cultural behavior, for its lack of history, taste and culture, its total ignorance of ecological responsibility. MVRDV at VPRO, Barcelona : ACTAR, 1999. MVRDV, Metacity datatown, Rotterdam : 010 Publishers, 1999. MVRDV’s second book, shows a city that is described only by data. A city that wants to be explored only as information and the agenda it provokes for architecture and urbanism. Metacity / Datatown has also been documented in a video installation which has been shown in Glasgow, Venice, The Hague, and South Africa. Reading MVRDV, Rotterdam : Nai, 2003. MVRDV: the matrix project / Aaron Betsky -- What is (really) to be done? / Bart Lootsma -- Architecture at the end of history / Irénée Scalbert -- Vertical labyrinths / Jean Attali -- Artificial ecology / Stan Allen -- Form follows fiction / Jos Bosman -- Systems / Alain Guiheux -- We're all experts now / Philippe Morel -- Architecture is a device / Winy Maas. MVRDV 1997-2002 stacking and layering, El Croquis 111, 2002.

MVRDV, το Ολλανδικό περίπτερο στην EXPO του 2000, στο Αννόβερο (κάτοψη και τοµή)