Nathalie de Vries

MVRDV Greatest Hits

Winy Maas Jacob Van Rijs Nathalie De Vries

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

Short history of the firm

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

designs to έκθεση των MVRDV

www.mvrdv.archined.nl στο Μουσείο Μπενάκη
ΠΕΡΙΟΧΗ·ΘΕΩΡΙΑΣ publications and
ΤΗΣ·ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΙΚΗΣ installations. Ιούνιος-Ιούλιος 2007
Realized projects include the Dutch Pavilion for the World Exhibition 2000 in Hanover-
Germany, an innovative business park ‘Flight Forum’ in Eindhoven, two Houses at Borneo
Sporenburg in Amsterdam, an orange Atelier in Amsterdam and the futuristic installation
Metacity/Datatown that is travelling around the world.
This mixture of projects continues in the current work of the office. Current projects in progress or
on site include large housing projects in Amsterdam and The Hague, an urban design for a part of
Almere and a hotel in Amsterdam.
Activities outside the Netherlands include a housing scheme for 100 units in Vienna, Austria, a
50.000 m2 office development in Munich, Germany, a pavilion for a Art Triennial in Niigata,
Japan, a conversion of 2 silos into appartments in Kopenhagen, Denmark , a housingproject in
Madrid, Spain, and a Mobility Park near Hamburg, Germany. is also invited for several
European design competitions that currently take place.
Around fifty architects, designers and staff members of are organized into teams headed by
project leaders. In each team, different fields and scales of ’s projects are reflected, both in
the (international) background of team members and in the variation of work. has permanent
relationships with engineering firms to activate the exchange of up to date knowledge.

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