NEXT 89/89

Type: Offices, Commercial Space, Interior Location: Amsterdam Client: Lingotto bv Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Tara Steenvoorden, Maarten Vermeulen, Joost Lemmens, Marieke Spits Floor area / size: 6200 Contractor: Dura Vermeer, Amsterdam Construction: Van Rossum Ingenieurs Installations: Ingenieursbureau Linssen Status: In progress

The building on Helmholtzstraat 61 dates back to 1961 and is centrally located in Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam, an area designed by Piet Zandstra. The former district office was mostly empty and had a decayed appearance.

For the re-construction of the Helmholzstraat, a design concept is based on a careful renovation in order to bring back the originally intended qualities. A big intervention will be made in the structure at the entry, in order to open up the building to its surroundings and bring daylight into the atrium - the heart of the building- which will function as a communal space for the future users.

The hospitality business in the building will form the connection between the shopping area on the first floor, and the gym and offices higher up in the building. After renovation, the Amsterdam housing association Alliantie will rent out the spaces. Next architects is responsible for the interior.

Location: Hui Long Guan, Beijing, China Client: Beijing Zhuzong Vanke Development Co Ltd Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Luuc Sonke, Maja Popovic Floor area / size: 26.000 m2 Special thanks to: NAi Status: Architectural Design

Living on top is part of the master plan in Hui Long Guan, Beijing. It provides affordable housing for the ‘Ants Tribe’ and was developed together with four other Dutch offices and five Chinese offices. The project was originally initiated by the NAi in cooperation with Vanke in the VANKE-NAI Matchmaking Program. 

There lays big challenges in an apartment building containing units that vary from 14 to 21m2 combined with a rather thin plot to build on. This apartment block is based on a dense layout of the units with a double loaded corridor. By taking some out on the upper floors the corridor opens up and creates (communal) space. This can be used to bring more green in to the project and facilitate social interaction. Although the apartments are rather minimal, they become small urban villas on top of the building. To emphasize on this the upper floors are built up out of brick standing on its own feet. The apartments are orientated with respect the privacy of each individual and the opposite buildings. On the fourth and fifth floor the owners can use the outside space to create a green atmosphere. 

Other office involved in the project were Arons en Gelauff, BARCODE Architects, KCAP Architects and Planners, NL Architects, NODE, O-office Architects, standardarchitecture, URBANUS, NO 9 Studio, CAFA

Type: Bridge Location: Nijmegen Client: Municipality of Nijmegen Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser with Jurriaan Hillerström, Luuc Sonke, Maarten Vermeulen, Ingeborg Kuijlaars Construction: Ingenieurs Bureau Amsterdam (IBA) Status: Preliminary design

The Citadelbridge in Nijmegen is part of the program Ruimte voor de Waal. It connects the new island Veur-Lent and the northern riverbank. The bridge has a recreational function, but is also suitable for emergency services. Its location, in the floodplain, makes the bridge -partially- submerge in the water a few days a year.

The curved bridge becomes an integral part of path structure in the urban riverpark. The bridge deck continues on land, path and bridge submerge. The transition between bridge and path is smooth and gradual. The longitudinal profile is asymmetrical, which makes the lower part of the bridge disappears at high tide. Then the dynamics of the landscape is most visible, the rising water becomes  an attraction. Stepping stones, terraces and benches enhance the recreational quality of the bridge.

Type: Office interior Client: Rabobank Nederland Collaborator / associate: Samira Boon, Emma architecten, Ineke Hans, Richard Hutten, Pentagram, Sander architecten Floor area / size: 56.000 sqm. Completion: june 2011 Status: realized

2011-09-09 Nomination LAi award 2011 2011-06-21 Co-creating the Rabobank

The office interior for the Rabobank Nederland headquarters is the result of a co-creation by NEXT architects, Emma architecten, Richard Hutten, Ineke hans, Pentagram with and under supervision of Sander Architecten.

As the office interior is being redefined by the introduction of new methods of working, interior architecture is facing new challenges. In today’s work environment, the emphasis is on cooperation in teams and group dynamics; people go to the office for the social aspect more than anything else.  To realize this ambition, the building is seen as a modern city. After all, the city is where individual freedom and spontaneous interaction are all-important.

The effectiveness of this concept is visible on the Square, located at the plinth of the new office building. Employees and visitors work, eat, read, and meet one another in a diverse landscape.

Within the Square NEXT architects has designed the bakery. The Bakery design is based on a check board pattern of circular meeting rooms and square seating elements, articulating the different modes of working together. Endless benches and communal tables act as catalyst to stimulate interaction. With Sliding walls and moveable panels the openness of the area can be manipulated. Together with Samira Boon a 3D textile has been developed to clothe the meeting rooms.

Type: Daycare centre Location: Amsterdam Client: Hestia Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Claudia Linders, Joost Lemmens, Emanuelle Faustle, Pieter Mulder, Filipe Pocas, Daniel Aw, Marieke Spits Collaborator / associate: Bureau Claudia Linders Floor area / size: 500 sqm Cost: Euro 670.000 Status: Final design

2011-11-11 inauguration 2011-07-13 on site 2011-06-01 Topping out 2011-02-14 under construction 2010-12-06 Start construction 2009-08-16 Building permit daycare center

The Hestia Day-Care Centre follows the philosophy of Reggio Emilia. This philosophy also contains a number of explicit statements on architecture, which have been translated into a spatial concept for the new building.

The building as a city, as a collection of rooms: the building becomes a collection of different spaces in which the children can discover new places all the time; may go on a voyage of discovery. All of the spaces are connected to each other just as they are in a real city and you can go from a big room to a small one, from a high room to a low one.

A framework of service modules provides structure: the various spaces are structured by being fit into a grid. The body includes all service modules, such as sanitary facilities, store rooms and bedrooms.

Interior-exterior continuity: the grid is not confined to the building but also becomes the design concept for the exterior space. The rooms may be decorated with different hard surfaces and plants. The exterior is extended throughout the building by designing various rooms like exterior space.

Different perceptions of scale: different scales can be experienced as a result of the subtle use of height differences between the rooms themselves. In the central space, the large scale is perceptible because of the way the group spaces are separated, a smaller scale is perceptible because of the height and an even smaller scale is perceptible because of the sheltered spaces.

Location: Chaoyang District Client: T-space Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers met Wopke Schaafstal, Chen Song, Wang Yuan, Dou Jing Jing Collaborator / associate: HAYA group ed. Floor area / size: 17.000 sqm. Start building: 2009 Completion: 2010 Status: Realized

The urban planning exhibition museum has been realized in just nine months from competition to opening. The museum is located in three old factories in Chaoyang Park. The design exploits the relation between old and new, history and future.

The 17,000m2 museum accommodates a range of exhibitions about the urban development of Chaoyang District, Beijing’s CBD, the art district 798 and the Olympic Green. The design further includes a cinema, a 4D theatre and a range of interactive exhibitions.

Type: student pavilion, grand cafe, information center Location: Campus Woudenstein Rotterdam Client: EUR Team: NEXT architects (Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Marieke Spits, Pieter Mulder, Anabel Arsenault) MASS studies (Minsuk Cho, Kisu Park, Joungwon Lee, Sebastien Soan, Nickolas Urano, Boram Leejung, Yongsu Choung, Daehyn Kim, Guo Xiang) and BuildDesk (Sebas Veldhuizen) Collaborator / associate: MASS studies, Seoul South Korea / BuildDesk Delft Floor area / size: 2000 sqm. Cost: 3.400.000 Build engineer: Pieters Bouwtechniek / Arup London Status: competition

Light housing: continuity and openness
The designated location for the pavilion is characterized by the horizontal continuity of a leaf canopy of the surrounding trees and provides very desirable condition for meeting within the campus of the Erasmus University (EUR). With the involvement of this exceptional environment by the new pavilion we commit to provide for the continuation of the existing spatial qualities of continuity and openness within a \'canopy\'.

Key: centrality and motion
The central position that involves the pavilion on campus, can be compared to an atom consisting of a visible nucleus, but whose real influence is much greater and is determined by the constantly moving electrons in the surrounding shells. The pavilion will serve as the focal point of meeting and knowledge. In this the activities and events in the building not only work as a catalyst for a lively interpretation inside the building, but will also serve as a stimulus for movements around the site. Adapting to and match the horizontal and vertical connections that occur in response to the complex but promising contextual starting positions, is central to the current design.

Durability: stratification and intelligence
A shelter under the roof of a subtle filtered light also generates energy, the construction makes the improbable possible: a transparent glass building as an icon of durability. The secret is hidden in a layered structure of climatic zones temperature constant at a moderate intelligently. This mass is created where needed and used wherever possible light and transparent, this strategy blocked the theater partly underground and made it into a buffer for temperature differences in the pavilion.

Type: 157 ha / 1.3 million m2 for residential use Location: Moscow Russia Client: Masshtab Development Company Team: Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Bart Reuser with Daniel Aw, Jurrian Knijtijzer, Joost Lemmens and Paulo Borlido (NEXT architects) and Ruurd Gietema, Han van den Born with Michael Trinkner (projectleader), Kristina Knauf, Javier Inigo Moreno-Ventas, Sofia Fernandes, Isabel Granados Mesa, Vincent Hector, Matteo Bettoni, Nadya Nilina, Alexandra Merkulova (all KCAP) Collaborator / associate: KCAP architects & Planners Competition: Invited Competition / 2nd prize Status: concept

2011-02-02 invited competition

The design concept of KCAP/NEXT - ‘100% Block City’-  proposes a lively alternative to the monotonous drudgery of the late socialist housing style. It creates an attractive, high-quality and comfortable everyday environment in which individual elements effortlessly add up to the harmony of the whole. As hybrid environment 100% Block City brings together and combines the best qualities of various urban typologies - the standard perimeter block, the housing slab and towers. It gives privilege to the pedestrian, promotes urban density and offers best orientation, attractive views and proximity to the green.

100% Block City, refers to the character of the site which is strongly influenced by its landscape surroundings. It embraces these site-specific qualities with a superimposed generic grid. The concept envisions both, the city and the landscape, as a series of blocks within the grid, whether as built or green blocks. Within the logic of the block city grid green ‘rooms’ are created as integral elements. This also contributes to the larger urban structure which connects the competition area with its surrounding context.

The masterplan demonstrates a flexible approach that is able to react to the demographic and economic developments. The infrastructural system and the equilibrium between urban and green blocks guaranty that the city is \'complete\' at every stage of its development. This makes 100% Block City a malleable strategy that can adapt to the uncertainty of the future.

Type: mixed program: school, events centre, shops, gym Location: Eindhoven Client: The Municipality of Eindhoven Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Erik Wiersema(ADP), Joost Lemmens, Marieke Spits, Pieter Mulder, Agata Piet, Andrea Doyle, Celine Krstulovic Collaborator / associate: ADP architecten Floor area / size: 7050m² Installations: Peter Erdsieck (Mobius) Competition: invited competition Status: competition closed

2010-01-07 't Karregat Eindhoven

NEXT architects with ADP architecten participated in the invited competition for the redevelopment of ‘t Karregat, the famous seventies community center by Frank van Klingeren in Eindhoven. The design proposal contains the conservation of the umbrella-like roof structure from the 1970’s together with a total mix-up of the existing program. By placing the sports hall in de center of the building we created an open space referring to the public space that once filled the complex with air and light. Trough an intelligent use of the natural height differences the various programmatic elements can be combined to form a continuous space that provides the possibility to organize social events for the neighborhood.

Type: Public space / Art Location: Tilburg Client: KORT; Municipality Tilburg Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Geoffrey Moote Floor area / size: 36 sqm Cost: Euro 90.000,00 Status: Completed

2011-09-05 Istanbul Design Week features NEXT projects 2010-03-01 growth monument officially opened 2009-09-01 Start construction 2008-01-12 Restart

A monument to represent the blossoming and flourishing of the city of Tilburg, a ‘textielgroeimonument’ (textile growth monument), realized at the Textielmuseum Tilburg in 2009 as part of the celebration of the 200^th anniversary of the city. Since the Mommerscomplex that accommodates the textile museum is metaphorically speaking a living monument, would it perhaps be possible to create a growing monument that is literally built up from living matter?

The new volume can be read as an addition to the industrial complex: a shape that brings to mind the high factory buildings; a reprise of the building structure of the textile museum.

The overgrowth lends to the monument the dynamics of nature. It literally grows, and this ensures that it always looks alive. It is not a massive volume but a transparent, open structure.

A platform connects the interior space with the courtyard. It provides a possible connection to the monument and a starting point in the open space around the complex. It facilitates encounters and exchanges and in doing so it adopts the part of accelerator in the creative public domain that is currently being developed in Goirkestraat. And so as the volume turns the past into a visible experience in the present, the platform is the first step towards the future.

Type: Housing Location: Oosterheem, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands Client: De Goede Woning Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, Joost Lemmens, Jurrian Knijtijzer, Pieter Mulder, Anabel Arsenault, Murk Wymenga, Maria Salinas Floor area / size: 4.000 m2 Contractor: BAM woningbouw Start building: medio 2011 Completion: medio 2012 Status: final design

2011-11-03 breaking ground

Corporation De Goede woning granted NEXT architects with the assignment after a competition about the city of Zoetermeer. The project consists out of 40 youth dwellings in 4 building blocks. The building blocks will be part of a large urban development project of the city of Zoetermeer: Oosterheem.

Type: office Location: Beijing, Third east Ringroad Client: HAYA group ed. Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers met Wopke Schaafstal, Chen Song, Wang Yuan, Dou Jing Jing Floor area / size: 8000m2 Completion: 2009 Status: Realized

The project brief asked for a interior design for a young and ambitious Chinese architecture company in Beijing, China. The company had acquired five floors of a new office building. Each floor was to be organized with individual departments.
The design aims to address two key issues. Firstly it aims to create conditions to stimulate creativity. And secondly it aims to questions creativity in relation to Chinese office hierarchy. Based on Confucianist values, typically Chinese offices are organized according to strict hierarchy.
This office as well, was to be organized ‘segregated,’ on independent floors. In our
view, hierarchy would exclude creativity and as such, the very foundation of an architecture office.

The design starts from the conviction that creativity benefits from exchange. Conditions for creativity arise where there is maximum exchange possible between people and ideas. In order to to make this possible, two forum shaped staircases are introduced in the center of the office floors. The two circular shaped forums connect logistically and visually all floors. In China, a circular shape symbolizes unity and harmony. From our added perspective, anybody that uses the stair, automatically finds himself the be the center of the forum.
More than a just connection, the forums aims to functions as central meeting points of the
company. Next to informal meetings, the forums can be used for a myriad of activities like temporary exhibitions and Chinese celebrations. To our surprise, the forum space is now used for birthday parties as well.

Type: offices Location: Amsterdam Client: Lingotto Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Agata Piet, Ines Meuws Floor area / size: 3000m2 Contractor: Theuns Construction: Strackee Installations: Bulters&Bulters Start building: 2009-08-15 Completion: 2010-01-01 Status: completed

2010-06-07 Containers placed 2010-02-25 Femke Halsema and Maarten van Poelgeest open 'HET LAB'

The Chewing Gum Factory: ‘THE LAB’ is a project initiated by Lingotto Vastgoed bv. The purchase of an industrial building of 3000m2 from the ‘50 at the Willem Fenengastraat 2 was the start of a metamorphosis. The building consists of 3 large halls of approximately 600m2 in open connection with each other and an office area with 3 floors. The main bearing structure consists of a concrete frame and concrete floors. The facades are made of masonry.

The assignment is twofold: first, the design of an overall concept for the office section and secondly the transformation of the 3 large halls in rentable office for creative businesses.
The land surrounding the building is also included in the development and will provide the offices with parking lots and outdoor spaces.

Type: Offices for creative industries Location: NDSM area Amsterdam Client: Red Concepts BV Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Jurriaan Hillerström Floor area / size: 6.100 m2 and 5.525 m Cost: 15.000.000 euro Build engineer: LBP advisors Competition: 2008 Invited competition result undisclosed

The NDSM area in the north of Amsterdam is distinguished by the big industrial buildings that, despite altered functions over time, demonstrate a consistent and timeless identity. NEXT architects has been asked to develop a strategy for the development of two new buildings within the context of the existing brick giants. Starting with the idea that new buildings on this site should adopt the concept of a variable program within a strong shell, the idea expands to include timeless identity which acquires character as time passes.

The logistic concept is based on a flexible system of deep floors in combination with an efficient infrastructure: the buildings are built up around a central court that introduces daylight into the very heart of the structure.

Type: Folly Location: Carnisselande Client: Municipality Barendrecht Team: Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, Michel Schreinemachers with Joost Lemmens, Marieke Spits, Anne Ricard, Agata Piet Material: steel Construction: ABT adviesbureau voor Bouwtechniek Start building: june 2011 Completion: december 2011 Status: Final design

2009-03-18 Impossible stair for Carnisselande

The design consists of a circular stair which leads the visitor up to a height that allows an unhindered view of the horizon. The path makes a continuous movement and thereby draws on the context of the heavy infrastructural surroundings of ring road and tram track. While a tram stop presents the end or the start of a journey, the route of the stairway is endless.

The continuity and endlessness have a double meaning, however. Because the stair is based on the principal of the Moebius ring, is has only one surface and can only exist as a three-dimensional object. Upside becomes underside becomes upside. The suggestion of a continuous route is therefore, in the end, an impossibility: Far away, so close.

Because of its structure the shape of the object is hard to perceive; every perspective generates a new image with which the design is not only a contextual but also a very literal answer to the given context of the local art plan: an Elastic Perspective.

Type: Office and commercial space Location: Beijing Client: Golden Star Real Estate Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Wopke Tjipke Schaafstal, Bobby de Graaf, Chen Song, Guo Zhi Fang, Jia Yuan, Jao Peng, Xin Hong, and Li Jia Collaborator / associate: HAYA architects Floor area / size: 60.000 sqm Start building: November 2007 Status: Completed

Twist is a twin-building located near the East 5th ring road. The building will contain mostly service apartments. These apartments can accommodate start-up companies, which makes that the building has to blend between apartment and office building. The design-strategy follows three steps: projecting a typical NS orientated Beijing slab, rotating and finally twisting the slab in order to optimize daylight and view. The twisted slab is taken as a starting point to manipulate the buildings massing proportions, following the analogy that people prefer to live in a tower over living in a slab. Towards the new city street, the building will follow a smaller scale to enclose a square. Towards the South side of the site, the buildings will take on a more urban scale. To increase the diversity of the apartments, floors are proposed with three different window-heights.  Metaphorically, the twin building resembles two dynamic Dragons encompassing a shining pearl.

Type: Five dwellings Location: Almere Overgooi Client: Villa van Vijven Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk with Joost Lemmens, Filipe Pocas, Esther ten Brink, Rolf Pederson, Maria Salinas Floor area / size: 1.300 sqm Cost: Euro 1.500.000,00 Contractor: Bouwbedrijf Siebenga Build engineer: Adviesburo Nieman, VDW Bouwadvies Construction: Pieters Bouwtechniek Installations: Van Duin Installation Management, Installatiebedrijf Hoekstra-Mildam Photographer: Iwan Baan Start building: January 2007 Completion: April 2008 Status: Completed

2010-11-01 Nomination Architectuurprijs Almere 2010 / Nomination Ecola Award 2010-05-28 broadcasting II 2009-11-18 Creative Commons: Dwell featuring Villa Overgooi 2009-08-07 Nomination Europa House Award 2008-11-10 broadcasting 2008-08-12 NEXT nominated for the AM NAi Award 2008 2008-04-17 golden nomination

The Overgooi project concerns a villa-like residential building with five specific accommodations commissioned by the Villa Van Vijven (Villa For Five) Association that consists of five private clients.

The opportunity arose to develop five residential units on a 5000 m² lot – with the restriction that they had to look like a single villa.

Based on this fact and on various qualities of the environment we implemented a series of transformations on the building volume. On the basis of a number of workshops with the residents this resulted in five specific accommodations, each with its very own character.

Each storey has been rotated a quarter turn in relation to the others, giving the residences exceptional orientation, incidence of sunlight and spatiousness. Subsequently, the entire building was raised to give each residence a second floor view – over the dike – of the Gooimeer.

Type: Housing Location: Oosterhamrikkanaal Groningen Client: Nijestee Groningen Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens and Ayelet Kamar Erez Floor area / size: 178 dwellings Competition: Invited Competition 2009 results undisclosed Status: Exhibition and publication

At the invitation of building corporation Nijestee, NEXT architects has participated in the Intense Low-Rise manifestation, an initiative of the Municipality of Groningen to identify options for increased urban population density. The manifestation presents 52 designs for 30 locations in existing urban areas and offers a realistic study as a response to the current national debate: how do we optimize the use of city space to decrease the pressure on rural areas? 

 
The project is located on a former industrial site at the periphery of the city center. The site is characterized by the schizophrenic conditions of a very attractive west side on the waterfront and a problematic east side with elevated infrastructures. NEXT architects developed a strategy to maximize the experience of the waterfront with the simple gesture to extend the west façade. This creates a variety urban areas as well as a diversity of housing types.

Type: Exhitions and manifestations Location: Rotterdam Client: Department of Culture Municipality Rotterdam, Historical Museum Rotterdam Team: Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Bart Reuser with Toon van Schijndel, Jurriaan Hillerström, Abdel Tutu, Maria Teresa Durao, Menwua Deng Collaborator / associate: Kossmann.DeJong Exhibition Architects Floor area / size: 10.000 m2 Cost: 45.000.000 Status: study 2008

Together with exhibition architects Kossmann & De Jong, NEXT architects has been asked to develop a strategy for Rotterdam’s new City Museum. This museum, which would encompass  the existing Historical Museum of Rotterdam, will be a place to depict and discuss the contemporary city, its history, and dream of its future: a place to celebrate the urban identity of this international harbour city.

The concept of the building is derived from the idea of a giant collection of showcases, apparently stacked and combined to create a three-dimensional open structure. The smaller showcases house the permanent collection of the museum and thereby function as a public depot; the bigger showcases generate space for temporary exhibitions. City life continues within the framework of the stacked boxes; the interstitial spaces function as new public domains and represent the dynamic of the Rotterdam street-life. It is a building without thresholds.

Type: Landmark | bridge, restaurant and viewing deck Location: Amsterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Maria Teresa Durão Floor area / size: 350 mtr span Special thanks to: Quest Magazine Status: Sketch design

2008-07-31 New landmark for Amsterdam?

‘Why is it that Amsterdam lacks an architectonic icon like the Eiffel Tower’ questions Quest Magazine. Amsterdam is no city of ‘useless’ icons is the answer of NEXT architects. But it has potential for a strong gesture that binds north and south Amsterdam for good. Therefore NEXT designed in this context the Y-bridge in connection with the waterfront developments along the Y-banks and published in the July issue. Beside the connection of the centre with the developments on the North side of the Y, the bridge forms a square above the water with a great view of Amsterdam and its remarkable canals. The bridge has a span of approximately 350 meter and goes up to 50 meter concerning cruise ships to pass. This Y-bridge creates not only a relation with Amsterdam North, but moreover it transforms the Y to a town square. It is a new icon for Amsterdam and perhaps even for the Netherlands.

Type: Bridge Location: Purmerend Client: Municipality of Purmerend Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Ronald Rietveld, Jurriaan Hillerström, Agathe Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo, Betty Aarts, Michel Mandersloot, Anne-Laurance Ricard, Tom van Alst, Ayelet Kamar, Agata Pięt Collaborator / associate: Ronald Rietveld Landschaparchitectuur Floor area / size: 66 mtr span Cost: Euro 6.000.000,00 Construction: Ingenieurs Bureau Amsterdam (IBA), ABT adviesbureau voor Bouwtechniek Status: Final design

2012-01-20 under construction 2011-05-26 Breaking ground 2011-01-10 start construction 2010-02-01 Start Tender

The Melkwegbrug, a continuation of the Melkweg, is part of the Kanaalsprong master plan and connects the Weidevenne district to the historical city centre of Purmerend.

To conform to the angle of inclination requirements with regard to bicycle and wheelchair traffic, we needed a length of over 100m.

We therefore decided to separate bicycle and wheelchair traffic from pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians cross the canal by a high arch, reach a height of over 12m and stand a chance of a vista: the connection between the old and the new becomes perceivable here. 

The bridge thus becomes more than just the fastest possible crossing, it becomes an end and an attraction in itself. Because pedestrian traffic and bicycle traffic are separated, the footbridge can continue the direct line of the Melkweg in the direction of the centre.

The bicycle bridge coils over the water to create sufficient length to limit the angle of inclination of the bicycle path. The section that opens is divided diagonally and consists of two revolving bridge decks.

Type: dwelling Location: Ouderkerk aan de Amstel Client: Schenk / Linders Team: Claudia Linders, Marijn Schenk with Joost Lemmens and Filipe Pocas Collaborator / associate: Claudia Linders Floor area / size: 135 sqm Photographer: Gianni Basso Start building: 2007-04-01 Completion: 2007-10-01 Status: Build

2011-01-01 Elle Wonen features House M&C

Type: dwelling Location: Amsterdam Client: private Team: Marijn Schenk, Claudia Linders, Bart Reuser, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens Collaborator / associate: Claudia Linders Floor area / size: 180 m2 Photographer: Gert Jan Kocken Start building: may 2007 Completion: december 2007 Status: realized

2008-10-25 Another NEXT nomination: Dutch Design Awards 2008

The only things inside the House M&M on the Oostelijke Handelskade in Amsterdam are white cubes: no walls, no rooms, no trafficways. Or perhaps, no rooms, no walls, only trafficways.  Each of the four cubes encompasses different functions, serving as a gigantic furnishing that determines the area around it. The first contains a toilet, bath and shower; the second, a wash basin and wardrobe. The third cube envelops a double bed and a bookcase, the fourth cube contains two single beds and a workplace.  In this way the function of the area between the cubes is determined: the area between the first and second cubes, or between bath and wash basin, becomes the bathroom. When not in use, however, these areas revert to open space in the dwelling.  The volumes of the dwelling are finished in white satin paint. The wet function areas have been treated with a polyurethane coating. On the second level of the dwelling, the cube is revisited in the form of a low-elevation square: the kitchen island, around which all the kitchen functions are arranged

Type: Master plan + Dwelling Location: Eck en Wiel Client: Stichting Locus a/d Rijn Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Claudia Linders, Joost Lemmens, Rolf Pederson Collaborator / associate: Labeled / Claudia Linders and Cor Kalfsbeek Contractor: Aannemersbedrijf van der Helden BV Construction: Goudstikker - de Vries Installations: Walter Jansen Photographer: Lisette van de Pavoordt Special thanks to: Cor Kalfsbeek (Masterplan / House Kuenzli) and Thijs van Hees Landschape design Completion: July 2007 Status: Realised

2010-05-04 WOOD 2010: The Architecture of Necessity 2008-06-27 Festive opening 2007-12-01 Huis te Wiel in De Gelderlander 2007-10-01 Huis te Wiel nears completion

The design for the ‘Huis te Wiel’ estate is a careful composite of the existing farm, two new houses and an annex.

By adding the new buildings, we created a courtyard. The existing farm, a national monument, has preserved its main building status and the hierarchy is strengthened as the new buildings are constructed like this farm: its slanted roof and the different directions of the ridges of the front of the house and of the attached barn are copied in the new buildings.

The buildings’ unity and coherence are increased by adding structuralizing elements – duckboards and platforms – that mark the transition between the collective and the private. The decoration of the yard includes elements – a hedge, formal beds of plants – that refer to the location’s past. The master plan design echoes the various strata of the country estate’s rich history.

The materialization of new buildings refers to an agricultural past, the yard and the composition refer to the history of ‘Huis te Wiel’.

Type: Office (renovation and interior) Location: Herengracht 258-266, Amsterdam Client: Wieden + Kennedy Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Joost Lemmens, Toon van Schijndel, Jurriaan Hillerström, Agatha Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo, Jennifer de Jonge, Bas Kalmeijer, Maria Salinas Floor area / size: 5.600 sqm Cost: Euro 5.500.000,00 Contractor: Dijkman-Carbaat Bouw BV Construction: Strackee BV bouwadviesbureau Installations: Trintas BV (advice); Lomans Groep totaalinstallateurs (E), Gebr. Van Wijk installatietechniek BV(W) Photographer: Iwan Baan, Martine Felice Berendsen Completion: December 2007

2008-11-27 LAI prize 2008 for NEXT architects! 2008-09-12 NEXT nomination Lensvelt de Architect interior award 2007-10-10 Red entrance floor 2007-05-16 Reconstruction started

Wieden + Kennedy, the advertising agency of firms such as Nike and Coca Cola, asked NEXT to design their new accommodation on the Amsterdam Herengracht. The new building was a labyrinthine conjunction of two historical properties.

The six floor areas – 1,000 m² each – were promisingly large, but entirely without vertical connections. NEXT’s proposal was to open up the hearts of the two buildings by inserting three glass shafts that cut through all of the floors. Inside the glass shafts we created double-high spaces that connect to every other floor. This creates diagonal sight lines among all the different floors in the middle of the building. The glass spaces are used as presentation and meeting facilities and are called the ‘meeting and working rooms’. This operation has resulted in a tremendous amount of transparency without loss of useful floor space.  

The details of the interior include various contrasts, for instance between the rough unfinished shop floors and the perfection of the materials and the details in the glass meeting rooms. The original period rooms are extraordinary, too: they have been left intact wherever possible and bring the historical feel of the buildings to life.  Front to back, we designed long cupboards that bridge the height difference between the floors. They are clad in magnetic materials so they can be used as presentation panels: every floor can be transformed from a shop floor to a presentation room.

The programme includes a small theatre for screenings, various studios for audiovisual productions, a gym with a floor made out of recycled Nike shoes, a penthouse with a bar and a roof garden overlooking the city, and a large garden with basketball facilities. On the elaboration of the interior design, NEXT collaborated with several kindred spirits. Snode Vormgevers, for instance, designed a number of tables that can slide out of the kitchen window. The tables include crosscut wood sections for the preparation of food that are removable and washable.

Type: office interior Location: Overamstel, Amsterdam Client: MT mediagroep Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Immanuelle Faustle, Ines Meuws Material: kzs-blocks and wood Floor area / size: 450m2 Contractor: NB&M Installations: Unica Carpenter: Senso Photographer: NEXT architects Start building: 2009-08-01 Completion: 2009-09-07 Status: delivered

NEXT architects was asked by MT media group to design the interior of their new office in the Chewing Gum Factory. In a bare, industrial hall of 450m2, with a ceiling height of 4.5 m, the programmatic components, such as the kitchen, 2 meeting rooms, board rooms and a storage room, are housed in two volumes. These elements are positioned opposite each other in space. The user experiences, despite the additions, the entire space. The volumes are constructed out of standard KZS-blocks, with continuous vertical and horizontal joints and then painted entirely white. Large windows in the grid of blocks bring the light inside. The windows are framed by rough underlayment frames. The same underlayment is used for the big stair, as part of one of the volumes. This stair can be used as a stage for presentations and meetings. Each room has its own color which reveals a playful character.

Type: Office space Location: Amsterdam Overamstel Client: NEXT architects Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Jurriaan Hillerström, Agatha Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo, Joost Lemmens, Filipe Pocas, Toon van Schijndel, Jennifer de Jonge Floor area / size: 270 sqm Contractor: KBK bouw Installations: Hollandertechniek Carpenter: Morowood Status: Completed

Our own office space is located since mid-2007 in a former chewing gum factory that has recently become one of Amsterdam’s creative hotspots.

Being one of the first companies to move in, we started with just an empty space.  In general, we wanted to keep that atmosphere intact. We preserved the empty space by creating a large open central work area surrounded by various service rooms that can be closed off or totally opened up as needed. These side rooms can be entirely closed off with ceiling-high sliding doors edged with rubber sealing flanges, like the ones found at carwashes. 

The openness of the large central workspace is preserved and enhanced by the use of 7-meter long tables, creating a large open space between the tables and the ceiling that also draws attention to the industrial character of the ceiling and the room itself. 

Type: Shopping mall with office buildings Location: Beijing Client: Huihuang Real Estate Ltd. Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Chen Song, Jiang Xiao Fei, Guo Zhi Fang. Jia Yuan, Xin Hong, Mo Lisheng, Yang Zhong Hui, Zen Zhao Ying, Yuan Duo, Ma Qin, Qin Qin, Zhang Rui, Su Yue, Wu Yun, Zhang Yu Hua, Lu Ming, Jiang Nan Collaborator / associate: HAYA architects Floor area / size: 180.000 sqm Start building: 2005-11-01 Completion: 2007-09-01 Status: realized

The Huihuang International Plaza is a building complex of 180.000m2 in size and accommodates shopping, offices, residential, conference, a hotel and parking. Four of the five towers were initially designed as office towers. Because of changing market conditions, three of the four had to change into residential towers over night. As a clause, the design had to be able to change back to offices before the building was completed. To anticipate on ever changing requirements, an architectonic concept is developed in which residential blurs with office. This ‘blurring’ makes both residential and office in representation possible. ‘Blurring’ is achieved by a changing relieve between stone and glass; the foundations of the buildings being more stone, the tops more glass. This pattern aims to visually dissolve the program, as well as the height of the towers. The architectonic concept is strengthened by economics: the higher the floor, the more view is offered, the higher the market value can be.

Type: Conference table Client: Wieden + Kennedy Material: Greenpanel Cost: €1500 Carpenter: Morowood Completion: december 2007 Status: for sale at NEXT

2008-10-19 NEXT table at Kortrijk interior exhibition

This table was designed for the prize winning office interior of Wieden + Kennedy. The table is designed as a construction box, it consists of 4 pieces that can be easily fixed together by wooden pins and taken apart again, which makes it easy to move. We designed the table out of Finsa Greenpanel, a very light and strong constructive material, developed to reduce material use, without loosing quality. The inside of the plates is hollow, by taking a series of partitions out, it is possible to carry cables thru the construction, ending up onto the tabletop thru the legs.Details: length: 200 cm, width: 75 cm, height: 75 cm, weight: 28 kg

Location: Xidan, Beijing Client: Meisheng Real Estate Ltd. Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Wopke Tjipke Schaafstal, Bobby de Graaf, Chen Song, Yang Zhong Hui and Jia Yuan Floor area / size: 400 sqm Status: Completed

2007-10-01 Selling center of Xidan shopping nears completion

Water Stone is a high-end residential project located in the centre of Beijing. The assignment asked for a 400sqm so-called sales centre; an exhibition-like pavilion in which the apartments will be sold before they are actually built. The building has to accommodate private meetings like closing financial agreements and signing contracts while at the same time it has to seduce the public to enter. The building aims to express this ambiguous tension of simultaneously being public and private.

A standard rectangular building envelop is reshaped into an envelop that has three straight and two inclined faces. The reshaping creates a volume with two strong directions: one side seems to open up towards a street corner while the other side seems to close the building of. To emphasize the tension between public and private, the inclined elevations are executed in transparent glass while the straight walls are executed in a translucent double layered skin. Where the building opens up towards the public completely, a narrow casted view over a 1:100 scale model of the Water Stone is offered.

Type: prototype chair Client: Droog Design Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Samira Boon with Maria Salinas Moltó, Eve Arpo, Agathe Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo Collaborator / associate: Studio Samira Boon Material: fiberglass and nylon Spacer Fabric with polyester resin; Floor area / size: h=70, w = 62,5, d = Build engineer: Müller textiles and Polyproducts Construction: Textilemuseum Tilburg Special thanks to: Prof. Adriaan Beukers, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Hybrids Completion: September 2007

2007-09-14 DRYTECH NEW PRODUCTS AND EXHIBITION

In the context of ‘Drytech 3’, NEXT architects, in collaboration with Studio Samira Boon, manufactured two products, a chair and a folding screen. Both products are the result of a technologically innovative use of materials, which is a condition for the “Drytech” project series organized by Droog Design.

For the chair, we used a double weaving technique used in carpet production: two carpets are woven together and cut loose afterwards to create a velour side. This inspired us to design a chair along the same lines: two pieces of fabric are partly interwoven and partly cut loose. Cutting the fabric turns a two-dimensional cloth into a three-dimensional object.

The chair derives its strength form both the double fabric and the curves: hardening so-called ‘three-dimensional’ fabrics by means of resins gives them constructive qualities.

Type: prototype chamber screen Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Samira Boon with Maria Salinas Moltó, Eve Arpo, Agathe Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo Collaborator / associate: Studio Samira Boon Material: cotton and elastics with polyester resin Floor area / size: h=180, w = 87, d = 7 Build engineer: Müller textiles and Polyproducts Construction: Textilemuseum Tilburg Special thanks to: Prof. Adriaan Beukers, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Hybrids Completion: September 2007

The folding screen is a continuation of Samira Boon’s research into 3D weaving techniques, for instance by using waffle patterns. Using a combination of 3D waffle structures and resin reinforcement makes the load-bearing structure and the screen melt into one, thus creating a super light and exceptionally rigid screen.

The 3D relief also has an acoustic function. The transparency of the material causes the structure to change whenever the light incidence changes. The screens are zipped up, with the zippers attached to parts of the fabric that are not reinforced. This way, the fabric can even be used as a hinge.

Type: Daycare Location: Amsterdam Client: Hestia Team: Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, Michel Schreinemachers, Claudia Linders with Toon van Schijndel, Agatha Osika, Ieda Alvarez Dogo Collaborator / associate: Claudia Linders | Labeled Floor area / size: 200 sqm Cost: Euro 87.000,00 Contractor: Nieuwenhuizen Bouwservice Management Installations: EWW Carpenter: Gielissen Interior & Exhibitions BV Completion: August 2007 Status: Completed

2007-11-27 PUBLICATION | DOUBLE SCORE IN DE ARCHITECT

Child-care centre Hestia is located on the second story of a EEA-designed multifunctional building, in which schools for children of other ages are also located.  The space must provide room for different types of activities, and a balanced context in which the child can blossom.

Dance, theatre, music, reading, study, cooking and drawing are all activities which children should be able to carry out at Hestia. Above all, the child-tenders want a space that is easily supervised and restful, that works as a backdrop to personal development. Children should be able to find a place they feel is their own, where it is possible to pullback from the others in the group without being able to fully elude the attentions of the adults.
The available space, the architectonic elements and the demands of the client resulted in the decision  to furnish the space using one large, multifunctional element. This element would serve to divide up the space into different areas, while simultaneously creating a connection between the activities, thereby maintaining continuity and community. A landscape is created as tangible environment on a child-sized scale, offering possibilities and challenging the children to participate; which provides cover or shelter where needed and adventure where possible.

Type: Bridge Location: Hulsen Client: Municipality Hellendoorn Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk withJurriaan Hillerström, Filipe Pocas, Ieda Alvarez Dogo, Wenhua Deng Floor area / size: 45 mtr span Cost: Euro 1.100.000,00 Construction: Ingenieurs Bureau Amsterdam (IBA) Completion: September 2008

2008-07-30 deck installed

The Visschebelt is a nature conservancy project intended to return the Regge River to its original meandering path. The outlook-hill offering a panoramic overview of the new nature-area is linked to the new bridge. The bridge is comprised of a section for motor traffic and a section for light and low-speed traffic, such as equestrian traffic, small motorscooters and special vehicles.

Over the Regge, the bicycle- and foot-paths descend in the direction of the elevated outlook, so that the bridge splits into two parts. The eye-catching, triangular area created by splitting the traffic paths emphasizes the presence of and relation to the water. Aside from creating a surprising look-through space, the opening allows daylight to reach the usually dark spaces under the bridge, promoting plant growth.

Contrasting with the open and airy railing running along the outer side of the bridge, the safety barrier along the inner side of the bridge is a solid concrete wall, extending down past the surface of the roadway toward the river; the barrier is adorned with a bold graphic design. 

The outer railing is detailed with graduated steel supports, tapering from a narrow top to a wider base on the outer side of the bridge. In this way, the edge of the bridge on the east side is rigid: the grates and railings are terminated abruptly. On the opposite side of the Regge, the west side, the bridge dissolves into the landscape through the more gradual lines of the grates and railing supports. 

Type: Lobby Location: Shangdi Beijing Client: Huan Yang Grand Land Team: John van de Water, Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Melle Pama, Michel van Tilborg, Yuan Duo, Hu Qin Floor area / size: 800 sqm Completion: August 2007

HAYA-mansion is a 1.700 sqm office building located near the North 4th Ring Road. The assignment was for the design of the 800m2 lobby; the client had envisioned a lobby where Chinese tradition and modern office-culture would blend. 

The design follows the Chinese conception of an ideal lobby: a lobby should be large and to suggest it being large, it should be empty. This conception is translated into an architectonic concept in which the lobby wall is used to integrate all interior objects and functions that are required, such as the directory of occupants, visitor seating, art, planting and lighting.  

To blend with Chinese tradition, the initial proposal is optimized in co-operation with a Fengshui expert. This led to specific shapes of the lobby-walls and to specific locations for red lights, paintings, fish bowls and ancient Chinese money. The wall colours are derived from an actual Beijing sunrise, aiming to provide an everlasting vital morning atmosphere.

Client: Droog Design Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water , Aura Luz Melis with Marrit de Jong Collaborator / associate: Aura Luz Melis Material: Glass, vegetable fat, cork, 25W/G9 bulb Floor area / size: 16 x 31 cm Cost: Euro 415,00 Photographer: NEXT architects Status: For sale

2010-10-25 Slow glow award 2010

NEXT architects designed the FAT Lamp for the Droog presentation ‘Go Slow’ during the Salone del Mobile Milano 2004. Formerly known as FAT Lamp, this product is now for sale under the name ‘Slow Glow’. 

The 12th presentation of Droog Design in Milan was based on the concept of going slowly. Within an entirely white environment, visitors could enjoy a moment of rest amid the hustle and bustle of the furniture fair. Slowness as a quality was the focus. In accordance with the theme, NEXT architects developed a slow product - the FAT lamp - together with Aura Luz Melis.  

The light source is immersed in fat. As the heat from the lighting element slowly melts the fat, an intriguing process gradually unfolds. The light glows brighter and brighter and the lamp becomes warmer and warmer in a comforting way. This process takes about 2 hours. After turning it off the fat returns to its original solid state.

Type: Two bridges Location: Glanerbeek Client: Municipality Enschede Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Shaya Fallahi, Joost Lemmens Collaborator / associate: H+N+S Landschapearchitects Floor area / size: 20 mtr span Cost: - Contractor: Spijkerbouw Construction: ABT construction, Rob Nijsse and Jans Askes Start building: May 2006 Completion: December 2006

To reconcile the rather contradictory aim of transporting motor-vehicle traffic through the ecological zone of the Glanerbeek, the continuity of both is taken as a starting point. Above the brook the bridge transforms according to visual and ecological demands.

The bridge splits into three separate lanes – one each for bus, pedestrians and bicycles - and each assigned its individual artery the maximum available height, clearance and incline. This emphasizes its transparency, providing daylight underneath the bridge for flora and fauna, as well as a view of the Glanerbeek for passersby. A bench placed at the most advantageous overlook on the footpath combines the traditional function of the bridge as a point of transition with that of a meeting place. 

The construction is based on a thin in-situ concrete deck, strategically positioned atop a repetition of gabions filled with rough stones. The use of gabions allows plants and wildlife to inhabit the structure, further integrating the bridge into its natural surroundings. 

Type: Urban plan Location: Purmerend Client: Municipality Purmerend Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Ronald Rietveld, Jurriaan Hillerström, Agathe Osika, Betty Aarts, Michel Mandersloot Collaborator / associate: Ronald Rietveld Floor area / size: 150.000 sqm Construction: Ingenieurs Bureau Amsterdam (IBA) en ABT adviesbureau voor Bouwtechniek Status: Preliminary Design

The starting point for this design was the commission to tie the new centre, the Kop van West, to the old historical centre of Purmerend.

To do so we developed a three-element coupling, embedding the new canal area into the existing context. The Nieuwe Haven, Theaterplein and Mart Stamplein are connected to each other by a boardwalk and two new bridges.

These six elements are coherent as far as character and materiality are concerned and together create the identity of Purmerend’s new waterfront. Similar principles and materials were used for the two bridges and this univocal effect further strengthens the unity of the canal area.

The pedestrian decks of both bridges reach a height of over 12 m, which provides a beautiful view over Purmerend and makes the connection between the old and the new visually perceptible.

Type: Urban plan Location: Overamstel, Amsterdam Client: Department of Spatial Planning, Municipality of Amsterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Jurriaan Hillerström, Ieda Alvarez Dogo, Bouke Veurman Floor area / size: 150.000m2

At the invitation of the Amsterdam urban planning department we developed a strategy for the development of the southern section of OverAmstel, the NUON grounds.

NEXT architects started from this contrast and also used it typologically. The result is a concept for a type of building block shaped like a ‘U’ that surrounds an area of earthbound houses with stacked housing blocks.

The open shape faces south: the sunny side and also the side on which the existing canal can enhance the quality of the environment. Folding the envelope of the stacked houses in at the passages accents the entries, differentiates the public spaces inside the block and also extends the programmatic capacity.

Routes and layout mark the transitions between the public and the private domain. The different levels created by the parking facilities bring the inner area into relief and divide it into different types of collective spaces, such as alleys, streets, gardens and squares.

Location: ZPARK Beijing Client: Beijing Century Real Estate Team: John van de Water with Chen Song, Wopke Schaafstal, Lui Gui Feng, Li Gui Feng and Bart Reuser, Marij Floor area / size: 55.000 m2 Start building: August 2007

2009-08-27 Google Earth View 2008-05-10 Sneak preview 2007-11-10 Construction at full speed 2007-08-07 Construction started

This IBM research-office building is situated in a new, green IT-development zone in North-west Beijing. The given site is elliptical and according to the urban plan, buildings are to be single entities. IBM aims to provide a healthy working environment, as part of their vision to provide a productive environment.

To maximize the building area, the building envelop follows the site restrictions and therefore is elliptically shaped. To stimulate a healthy environment, the building aims to maximize its relations with its green surrounding landscape.  

As such, the building consists of one two-story ellipse that rests on four smaller ellipses. The top two floors contain offices; the collective program is concentrated in the smaller ellipses.

The meandering space between the ground floor ellipses opens up towards the surrounding landscapes and accommodates the central lobby and three internal gardens.

Type: Dwelling Location: Werkhoven Client: G. Van Echtelt Team: Michel Schreinemachers with Joost Lemmens, Wout Smits, Vincent Heck, Shyla Rietveld, Patrick Maisano, Floris de Ridder Collaborator / associate: JMA, Amsterdam Floor area / size: 200 sqm Cost: Euro 255.000,00 Contractor: Timmer- en aannemersbedrijf J.H. de Vries Build engineer: Pieters Bouwtechniek Photographer: Jeroen Musch Start building: May 2004 Completion: December 2005 Status: Completed

The wish of the client was to create a house which draws on the ideals associated with the traditional farmhouse.

The volume is created through a number of subtle manipulations such as the vertical and horizontal displacement of the main elements along a sort of a fault-line: this shift reinforces the perspective of the surrounding landscape, optimising the view of the vast horizon.  The floor plan has been organized in such a way that it achieves a continuity between the different  functions involved with a residential program, while separating service areas such as the main entranceway, bath and pantry. 

The main area is built using traditional details. Relying on knowledgeable specialists, we were able to construct the house using bricks and straw. The bigger window openings cut though this volume, open up the interior and connect it to the landscape.

Type: Bridge Location: Nijverdal Client: Municipality Hellendoorn Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers,Filipe Pocas, Jurriaan Hillerström, Ieda Alvarez Dogo Collaborator / associate: H+N+S Landschapsarchitecten Floor area / size: 27 mtr span Cost: Euro 800.000,00 Construction: Romein Beton Completion: September 2008

In the community of Nijverdal a segment of the Regge River has been restored to its original path. This operation was undertaken as a part of the larger combined environmental conservancy plan for the area. Working with bureau H+N+S, a landscaping proposal was developed with the bridge playing a prominent role.  

The Wierdensestraat is a long road bounded along its entire length by a separated bicycle path, to which a footpath will be added. The crossing of the River Regge is visually emphasised by drawing the bicycle and foot paths closer in towards the roadway. This makes room on the both sides of the bridge for a lookout for passersby over the Regge Valley.

The lookout bays are floored with steel grates, whose open structure increases the feeling of connection with the water flowing underneath. The grating also allows more daylight to reach the areas under the bridge, stimulating plant growth and encouraging the ecological balance to remain at natural levels.

The grates and hand-railings are carried by vertical steel supports which are fastened to the concrete; these supports are flat, and taper to a narrow top from a wide bottom. This graduation positions the hand-railing on the inner side when seen in relation to the steel grates underfoot. The visual effect of the repetition of these tapered supports gives the bridge a svelte appearance, a flowing transition between the abutment and the beginning of the surface of the bridge which gives the bridge a much elongated appearance.

Type: Student dwellings Location: Haidian District, Beijing, China Client: Beijing Normal University Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Floor area / size: 49.000 sqm Competition: Invited competition 2006, second prize

Chinese university dormitories are strictly divided worlds of girls and boys. For this typical university dormitory, 12 sqm rooms are shared by four students; each room has a closed balcony.

The building will be accommodate a total of 3.500 students.  In order to maximize the distance between boys and girls, two L-shaped buildings are situated opposite each other. The boys’ dorm is situated to the south; it is two floors lower and by reducing the building height sunlight is guaranteed to reach the two enclosed courtyards.

The two buildings are connected by a recreation program that can be used from both sides.  The elevation concept is derived from nature and abstractly resembles the growing of ivy. Balconies embrace the building and create a play between the individual rooms and the building complex as a whole.

Type: Dwelling Location: Enschede Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Floor area / size: 200 sqm Status: Competition

This competition entry for a town house presents a residence with unprecedented spatial contrasts. The combination of a belle etage with cascading stairs results in a cross shape that forms the centre of the house.

The cross functions as a spatial, functional and organizational foundation. It carries the daylight onto the heart of the residence – usually the darkest part of the house. Several private rooms for personal use, such as studies, bedrooms, a bathroom and a roof garden, have been arranged around the cross. 

The façade is an important part of this house as the contrast between open and closed is expressed optimally in the materials: glass for the open belle etage and a dark brick front for the private rooms.

Type: Prototype of a dwelling Location: IJburg, Amsterdam Client: ING Real Estate Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with David Spierings, Remco van Gijzen Floor area / size: 220 m2 Cost: Euro 370.000,00 Competition: May 2006 Status: Preliminary design

The Beauty of Simplicity
 

In short, building is nothing but connecting and stacking modular units: an upgraded kind of Lego. And the simpler the connecting and stacking is, the more efficiently one can build.

So... we based Casa Duplo on the Lego brick. The design consists of a number of connected and stacked simple volumes. The efficient way of connecting and stacking results in terraces, loggias and a large overhang that can serve as a carport, with the interior-exterior relation playing an important part. 

The need to secure adequate privacy is at odds with the wish to bring as much of the exterior into the interior as possible. Casa Duplo’s window openings each face a different part of the environment, thus directing the eye to the space between the surrounding buildings. The façade, which consists of horizontal wooden slats, lets the daylight in and allows a view but obscures   the view into the house.

Type: Exhibition Client: Platform 21 Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers Collaborator / associate: Roelof Mulder, Joanna van der Zand Floor area / size: 200 sqm

Stuffed animals, monsters and robots – we love them! This exhibition investigated the emotional bond people have with nonliving beings. In addition to the exhibition, there were create-your-own-stuffed-character workshops with Maoma and Hanazuki and character-writing workshops by The Little League.

The great diversity of exhibition material needed a flexible design that could be adapted easily until the very last day of the exhibit. We came up with the idea of using large scale mobiles, to which elements large or small could be added, for each character: The result was a very playful exhibition space that suited the character of the subject.

Type: Urban plan Location: Amsterdam Client: De Principaal Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Waterwith Joost Lemmens, Maria Salinas

This project is a study of the building prospects of the Scholendriehoek area in the Amsterdam Bos en Lommer district. 

Essentially, the proposal contains a combination of low-rise two- or three-storey buildings accentuated by eight-storey high-rises. In this way a living environment is created that feels relaxed and village-like, but nevertheless has the density that befits its urban location.

The usual Bos en Lommer building height – five storeys – is expressly avoided, so that the area contrasts positively with its direct environment. Building lines and building heights within the plan vary subtly, creating a smaller size and scale.

On an urban planning level, however, the area is connected with its immediate surroundings in various ways. Sight lines from the adjacent streets are continued inside the area, for instance, and the plan has the flexibility to absorb existing buildings.

Type: Office building Client: IPMMC Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Jurriaan Hillerström, Remco van Gijzen en David Spierings Collaborator / associate: Rudy Uytenhaak Floor area / size: 2.500 sqm

This design is based on a simple and very flexible setup: a solid four-bay-wide building with the closed office programme organized in the two narrower exterior bays and a wider middle section that is available for an open programme.

Removing floors in the right places of the middle section creates vertical connections between all of the floors and allows the light to find its way deep into the building.

All special functions, such as the entrance, the concept department and the cafeteria, can be situated in the open middle section to create relations and views in the centre of the building. 

The heart of the building is an open space, a diagonal plaza over several floors. The storeys will function as a huge staircase, where people can meet and see each other arrive.

Type: urban planning Location: Scheepmakerskwartier Haarlem Client: Heijmans BV, Proper Stok Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Joost Lemmens, Jeroen Bos, Federico Caputo and Rolf Pederson Collaborator / associate: Rudy Uytenhaak Architectenbureau

Property developers Heijmans and Proper Stok invited NEXT architects to compete for the development of a beautiful site adjacent to Haarlem’s city centre. The challenge was to build compactly without obstructing the view of important buildings in the vicinity, like the famous panopticon.

The design, called “Het Spaarnehof”, shows an enclosed residential area: a route of narrow passages over the entire length of the area that opens up in unexpected locations where small squares, courtyards and views of the water appear.

There are clearings on the whimsical waterfront that refer to its shipbuilding past. Where possible, the compact buildings have high features. This results in a strong connection between the houses and the public area and, at the same time, in apartments with a wonderful view.

Type: Art Location: Zoetermeer Client: Municipality Zoetermeer Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Joost Lemmens, Rolf Pederson Cost: Euro 90.000,00

Our proposal for the Water Theatre on the Oostkade in Zoetermeer, 6 metres below sea level, takes the form of an intervention in public space; however, the intervention is not meant to be the actual work of art, but to make art out of a public space: a theatre. 

We will widen the stairway from the dike to the water to act as a grandstand. A curtain that responds to the presence of passers-by, to on-lookers, will frame the view. The proposed dock will extend further into the water. It is a potential podium, but in a much stronger sense, real life is the podium.  

The curtain is a permanent screen of flowing water; 6 metres high. It shows manifestly how the polder is situated in relation to sea level. The flowing water dramatises the level of the polder. When closed, the curtain acts like a shutter, obscuring the view offered from the Oostkade of the canal and the houses. The curtain is linked to sensors in the bank that respond when a passer-by takes a step onto the bank. Then the curtain opens in front of the visitor, suddenly showing a view of the waterway. Everyday, familiar reality suddenly becomes a work of art: reality is art.

Type: Retail Location: Amsterdam Client: YOI Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Rolf Pederson, Joost Lemmens, Filipe Pocas, Jeroen Bos Floor area / size: 30 till 100 sqm Cost: Euro 40.000,00 Status: On the move

On the move in 48 hours

The challenge was to design a fashion shop which can be moved to another location within 48 hours. A shop which is not merely a place for selling clothing, but fluid in its state of being. It was obvious to combine these two goals, using as a starting point the four values of YOI: AUTONOMOUS, POLYVALENT, environmental, DYNAMIC.  

The design consists of four elements that can be arranged in a multitude of ways for an infinite number of eventual locations. The first and most important element is the floor, which is constructed out of standard plastic pallets. Other elements - like large rotatable mirrors and clothing racks/frames- can be attached to these floor pallets. All back-stock and other inventory is placed in open containers that form part of the display: everything is visible, everything is movable, fluid.  

Since the first store opened in the Declerqstraat, Amsterdam in November 2006 YOI has opened its doors at several locations throughout the city and its products were on show at a number of events and festivals. Meanwhile the collection has been adopted by major Dutch department store The Bijenkorf.

Type: Kindergarten Location: Chaoyang district, Beijing Client: Xintian Real Estate Ltd Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Joost Lemmens with Chen Song, Ma Qing, Zai Xin, Floor area / size: 3.000 sqm Status: Preliminary design

In a large new residential area, NEXT was commissioned to design a series of public buildings, including a kindergarten, school, club and sales centre.  

The first building to be executed is the kindergarten, which must be ready to receive 400 children in 2006. The kindergarten is created through three conceptual architectural steps: a projection of the typical Chinese school on the site, all classrooms face South.

The introduction of the common room transforms the traditional linear design of the school in an unexpected way: by 'pushing' the volume of the common room through the rectangular structure, all the floors are displaced along a curve in a stepped manner, creating an amphitheatre-like space inside the building, and creating a canopy from the overhang of the upper floors on the outside of the building.  

The design organizes all classrooms around an internal space, the children's amphitheatre. This theatre is the social heart of the building: here children meet, see, play and are stimulated to learn. In this design, inside and outside are inextricably linked: form and content are one.    

Type: Interior, office space Location: Xicheng District, Beijing Client: Huan Yang Group, JDSF consultancy, NEXT architects Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Joost Lemmens, Geoffrey Moote, Froukje van de Klundert, Chen Song, Wang Bo and Zang Rui Floor area / size: 1.250 sqm Completion: 2005

The Beijing NEXT architects / Huan Yang-office measures a 100 x 25 meter typical open office floor. Four different companies and a number of departments share the same office floor. To connect and organize the individual companies, a concept was developed in which the traditional Chinese corridor - or lang - is used as a reference.  

Traditionally, a lang connects places while providing a constant changing perspective over the landscape it crosses. Whilst following the traditional principles, the contempory lang is charged with extra meaning. By transforming constantly in section, it incorporates the functions of lobby, meeting rooms, benches, exhibition and projection areas and storage shelves.

Type: exhibition in progress Location: Garage Municipal Chaumont, France Client: Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Claudia Linders with Geoffrey Moote Collaborator / associate: Labeled / Claudia Linders Floor area / size: 1.000 sqm Cost: Euro 35.000,00 Competition: May 2005

The exhibition was in keeping with the dynamics of the creation process of this catalogue. The base material for the exhibition consisted of over 600 large cardboard boxes, literally the building blocks. At the beginning of the process these boxes filled the entire location, a large municipal garage. The removal, shifting and stacking of boxes within this vast area resulted in communal spaces: for a lecture room, a bookshop and a kitchen.

The students created their own work space in the area, and used the boxes they had to remove to do so to create walls and surfaces on which they displayed their work.

The exhibition was ever moving, and never complete. Depending on the unexpected dynamics of the creation of the publication, boxes were removed, relocated or transformed. The movement stopped only when the publication was completed and had taken over the position of the exhibition on 24 June.

Type: High-tech office and production space Location: Lufthansa Area, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Joost Lemmens, Chen Song, Wang Bo and Zang Rui Floor area / size: 350.000 sqm Competition: 2005 invited competition, second prize Status: Preliminary Design

Watchdata is a relatively young IT-company specializing in data security. The 62.000sqm new headquarters will accommodate the company’s general office departments, research labs and workshops.

Given the young age of the company and the enormous growth of the workforce, the design aims to create the conditions for meaningful communication between the individual employees and departments.

The program is organized according to a clear hierarchy: representative program faces south, factories face north. The different functions and departments are connected on the first floor by means of an ‘interaction-floor’. All public functions are concentrated on this floor, making it the company’s main square.

The ‘interaction floor’ encloses four internal courtyards that are adorned by two special pavilions: a meeting diamond and a sports-pavilion. The companies ‘W’-logo can be seen again in the elevation and construction; this is where logo, architecture and construction synthesize.

Type: Housing Location: Delft Client: DARE project development Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Joost Lemmens Floor area / size: 680 sqm Cost: Euro 1.515.000 Competition: Competition, nominated

‘Hoeksteen’ (Cornerstone) is a design for a residential building at the far end of Zuiderstraat that not only serves as a “lantern”, but is also the link between Delft’s city centre and the Zuiderpoort area that is currently under construction.

The meeting of these worlds is literally rendered perceptible: behind the old façade, we placed a new structure in the urban tissue.

The intersecting lines between the old and the new shape the new volume; the shape is adapted, on the one hand, to link up with the old buildings along Achterom and, on the other, manifests as part of the Zuidpoort area. The structure at the Achterom side underlines the old façades by making a cut between the old and the new. The incisions scale down the structure itself.

The commercial premises on the ground floor face all-round. Three small volumes are created that each face a different street side, held together by the courtyard on which all of the front doors are located. Two staircases, on Asvest and on Achterom, lend access to the courtyard. Passersby can look into the courtyard through the large opening in the façade on Zuiderstraat. It provides a view of the private world hidden behind the façade.

Type: Interior design and furniture Location: Denneweg 25, The Hague Client: Artoteek Den Haag Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Ica van Tongeren, Joost Lemmens Collaborator / associate: Architectencombinatie Bos Rosdorff Wiebing Carpenter: Morowood Status: Completed

For the Artoteek in Den Haag, renovated by Bos Rosdorff Wiebing architects, NEXT architects developed the interior design and a series of furniture including working desks and a reading table.

The design concept of the furniture has been based on an array of parallel plywood slats; the shape of the slats has been adapted for various functions such as the storage of a painting, the support of a computer and the storage of magazines. 

Invited by NEXT architects, designer Ica van Tongeren developed a special tile for the restroom of the Artoteek, which is housed in a historic building.

Based on the existing Delft Blue toilet and washbasin she used the coat of arms of The Hague - a stork with an eel in its beak- as the motif in the design of the tiles. By adjusting the scale of the storks she created a sense of space in the relatively small restroom. The images have been transferred to the tiles using a special glazing process through which the images are permanently rendered onto the tiles.

Type: Art Gallery Location: The Hague Client: Artoteek Den Haag / 7X11 Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Shaya Fallahi Collaborator / associate: Mieke Gresnigt, Freedom of Creation, Catalogtree and Milou van Ham Floor area / size: 120 sqm Cost: Euro 70.000,00 Completion: March 2004

7X11 is an art centre in the The Hague Ypenburg VINEX project that is in use as residential, work and exhibition space for artists. The starting point for the interior design is flexibility. The space has to accommodate many different types of uses: exhibitions and manifestations as well as studio space or space to host artists in residence. We chose to connect both the light and the decoration elements to a rail system. The decoration elements consist of perforated steel panels that may be used as both space dividers and exhibition panels. A kitchen-bench is part of the interior: to cook on and to sit on. 

Several of the components were created in collaboration with visual artists. The front panels were developed on the basis of photographs by Mieke Gresnigt in collaboration with Freedom of Creation, and a sunblind pattern was designed in collaboration with Catalog Tree designers. Milou van Ham developed a worded wallpaper for 7X11 that entices the audience to associate freely.

Location: Beijing | Haidian District Client: Beijing Gem Real Estate Development Co. Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Joost Lemmens with Chen Song

Luiming is a high-income, low-rise residential neighbourhood. The assignment asked for the design of a 700 sqm sales center. The site is characterized by its special natural beauty: a view of the mountains and the presence of old trees.  

To exploit these qualities, a building was developed in which two architectural routes are incorporated into one single volume. To create this volume, the three core functions of the sales center -exhibitions, offices and services- are organized parallel to each other. Then, the exhibition section is lifted onto the office volume, while the volume housing the service functions is sunk in underground.  

As a result, two architectural routes arise: one outside route leading over the roof of the building and one route inside the building. Both routes are akin to walking along a mountain trail. The outside route leads to a viewing platform, from which the neighbourhood can be overlooked; the inside route leads along exhibitions to a void, which offers a framed view out over the mountains.

Type: Research / Exhibition / Publication Client: University of Technology Delft, Faculty of Architecture Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Rudy Uytenhaak, Jeroen Mensink, Michiel Jansen Klomp, Felix Quiroga Nora Collaborator / associate: Prof. MSc Arch. Rudy Uytenhaak, MSc Arch. Jeroen Mensink

2009-04-04 Intense Low-Rise in Groningen 2008-05-19 1st prize Architectural Biennale Moscow.

Between 2004 and 2007, NEXT formed a research team with Professor Rudy Uytenhaak and Jeroen Mensink BSc at Delft University of Technology. The theme of the three-year study was ‘Dichtheid en Ruimtelijke Kwaliteit’ (Density and Spatial Quality) and it focused on the theoretical capacities of urban tissues in order to formulate a quantitative description of density.

The objective of the study was to acquire more knowledge about the various aspects of spatial density. The outcome of the study resulted in a publication of the same name, to go on sale in bookshops by the end of 2007. 

The Exhibition
As part of the three-year long study on Density and Spatial Quality, a very compact exhibition was put together that travelled to various locations in the Netherlands.

Research results and students’ work were compared with work from Rudy Uytenhaak’s practice. The four sides of the exhibition were used by each to communicate their own message.

Type: Exhibition design Location: Foro Traiano, Rome, Italy Client: Marianna Vecellio, curator Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water

Dutch design is known for shifting the boundary between reality and fiction, for its ironic re-interpretation of our everyday environment, for a search for the escape from the real.

WonderHolland proposes the confrontation of this attitude within the monumental setting of the Foro Traiano. But how can we re-invent reality in a context where reality is already based on the endless stratification of a thousand different histories? Where the everyday reality already confronts us with the superposition of the transient artefacts of our consumer age with the surreal presence of a solitary column, bearing the burden of a few thousand years? 

We propose a single intervention that allows us to present the Foro Traiano in a new perspective; a single intervention as a device to allocate the territory of the Dutch Art and Design in the overwhelming monumentality of the historical context; a single intervention, based on the endless stratification of the historical context. We propose the addition of a new layer to the existing everyday reality.

This new layer consists of a framework, a layout of rooms. This lay-out is represented only by their foundations, a new ruin in itself. The rooms are connected by doors. These doors mark the threshold of another world, a new reality. There is no inside, no more outside. Like Alice, one tumbles from one room into another.

Type: Housing, urban plan Location: Chile Client: Elemental Chile Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Floor area / size: 10.000 sqm

Wallhouse is a flexible strategy that combines possibilities for a wide diversity of housing types with a great differentiation of urban spaces. 

This competition asked for an urban housing plan for lowest income group in Chili. I ddemanded for flexibility in such a way that the inhabitants were able to extend their houses in the near future. The main element in this spatial strategy is a construction wall that contains the basic amenities necessary for a house: a bathroom, stairs, a kitchen and an entrance. Each individual house can be extended towards the back by adding rooms. At the same time the wall is a structural urban element. It creates an urban plan with two faces: a clear and formal front side towards the streets and a characteristic informal side towards the back.

Client: Platform Gras Groningen Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Duzan Doepel, Jeroen Weijs en Gernout Erens (Innovaders) Collaborator / associate: Duzan Doepel / ADD en Innovaders, Amsterdam Competition: honorable mention Status: Competition, honourable mention

Strategy for an environmentally sustainable business park

The starting point for the development of the Milieu Boulevard (Environment Boulevard) was the natural cycle that makes it possible for any transformation to turn back to its initial situation: it is a characteristic industrial estate that never reaches a final situation but is always in the process of transforming.

The entire area can be seen as an ecosystem, with ever-changing cycles on each lot. Within a fixed length of time the lot will return to its initial situation. Each lot has a different time frame, from several days for storage, to a season for crops, to decades for buildings. We distinguished different cycles: the knowledge cycles, the resources cycles, the recycling cycles, the storage cycles and the surplus cycles.

The changing dynamics are used to set up the area. Its basis is the low dynamic functions within the body of the granted land (lots) and the water structure that goes with it.

An adjoining light ringway with buildings for the knowledge infrastructure lends access to all of the lots. The lots are the supporters within which faster changes take place. 

Inside, the body is continuously changing. Some things change fast (crops that alternate and bloom every season), others slowly (long-term waste storage).

Type: Masterplan reconstruction Location: Woensel West, Eindhoven Client: Stichting Trudo woningcorporatie en Dienst Stedelijke Ontwikkeling en Beheer Eindhoven Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Erik Wiersema, Jeroen Bos Collaborator / associate: ADP Architecten Status: In progress

In Eindhoven’s Woensel West district, NEXT architects is working as an urban designer. This 1930s neighbourhood has many social and spatial problems and is about to undergo a major transformation.

As it is essential to preserve the quality of the current neighbourhoods during this transformation, an urban design for gradual district renovation was realized through an intensive process with resident workshops, complying with the wishes formulated for the living environment.

Determining a broad viewpoint that is open to different interpretations is central to the approach, and in addition we developed a “tool box” with very concrete interventions. The overall vision was provided with the name “Omdat smaken verschillen” (Because Tastes Differ) because we want to emphasize the wide variety both in the neighbourhood and of its residents. In it, the district is divided into neighbourhoods, lines and places with different identities.

The strength of the plan is that the various projects can be set up separately, which enables a decisive approach. Several parts of the project are currently being carried out, including a community school and a residential nucleus of approximately 100 houses.

Type: Research Client: Projectbureau KAN Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Completion: January 2004

Spatial quality: a concept that is as ambitious as it is unfathomable. No-one will deny that the ambition ought to be pursued, but opinions differ with respect to content. Also, spatial quality has no common denominator: it is about a system of values that may enhance each other when they are simultaneously present, such as cultural-historical value, aesthetic value and experience value.

To specify spatial quality, we need to develop an understanding of the various values that influence a field. The confrontation between the A12 motorway and the territory of the municipalities in the ‘De Liemers’ area currently appears to be in deadlock, with some shared but chiefly different interests and ambitions. It looks like spatial quality will suffer due to the conflicting agendas and it appears that what is missing especially to enter into a discussion about necessities and semantics is a joint frame of reference. We consider the need for a joint frame of reference a worthwhile assignment. 

We developed the ‘Waardenkaart A12’, a tool for working on the A12 motorway on the basis of a joint frame of reference: a sample sheet of possibilities that show how the landscape, the buildings and the infrastructure may take advantage of each other and how confrontation can generate mutual added value.

Type: Interior of an apartment Client: Private Team: Ewald Bosgoed Floor area / size: 65 sqm Cost: Euro 40000,00 Contractor: SDK bouw Carpenter: Morowood Status: Completed

This apartment in the historical centre of Amsterdam had a lot of unusable space. By removing some walls, enough space was created for a large open living area and two private rooms, as well as the bathroom and a small sleeping room.  

The large space functions as a room for changing activities: relaxing, cooking, working, dining. The main space is differentiated by its form into a front room and a backroom; this can be adapted in many ways by using two design elements which are fixed interior pieces- sliding panels and a table that can be turned on a pivot-point. 

The turning table in the middle of the front room can slide and turn in all directions. The table can become part of the kitchen or connect to the office to form a table of 8 meters. The table can also stand alone and function as a dining table. The different table positions also affect the traffic routes within the house. This is particularly true for the entranceway- a visitor may enter once through the kitchen, and another time via a quite different route.  

The sliding panels that separate the front room from the back can be stowed away in recessed slot in the office wall. The doors consist of fabric-covered wooden frames. The covers can be removed for washing and can also be replaced. The elasticity allows the cover to fit frames of many different sizes. The product has been developed in association with Samira Boon, who works in Tokyo, and has been presented on the Japanese market. The cover can compete with traditional paper doors with respect to firmness and washing durability. 

Type: Renovation of a dwelling Location: Amsterdam Client: Woningbedrijf, Amsterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Joost Lemmens and Shaya Fallahi Floor area / size: 170 sqm Cost: Euro 170.000,00 Contractor: Mercuurbouw bv, Volendam Construction: Bouwadviesbureau Strackee bv

Type: Design poll Location: Various Client: Droog Design Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, John van de Water with Christine van t Hoenderdaal Material: Interactive computer program Special thanks to: Bart van Langen Status: Collection Droog Design

This project unravels unconscious positions and inconsequent motives that are hidden behind the apparent superficial choice for a brand or label. In the endless world of identity and image it provides the lost individual with a definite advice.

This project unravels unconscious positions and inconsequent motives that are hidden behind the apparent superficial choice for a brand or a label. In the endless world of identity and image it provides the lost individual a definitive advice. During the Salone del Mobile 2003 in Milan 450 people filled in this design poll and got their results. After Milan it travelled within the Simply Droog exhibition.

Type: Bookcase Client: Droog Design Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Waterwith Shaya Fallahi, Mattias Zuchetti Contractor: Morowood Photographer: NEXT architects Status: Presented at furniture fair Milan by Droog Design

2009-04-23 "Readymade bookshelf" in Milan

More than any other object, a filled bookcase reflects the identity of its owner.

At the moment of purchase this Ready Made reflects the collective intellect of centuries of literature: the Top 100 of all time, everything you ought to have read – but never got around to.

Filling the case means replacing classics by a personal selection. Great works become bookends to personal favourites.

Type: Video-portrait of Amsterdam Location: Amsterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Waterwith Allard Faas Collaborator / associate: Huis van Beeld Material: DVD, 20min Status: Presented at the Bi-annual of Venice 2003

Short video production depicting the Amsterdam city centre based on the publication Pret! by Tracy Metz. The video shows ‘a day in the life’ of the city centre; Dam Square serves as a backdrop to the various personifications of the Amsterdam identity.

Type: Research Location: Rotterdam Client: High Rise Team Rotterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water, Jan van Teeffelen, Iris Dudock, Arnold Reijndorp with Frank Hornis Collaborator / associate: Department of Housing and Town Planning (dS+V) Material: Publication, 60 pag. full-color, ISBN 90-72498-18-6 and CD-rom with interactive computer program

The Atlas of Cultural Ecology of Rotterdam was commissioned by the High-Rise Team and has been drawn up by Arnold Reijndorp, urban sociologist at Rotterdam and member of the High-Rise Team, bureau NEXT Architects from Amsterdam and the Department of Housing and Town Planning (dS+V), working in combination. The High-Rise Team was set up by the city of Rotterdam to further the spatial and programmatic quality of the planned high-rise and other large-scale developments in the city centre. The atlas, being a new instrument, plays an important role in this process.

After more than 50 years of rebuilding, the centre of Rotterdam starts to show the appetites of a real inner city. The cultural dynamics are driven from within, and are no longer the result of planning and project development. This atlas tries to capture the new ‘sense of place’ in Rotterdam, which is the result of spontaneous and informal developments. It shows a series of maps that reveal the city in different formal and informal layers. 

The project aims to inspire policy makers, urban designers and developers to become more sensitive to the fact that urban areas are ever-changing organisms; new developments should be finely tuned to suit to their surroundings.

Type: Pavilion Client: Arboretum Kalmthout Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Cost: Euro 16.000,00 Competition: 2nd prize Status: Competition

Papilio is a pavilion for a butterfly garden in the Arboretum Kalmthout, Belgium. The concept for the pavilion was instigated by the metamorphosis of a butterfly.  

A flexible wooden construction is transformed, section by section, from a simple square to an open space covered by a wing; in this spot, the visitor can find information about butterflies, take shelter from the weather, rest a bit, and enjoy a beautiful panorama over the garden, all the while engaging in a special spatial experience.

Type: Pumping station Location: Amsterdam Client: dRO Amsterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Competition: Honourable mention

This is a design for a public utility building: a sewage-pumping station. Utilitarian buildings are junctions in the invisible infrastructure of a city and therefore crucial for its function. But since they house machines rather than people, they have no relation with people and thereby often have no relation with their surroundings. 

In an attempt to create this relation between the building and the surroundings, we added a second function to the pumping station, that of skate landscape. The shape is the result of a superimposition of the sewer station and regular skate elements.

The functional form generates an attractive sculptural quality and represents the dynamics of the program, both inside and out.

Type: Research Client: CUR Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Claudia Linders, Joost Mulders, Erik Wiersema, Rink Drost, Ana Jara and Mireia Luna Alcaina Collaborator / associate: Rink Drost, Claudia Linders, Joost Mulders and Erik Wiersema Competition: CUR Award Room for Tomorrow, 2nd Prize Special thanks to: Stefan Bendiks, Natal da Graca, Willem Jan Jansen, Laurens Jan ten Kate, Anouk Kuitenbrouwer, Lotje

a design-research into the future work environment of the Netherlands

Anyone traversing the landscape by any national highway can find themselves surrounded by an endless succession of Brain, Business, Techno and Science Parks, alternated with the flat corrugated- sheet boxes of distribution centres. This is today’s landscape of work. . . 

But the world is changing. Developments such as the network community, individualization, the welfare state and the economy of ideas strongly influence the way we currently work, existing corporate structures and personal development. In this world we see companies as flexible networks, creativity as the new economic ingredient and independence and the pursuit of self-realization as the new work ethic.

The Work Area is given new parameters, such as relaxation and self-realization, making new demands upon the spatial development of the Netherlands. “The Work Area in the 21^st Century” is a study on the spatial conditions and consequences to the design of the urban area that the above-mentioned developments bring about. The study was submitted for the CUR Award Room for Tomorrow and received 2^nd prize.

Type: Dwelling Location: Amsterdam Client: Boris Hollotcheff Team: Michel Schreinemachers, Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, John van de Water Floor area / size: 200 sqm Cost: Euro 300.000,00 Construction: Strackee Amsterdam Completion: April 2002 Status: Completed

The project started with a characteristic Amsterdam period house: built around the end of the 19th century, it is narrow and deep. Prior to the reconstruction, the house had been divided into 3 apartments, each with shower and kitchen, inhabited by a total of 8 students. To restore the original state and typology of this stately mansion, it had to be transformed into one again. The floor plan of the house was established: the kitchen with dining room would be located on the ground floor, on the first floor the living room, on the second a guestroom and study and on the top floor the master bedroom and bath. 

Openness was the overall theme, without compromises, so all interior walls were torn down. The staircase was originally situated at the back of the house, freeing the ground and first floors from transitory traffic. The stairway leading from the second floor to the third is situated in the middle of the area. Within this open space we placed several custom-built constructions to accommodate functions and to provide divisions of space without making closed rooms. In this way we transformed the claustrophobic effect of the narrow space of 4,5 by 10 meter. 

Three installations were added to accommodate a kitchen on the ground floor, a bathroom and a stair on the second and a walk-in closet on the third.

Type: Dwellings and commercial space Location: Den Bosch, The Netherlands Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Marion Mischke Floor area / size: 650 sqm Status: Competition

Twist is a design for three work-at-home residences on the Brugplein in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

Over a commercial ground level with a small footprint, three volumes are positioned to face the various urban conditions of the location: Brugstraat (busy, noisy), Havensingel (quiet, idyllic) and Brugplein (dynamic, wide view).

The three volumes accommodate working, sleeping and living facilities respectively. The residences, therefore, rotate through these volumes. As different floor levels are indicated for different facilities the three volumes differ in height.

The residences are accessed from a central point on level +1. Two tapered staircases from Havensingel and Brugstraat lend access to this central point.

Each residence covers three floors and has a roof garden. The external staircase is literally the pivot of the project and it emphasizes the transition from one function to another. It creates distance between the various programme units and in doing so creates a great residential experience.

Type: Extension of City Hall Client: Gemeente Rotterdam Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Waterwith Bart Cosijn, Stan Wagter, Arjan van Susteren, Joost Lemmens Status: Competition, nominated

idea-competition for the Municipality Office Rotterdam

Rotterdam, outgrowing its old city hall, was looking for new council offices in a new location. NEXT architects’ response to this assignment is to choose to reduce, and to top the old city hall, with the new programme by mirroring the old building on Coolsingel.

This duplication has city hall scale-leaping into the 21^st century.  Public facilities are accommodated in the old building in this structure, the extension provides the new work spaces and meeting facilities.

Type: Apartment and office space Location: Lijnbaansgracht , Amsterdam Client: Jeroen Saris, De Stad bv Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Wout Smits Collaborator / associate: Color advise: Claudia Linders Floor area / size: 340 sqm Cost: Euro 250.000,00 Contractor: Bouwbedrijf Berlage Build engineer: Bouwadviesbureau Strackee Installations: Van Brederode & co Carpenter: Morowood Start building: January 2002 Completion: September 2002 Status: Completed

The new owner of an historical building in the very heart of Amsterdam asked NEXT Architects to develop a design that would comprise both office and home, but maintain some separation of the two. The building had to contain a large diversity of living and working areas, while opening up the interior space.

We were inspired by synonyms for different life and work spheres, such as: cafe, club, monastery, library and restaurant. The relation between the two office floors is opened up by taking out part of the floor area and replacing it by making a cube that contains many of the service functions, such as kitchen, counter, stairs and toilets. To optimise the use of the space, we opted to partition the building into three functional zones, each with a characteristic design and atmosphere.

Type: Public Space / Art Location: Almere Client: Stichting Bosland Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water with Stan Wagter, Marrit deJong Cost: Euro 1.000.000,00 Competition: 3rd Prize Status: On hold

design for 1 hectare ‘museum’-forest

This is not a design for a new forest but an operation that puts the existing forest in a new perspective. Just like a museum designer is unconcerned with museological objects as such, but rather focuses on the way people look at them, we took this assignment as a chance to transform the woods into a woods museum by creating the possibility of a new kind of perception. 

Adding a circular path with a 100-m diameter provides the woods with an extra dimension. On one end, the path reaches a height of 35 m and provides a view of the horizon, on the other end it drops to 3 m underground so people can experience the woods at ant height. The raised end of the path encloses a section of the woods and this creates an exceptional spot. The hectare of woodland that is shut in by the path will remain unkempt and transform into primeval forest, which makes it an example of the transformations woods may undergo through the years.

Over the past 27 years, the woods, which was originally a poplar plantation, has already developed into a highly varied section of forest, full of different types of plants, trees and animals. The process can be observed from the different levels of the circular path over the years: from bird’s-eye view to worm perspective. Creating the circular path requires a total of approximately 42 km of bamboo consisting of 18,750 trunks of 2.2 m long. We are still looking for financing.

Type: prototypes for the project Me, Myself and You Client: Droog Design Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Material: wood Floor area / size: 1.80x1.80m Cost: not for sale Carpenter: Frank Hoogveld, Morowood Competition: part of the Droog Design Collection Completion: November 2000

2010-05-26 NEXT at 100X Summerdesign

New types of contact exceed physical boundaries. Neither the relation between the public and private nor the transitional area in between is unambiguously manifest. Oddly enough, the elements that make up this boundary have hardly been cultivated. We studied the conceptual possibilities of this boundary and listed them in a catalogue of doors (boundaries between private and public) and fences (boundaries between private and private). The pursuit of forced social interaction between people was not an objective here. A meaningful experience of the boundary, however, was. The project resulted in a number of prototypes, such as a fence that may also be used as a Ping-Pong table and a fence in which holes are punched, shaped like articles one may share with one’s neighbours.

Type: prototypes for the project Me, Myself and You Client: Droog Design Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Material: metal Cost: not for sale Carpenter: Morowood Completion: November 2000 Status: Part of the Droog Design collection

New types of contact exceed physical boundaries. Neither the relation between the public and private nor the transitional area in between is unambiguously manifest. Oddly enough, the elements that make up this boundary have hardly been cultivated. We studied the conceptual possibilities of this boundary and listed them in a catalogue of doors (boundaries between private and public) and fences (boundaries between private and private). The pursuit of forced social interaction between people was not an objective here. A meaningful experience of the boundary, however, was. The project resulted in a number of prototypes, such as a fence that may also be used as a Ping-Pong table and a fence in which holes are punched, shaped like articles one may share with one’s neighbours.

Type: Urban plan Location: Kortrijk, Belgium Client: Municipality of Kortrijk Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Completion: September 2000 Status: Competition, honourable mention

In this urban design for an abandoned factory site, the existing factory wall is doubled and the required programme is positioned in the cavity in between. As a result, it is now feasible for a large part of the vacuum that the departure of the textile factory left in the building block to remain empty. The new wall is used as a framework that organizes the new programme. In addition to houses, this new programme consists of parking space and a number of specific outdoor spaces such as a sports garden and a rose garden.

The existing English garden is naturally incorporated within the new framework. The remnant of the factory complex that is central to the unprogrammed space left at the heart of the plan will be equipped as a community centre.

Type: Urban planning Location: Brabant, The Netherlands Client: De Stad bv Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Collaborator / associate: ABF

The southern region of Brabant is the fastest growing area in the Netherlands. It contains four larger cities that are rapidly expanding as well as many smaller industrial areas. Together they form a network of urban areas that can also be depicted as one metropolitan city.  

NEXT architects was assigned to contribute to the image of Brabant as the largest city of the Netherlands by making a range of geographic and tempographic (time-based) maps.

Client: the National Spatial Planning Agency, Ministry of VROM Collaborator / associate: Crimson, Erasmus University and Nirov

Strategy facilitating the future claims for more space

This visual essay is about provocative, innovative ways to tackle spatial planning dilemmas. First come currents and trends, the challenges we face, followed by the answer: create a robust spatial framework and within that frame, maximize the possibilities for solutions.

Historically, the economic and social differences between city and countryside in Dutch civilization are less extreme than in many other European countries (France, for instance). The ongoing growth of the services sector and increasing ICT development will further reduce the scope of these differences, and will in turn stimulate spatial decentralization. The simple framework in which industry and services dominate the cities and agriculture controls the countryside, which never worked all that well in the Netherlands anyway, is losing its validity.

At the same time the Dutch set high value on a recognizable contrast between city and countryside, the more so as they perceive their country to be overpopulated. This continues to be a strong force that stimulates spatial concentration.

Type: Exhibition Client: Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water

Under the name ‘Group portraits’,  an overview of four newly-emerging practices was made, including NEXT architects. In two locations, Almere and Nijmegen, works were shown and studies done to map the development of expanding areas of the two cities.  

NEXT designed wallpaper that was shown in two places at the same time: in Nijmegen it was mounted on a wall; in Almere we used an equal amount of the wallpaper to wrap an object. In this way Almere became the inversion of Nijmegen.

Type: Urban plan Location: Randstad, the Netherlands Client: Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, John van de Water Collaborator / associate: ABF Research, Delft

Strategy for the Randstad

‘Deltametropool’ is a new name for the Randstad, the most robust urban region in the Netherlands that includes the cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague.

Commissioned by Delft University of Technology, NEXT architects studied the possible development of the Deltametropool into a closely knit urban region that can compete with metropolises all over the world.

The product is a series of maps that represent the various strata of this metropolis, showing the connection network, the delta waters, the man-made landscape and the interactive environments in the cities. The maps are extremely varied graphical representations with a highly informative undertone known as ‘infographics’.

Type: Research Client: Bouwfonds Nederland Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk Status: Competition, 2nd prize, first prize Archiprix

First Prize Archiprix 2000

Accessibility is a basic condition of urban development. Accessibility as an article of faith has resulted in one-way thinking: the more connections, the merrier. More and more the Netherlands, dominated by fast means of transport, is turning into a thoroughfare. It is dragged along in the wake of acceleration and slowly, the question is arising of whether there is any place left to stand still. We raise spectres: will the Netherlands soon be exactly the same everywhere? The same shops, the same houses, the same people? 

As a result of the increased accessibility of the big cities in the Randstad, the relative distances between the centres themselves have dwindled over the years. Now that ever more connections completely invalidate the concept of distance, perhaps the question is if we should discard the geographical notion ‘randstad’ and reintroduce ‘time’ as a spatial element in the cartographic exercise. 

The 2030 Tempographic Map of all movements paints a tempting picture of ´Holland – Layer by Layer’. It illustrates the possibility to use both acceleration and deceleration to make progress. If we vary accessibility, we can equip a country of extremes: a land of metro-poles that contrast sharply with rural areas.

Location: Friesland, The Netherlands Client: Province Friesland Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Joost Lemmens, Jurriaan Hillerstrom, Pieter Mulder, Jurrian Knijtijzer, Wingjim Yick, Anne-Laurence Ricard, Agata Piet with Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuize, Jutta Raith en Frank Talsma Collaborator / associate: H+N+S Landscape architects Construction: Arup bv Status: In progress