Full of hope and ambition, we looked forward to the new millennium in 2000. Architecture was the starting point for a journey of discovery to explore the largest metropolitan areas of the world. To capture The Image of Metropolis, we set out on a tour around the globe and examined the modern-day metropolis in the age of globalization. This exploration not only gave us a view on the future challenges for our urban society, it also laid the foundation for our agenda for an architecture that connects.

We cherish that inquisitive attitude to this day, it is the starting point of every NEXT project. We develop visions that go beyond the buildings we make, visions of the bicycle city, our water management and the future of the Netherlands. We organize workshops, involve outsiders and translate concepts into designs. Inspiration comes from unexpected sources, seeping through from outside the boundaries of architecture, therefore answering assignments with surprising but self-evident solutions. By exploring the unknown, we escape the most obvious designs and develop ideas that are richer and more meaningful.

Making connections is at the core of our ambition. And it shows: we are a broadly oriented design agency with a growing portfolio of high-profile bridges – literal connections. By thinking about the role of a design within its environment from a macro perspective, connecting is not only the common thread through our portfolio but also our working method. NEXT architects works together in multidisciplinary teams to tackle projects in innovative ways. With our curious character, a desire to think outside the box and a drive to know something about everything, we’re able to bring the right specialists and stakeholders together to provide solutions. In addition to design, this requires social skills, persuasiveness, process-oriented thinking and developing a vision. Over the years, we’ve noticed that our experience is an extra advantage. We now know that going from nothing to something has a sequence, that we don’t start with the design and never do it alone.

The strength of the office lies in developing strong ideas that convincingly become part of the specific context of a project. From exploration to inspiration, and from ambition to concept, form and materialization – it’s all about the social, technical and landscape context that makes a project unique. The best thing about architecture is making ideas tangible, visualizing, specifying and detailing to know what we’re going to create. By making what we come up with as a team, we literally build the future together.

NEXT architects is an international architecture firm that has worked on research and design projects in the field of urban planning, architecture and infrastructure since its foundation in 1999. NEXT architects is located in Amsterdam. In 2004, NEXT opened a second office in Beijing, China.