The Low Countries. Jaargang 18

Dutch Architecture as an Export Product

Dutch architects are renowned worldwide for their radical and pragmatic approach. This is possibly due to the ‘polder mentality’ and celebrated engineering skills that produced the Dutch ‘made landscape’. Today, it is noticeable that Dutch architects and urban designers are increasingly working on projects outside the polders, far outside the borders of their own country.

The most striking project outside the Netherlands is undoubtedly the Central Chinese Television (CCTV) complex in Beijing, designed by OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). The complex is the new headquarters of CCTV. The hotel that was part of it was recently destroyed by fire. OMA, a leading architectural firm founded by Rem Koolhaas that is based in Rotterdam and has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York, has dominated the discourse for the past two decades. Apart from a series of influential publications, OMA has made history with an interesting built repertoire that still serves as an example for many architects.

Over the past decade, following the example of Koolhaas, more and more Dutch designers have extended their horizons. In his book, SuperDutch,¹ architecture critic Bart Lootsma described the rise of a ‘new guard’, a group of radical architects. They attracted international attention by combining a typically Dutch realism and pragmatism with an international orientation. The so-called ‘SuperDutch generation’ produced an innovative visual language. The strength of this young generation is their ability to think conceptually. Political and social change acted as an accelerator. The Berlin Wall fell, the economy underwent unprecedented growth and there was much work to be done, particularly outside the Netherlands. Working from a sober-minded polder mentality, these relatively young Dutch architects designed ingenious solutions using an expressive but no-nonsense visual language. In their day, with an approach that was conceptual and based on research, the ‘SuperDutch generation’ succeeded in creating a diverse yet recognisable style. Today, the architectural firms that belong to this generation still determine the face of Dutch architecture: MVRDV, West 8, OMA, Erick van Egeraat, UNStudio, de Architekten Cie., Neutelings-Riedijk and Mecanoo - internationally renowned names with an impressive repertoire of projects all over the world.

However, a new and younger Dutch generation has yet to emerge. Very few have managed to successfully establish a new practice, due to the heavy responsibility of ‘having to be better than the previous generation’ and the ever-fiercer competition resulting from

1 Published in 2000 by SUN, Amsterdam.

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Model of a shopping mall at Porte de la Villette in Paris © Neutelings-Riedijk.

globalisation. While the youngest generation are being hit particularly hard by the rapidly changing economic reality (many have dismissed staff or even been forced to close their practices), the ‘SuperDutch generation’ - now part of the establishment - are still working on project after project. Today, their most interesting projects are not being built in the Netherlands but in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China and North America.

OMA is currently building the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (China) and recently presented a design for the Performing Arts Centre in Taipei (Taiwan). The luxury Star shopping centre was opened recently in the city of Kaohsiung (Taiwan). Its ingenious facade was designed by UNStudio. This firm, founded by Ben van Berkel and known among other things for the advanced design concept of the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart (2006) and the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, is currently making its mark with two projects on the Chinese continent. The Delft firm Mecanoo is working on various projects in Asia, too.

Perhaps the most international firm in the Netherlands is the Rotterdam-based MVRDV (Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries), known for the Dutch pavilion at the EXPO 2000 world exhibition in Hanover. In 2007, film star Brad Pitt commissioned the firm to design five houses for the Lower Ninth Ward neighbourhood in New Orleans. Pitt and his wife, Angelina Jolie, and the blues virtuoso Fats Domino, who lives in the district, set up the Make It Right foundation to provide homes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. MVRDV produced five designs that constitute a political statement directed at the former Bush government. The visual language of the five homes derives from the traditional ‘shotgun house’ and each has individual features for coping with rising water levels, demonstrating that the situation is still unsafe and that government help is urgently needed. The designs range from a house that can float to a house on stilts.

In Asia, too, MVRDV is attracting attention with extremely daring designs, such as that for the centre of Gwanggyo (2008), a new city to the south of Seoul. The plan consists of steep-sided hill-shaped buildings, with planted facades and terraces designed to create a landscape-like ensemble. The green complex uses less energy and water than traditional buildings. MVRDV are also making a social statement with their recent design for a high-rise complex in a suburb of Copenhagen. The units in the building are designed to be used as homes, workplaces, retail outlets, hotels and restaurants.

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Another firm working on numerous projects in China is de Architekten Cie. In 2008, their design for the new DSM offices in Shanghai earned them the coveted international LEED certification for energy-conscious building design. De Architekten Cie. also designed a spectacular expansion plan for the port city of Tianjin in North China, and recently won the competition for the Tianjin Urban Planning Museum. Closer to home, the firm is also working on major plans, including the new residential district Giustianino Imperatore in Rome and Casa Nova in Bolzano.

Even closer to home, in Antwerp, Neutelings-Riedijk is building the City Museum, which is due to open soon. This firm is also working on a large shopping mall at Porte de la Villette in Paris and an urban complex with opera and concert facilities in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana.

Several Dutch architectural firms are at work in the Middle East too. OMA has a large-scale masterplan for Waterfront City in Dubai, which is currently under construction.

One of the few landscape-architecture firms with internationally renowned plans is West 8, Adriaan Geuze's Rotterdam-based firm, which is currently building in London, New York, Toronto, Singapore and the former Soviet Union.

Dozens of other examples could be added to this selection of internationally active firms. It is clear that Dutch avant-garde designers are highly competent in marketing their architecture as an export product. A few exceptions aside, the common denominator of these design products is their radical nature and iconic visual language.

A younger generation, driven by the crisis, will have to find opportunities to radically change the face of architecture, for example with ‘green’ building or ‘tailormade’ inner-city projects. The key question is whether this new generation can also cause an international stir with such work.

Harry den Hartog

Translated by Yvette Mead