STAR strategies + architecture, Rotterdam Architects, Dutch Design Studio, Architect Office Holland

STAR strategies + architectur, Rotterdam

Architectural Studio in The Netherlands – Practice Profile

post updated 7 April 2023

STAR strategies + architecture – Contact Details

STAR strategies + architecture

Tel +31 (0) 102135630
e-mail: star(at)st-ar.nl
Website: www.st-ar.nl
Address: S T A R strategies + architecture, Kipstraat 7B, 3011 RR Rotterdam, The Netherlands

STAR strategies + architecture – About us

STAR is a practice dealing with architecture in all its forms

STAR strategies + architecture was founded by Beatriz Ramo in Rotterdam in 2006. STAR is interested in all topics directly or indirectly related to architecture, and works on projects and research of any scale in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and landscape design. STAR takes responsibility for all the phases of the process.

Since its foundation STAR has been proactively generating most of its work through self-initiated studies and taking part in open competitions, which quickly became its biggest source of acquisitions, giving STAR the chance to obtain large-scale projects practically from its foundation, as in the case of Manzana 5 – a 60.000 m2 mixed-use building in Spain.

This led to the attractive situation of forced independence and freedom, making the office flexible and competent. Several awards in International Competitions for public buildings, housing, infrastructure, and urban planning in the Netherlands, China, Iceland, Lebanon, and Spain STAR have gained STAR international recognition.

The office portfolio includes a wide array of projects: ranging from a very small low-budget private house, a prototype to bring cinemas back to the city centers, new typologies for collective social housing, super-multifunctional cultural buildings, a hybrid complex consisting of a Ferris wheel and a Railway station, an eighty metres long panorama representing the European Union – in collaboration with, and commissioned by OMA/AMO – to a strategic study on the elements that are currently shaping secondary European cities.

STAR remains continuously active in research and writings, and is a regular collaborator on MONU magazine on urbanism. Since 2007 STAR is academically active in several schools and institutions in the Netherlands as an extension to the office’s study projects through courses and research ateliers on architecture typology, urbanism, interior architecture, and criticism.

Beatriz Ramo has run courses at the Sandberg Institute and the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, and at the Academy of Architecture in Tilburg, where she is visiting critic of Stadslab -European urban design laboratory and tutor of its 2010 Master class in Ukraine.

STAR has been featured in publications worldwide, exhibited at centers of renown such as the NAi, ARCAM, Ludwig Forum, etc… and is regularly invited to lecture at numerous institutions, such as the SCA in Buenos Aires, the Architecture Club in Kiev, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, Elisava School in Barcelona, the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, the CCPE in Rosario, and the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

In 2009 STAR won the International Competition for the Mirador del Palmeral (Palm Grove’s Viewpoint) with the simplest proposal, yet the most controversial project the office had ever undertaken. The two-phased competition received a lot of attention, not only because worldwide renowned firms were invited to participate, but because STAR, as the office getting through the first-open phase, won the competition with a strategy, rather than with a design.

STAR’s proposal was a culmination of a long time study on the iconic building phenomenon and represented a step forward in many ways. The development of this competition brief was the ultimate proof for STAR that architectural thinking is stronger than even architecture itself.

As part of this assignment STAR is currently working on the Paseo, a 15,000m2 reurbanization plan for the surrounding areas, expecting construction to start in summer 2011.

Due to the protected character of the site, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000, STAR has been involved since 2009 in studies on interventions in preserved areas. One result of that research was the critical essay: In the name of the Past, Countering the Preservation Crusades.

This essay is part of God Save Architecture; a series of studies that STAR is currently working on, aiming to develop critical assessments of today’s most dangerous clichés, assumptions, and manipulations in the field of architecture.

STAR strategies + architecture : page on this Dutch architect studio

Architecture Practice News

O’ Mighty Green
Discussion by STAR strategies + architecture

image from architects
STAR strategies + architecture : O’ Mighty Green

STAR strategies + architecture – Awards

FINALIST in International Competition Europan10 – Maastricht
Open International Competition Europan 10
Organizer: Europan Nederland
Participants: 54
Maastricht, the Netherlands 2009

FIRST PRIZE in International Competition Mirador del Palmeral
1st phase: Open International Competition, 56 participants, February 2009 2nd phase: Invited Competition (2 teams from first phase + 5 invited
teams: SANAA, MVRDV, Foster&Partners, Lapeña&Torres, Ábalos & Sentkiewicz + Beth Galí) May 2009
Organizer: OCOA – Oficina de Concursos Comunidad Valenciana
Elche, Spain 2009

SECOND PRIZE in International Competition House of Arts and Culture
Open International Competition
Organizer: GAIA Heritage
Participants: 387
Beirut, Lebanon
2009

SECOND PRIZE in International Competition Europan 9 -Amsterdam
Open International Competition Europan 9
Organizer: Europan Nederland
Participants: 65
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2008

FINALIST in International Competition Vatnsmýri, 102 Reykjavik
Open International Competition
Organizer: Reykjavik City Planning Committee
Participants: first phase: 136, Second phase: 16
Reykjavik, Iceland
2007

FIRST PRIZE in International Competition Manzana 5
International Open Competition
Organizer: Zaragoza Alta Velocidad 2002 S.A.
Participants: 97
Zaragoza, Spain
2007

HONORABLE MENTION in International Competition Art GBD
International Open Competition
Organizer: GBD Art District
Participants: ≈400
Beijing, China
2007

HONORABLE MENTION in Modular System Competition-IFEMA
Open International Competition
Organizer: OCAM
Participants: 69
Madrid, Spain
2006

STAR strategies + architecture – Projects

Mirador del Palmeral, Elche, Spain

pictures © STAR strategies + architecture
Mirador del Palmeral

The Re-Creation of the European City

images © STAR strategies + architecture
The Re-Creation

House of Arts and Culture, Beirut, Lebanon

pictures © STAR strategies + architecture
House of Arts and Culture Beirut

STAR strategies + architecture – Staff Information

Beatriz Ramo, founder and director of STAR strategies +architecture

Beatriz Ramo (1979, Spain) graduated from the Technical School of Architecture in Valencia – ETSAV, in Spain. In 2002 she received a scholarship to study at the Technische Universiteit in Eindhoven, moving to the Netherlands, where she has lived ever since.

During 2003 and 2004 Beatriz Ramo worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture – OMA – in Rotterdam where she participated in – among other projects – the CCTV- China Central Television Headquarters and TVCC -Television Cultural Centre in Beijing, the Wyly Theatre in Dallas, the Invited Competition Mercati Generali in Rome, and the International Competition for the Railway Masterplan in Logroño, Spain.

In 2006 she founded STAR strategies + architecture in Rotterdam. STAR is a practice dealing with architecture in all its forms. STAR is interested in all topics directly or indirectly related to architecture, working on projects and doing research in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and landscape design. Several prizes in International Competitions for architecture and urban planning in the Netherlands, China, Iceland, Lebanon, and Spain have gained STAR international recognition.

Since 2007 Beatriz Ramo is teaching at the Academy of Architecture in Tilburg where she ran a research/design studio in the framework of Architecture and Market, and a research/criticism studio called God Save Architecture. She has been guest tutor at the Master of Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, and at the Master of Interior Architecture at the Sandberg institute in Amsterdam.

Since 2010 she is a visiting critic of Stadslab, European urban design laboratory, where she tutored the special 2010 Master class in Ukraine.

Beatriz Ramo has lectured internationally on architecture in general and the work of STAR in particular, at the SCA in Buenos Aires, CCPE in Rosario, Architecture Club in Kiev, Chalmers School in Gothenburg, Elisava School in Barcelona, Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw, and at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

Beatriz Ramo was twice awarded grants from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. She has collaborated with MONU magazine on urbanism from its first issue onwards, and since 2008 she is managing and contributing editor.

Location: Delftsestraat 27, Rotterdam/a>, The Netherlands, western Europe