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Contemporary Dutch Architect Practice – Design Studio Holland

18 Apr 2017

Maxwan A+U News

Architecture News – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

Exhibition design for the international exhibition Mad About Surrealism

Maxwan exhibition design
GEK VAN SURREALISME | MAD ABOUT SURREALISM

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
11.02.2017 – 28.05.2017

photographs © Artur Borejszo

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Exhibition by MAXWAN architects + urbanists
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, presents ‘Mad About Surrealism’ with over 300 surrealistic works from Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, Miró and others.

30 Aug 2013
Red Hill Rise – Mixed-use building in Prague, Czech Republic
Design: Maxwan Architects + Urbanists, Rotterdam

image from architects
Red Hill Rise, a mixed use building on top of a metro station, consists of offices and retail located along one of the major spine road connecting airport and historical city centre of Prague. Backdrop of the project is a dramatically steep slope (max. 14m height difference), the site being located in a tranquil residential area while required program is purely commercial and requires expressive architecture.

27 Mar 2013
House N, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

photo © Filip Dujardin
House in Noordwijk
Built in 1938, this Dutch seaside villa was originally the holiday home of a concrete factory owner. Battered and blustered by the salty sea weather over the decades, the house was in need of renovation. Besides roof replacement and basement repairs, the bedrooms, bathrooms and windows were outdated and some spaces had grown too small for the clients’ requirements. The additions by the architects bring new distinctive features to the house, while respecting its original character.

18 Jun 2012

Helsinki South Harbour : Returning the harbour to the people

Top Position

We are proud to announce, that Maxwan was awarded the highest prize for their competition entry “STADI TERASSI” in the Open International Ideas Competition “South Harbour Helsinki”, out of 201 submissions. The jury report states that “the (Maxwan) proposal respects its environment in terms of the cityscape, and is an innovative, stylish and well substantiated totality…” and that new buildings are of “high quality” and have been “uniquely and skillfully solved”.

image from Maxwan A+U

Returning the harbour to the people

The South Harbour in Helsinki has a rich history, which is currently masked by a myriad of strictly functional spaces. This project sets out to do the obvious – return the harbour to the PEOPLE of Finland. A few large scale shifts make room for a diverse series of small-scale, water-oriented public uses that ensure a lively space throughout the day and all the seasons. These moves together add up to creating a true Stadi Terassi or Helsinki Terrace, a place for people spilling out from the inner city, and for guests arriving from the waterside. All can find a place along the water to actively engage with its history, culture, and public life.

Maxwan A+U – Recent News

21 Feb 2012

Maxwan ‘Special Economic Block’ featured at NAI Symposium, The Netherlands

Special Economic Block

Maxwan A+U, in collaboration with Crimson Architectural Historians, created a top down strategy to allow for a bottom up transformation of Tarwewijk, Rotterdam South, and, potentially, many lower income communities.

The major strategic error of Dutch and other urban renewal policies is that they focus only on certain communities. This serves to create monocultural, dependent, poor neighborhoods. In Tarwewijk, this has resulted in a 20% vacancy rate. We turn this vacancy into an advantage.

Netherlands Architecture Institute image : A2 Studio

A large proportion of the vacant units are owned by the municipality, which makes it possible that within a few years one or more of the thirties blocks could be completely vacated. The freed blocks then form the ‘Special Economic Block’, a safe zone from the municipal policy on the environment, branding, building and housing, urban renewal, the creative economy and standard commercial regulations. The blocks are cut into large lots that are then free for development for entrepreneurs who issue both a strong business plan and a rebuilding plan as an investment commitment to the area. Here we are inspired by the highly successful Rotterdam Klushuis initiative, but we apply the principle not to new house buyers, but to small and medium sized aspiring businesses.

We hope that the combination of: A) the strong urban structure of the blocks; B) the proven entrepreneurial spirit of the participants; C) the liberation of administrative barriers to entrepreneurship; and D) the taboo-free guidance of the architectural transformation, will lead to a bottom-up commercial building, and an inner city Special Economic Zone, or a Special Economic Block.

SYMPOSIUM: WIJKONOMIE TARWEWIJK
22 Feb 2012
Location: Auditorium NAI, Museumpark 25, Rotterdam
Netherlands Architecture Institute Events

1 Feb 2012

Maxwan Wins 625ha Groene Singel Antwerp, Belgium

Dutch Belgian Team Wins A Key Commission for Groene Singel Antwerp

English text (scroll down for Dutch):

Maxwan together with Karres en Brands, HUB and in collaboration with Goudappel Coffeng and Antea Group, won the key commission of the design guidelines of the Groene Singel, a strategic 625ha site containing the Antwerp R1 Ringroad. Other participants of the competition included Field Operations (USA), Latz+Partner (DE), H+N+S Landscape (NL) and Palmbout Urban Landscapes (NL).

picture from Maxwan A+U

Currently an underdeveloped, spatially and ecologically fragmented infrastructure corridor, the future Groene Singel will become the major development catalyst for the city of Antwerp, integrating exciting and diverse ecological connections, key public spaces and strategic programmatic developments.

The jury, which included Kristiaan Borret (City Architect), Willem Jan Neutelings (Neutelings Riedijk Architects) and Kitty Haine (Groene Singel Program Leader), highlighted the proposal’s successful merging of an ecology-driven vision with financial pragmatism that secures sustainable progress in times of budgetary pressure.

The commission, to be carried out in 2012, will entail drawing up comprehensive design guidelines for the site and its immediate surroundings, as well as the subsequent supervision of the development of different partial projects.

Recent Designs by Maxwan Architects + Urbanists

29 Aug 2011

Dutch Success in Basel, Switzerland

The team of OKRA, Maxwan A+U, and Basler&Hofmann has won the competition for the concept design for the Basel city center. The proposal provides an overall view on quality of public realm in the city centre for the next decades, and focuses on creating a green and vibrant landscape city, providing spaces that create a ‘shared space 2.0’. The plan provides tools for transformation of a large area in the city centre, expanding from the train station SBB and the railway station Badischer Bahnhof on the other side of the river Rhine. Even more than today, the Basel city centre will be a focal point for the entire tri-national, expanding over the German and French borders.

picture from Maxwan A+U

The aim is to establish a strategy for radical transformation of the public space; and create a base for which concrete projects can be identified and implemented. In the forthcoming period OKRA icw, Maxwan A+U, and Basler&Hofmann are commissioned to develop their entry to a vision for public space of the inner city of Basel.

20 Jun 2011

Machelen-Diegem Masterplan, Brussels, Belgium

Envisioning Urban Futures of Machelen-Diegem

Maxwan wins open call for Machelen-Diegem masterplan

The site, Machelen-Diegem, presents itself as a series of contrasts. It is located in the large urban area of the capital of Europe, Brussels BE; yet often is reminiscent of a small community. It is divided by a series of imposed infrastructural lines (rail, highway and international airport); while its long-term economic vitality hinges upon the proximity to these networks. Historically it is two distinct villages; that now function under one governmental body. These potentials and problems present a rich set of questions.

image from Maxwan A+U

The preliminary designs focus on the current realities and long-term futures of residents of the villages. Firstly, it addresses the specific impacts of the regional infrastructure that have been rolled out over the villages without much consideration. The work seeks to both remedy the unresolved spaces that have emerged and to harness the economic potential that being tied to these large networks offer.

Machelen-Diegem Masterplan

22 Jun 2010

Ostrava Cultural Centre, Czech Republic

Maxwan Wins Black Meadow Competition

Maxwan wins first prize in the competition for a new cultural centre and park in the city of Ostrava, Czech Republic.

image from Maxwan A+U

Ostrava is bidding to become the 2015 Cultural Capital of Europe. Every year the European Capital of Culture is designated to act as catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the chosen city. The focus of the competition was not merely on the buildings, but to create an identity for the area as a whole, while linking the city centre to the river. The proposal included designs for a Concert Hall, Exhibition hall (Kunsthalle), Centre for Modern Music, School (preschool, primary and secondary), Creative incubator combined with a school of arts management, and residential buildings.

Ostrava Cultural Centre

More buildings by Maxwan A+U online soon

Location:Vlaardingweg 62, 3044CK, Rotterdam, Netherlands, western Europe

Rotterdam Architects Practice Information

Architect office based in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Rotterdam Architects Office

MAXWAN ARCHITECTS + URBANISTS is an international practice dedicated to contemporary architectural, landscape, and urban design. Working on a broad variety of subjects, Maxwan have designed widely recognized projects such as the “Saw Tooth Tower (Nuilding)” in Rotterdam, the “Office Building F&I” (Maastricht Aachen Airport) and “50 Bridges” for the City of Utrecht.

Maxwan have made a name for themselves internationally with innovative proposals for the new town of Leidsche Rijn (75,000 residents and a hidden highway), the 10,800 houses Master Plan for Barking Riverside, the Master Plan A101 for a new city of 300,000 inhabitants on the fringes of Moscow, the master plan for 2,000 houses in the Dnepr River Delta, Kiev Ukraine and most recently the urban design for the Waalhafen Zone in Rotterdam with in its center “Skill Bill” a new building typology reconnecting the harbour with the city.

We encourage collaboration between clients, colleagues and specialist consultants. In each of our projects, we seek to merge cultural, technical and esthetical influences into an inextricable and beautiful whole.

Website: http://maxwan.nl