(Out of the) Ordinary: towards an intimate portrait of the city

The project “(Out of the) Ordinary: towards an intimate portrait of the city” investigates how we can build housing, to accommodate ordinary life, within an industrial site. It gleans and introduces domestic qualities into a large cellulose storage facility in an attempt to reintroduce the industrial site to Maastricht and provide the city with...

Urban Paraphrasis: Imagining urban transformation in Maastricht through localized material reuse and citizen empowerment

Urban Paraphrasis imagines urban transformation through the potential of localized material re-use and the capacities of citizen empowerment in the context of Maastricht’s Sphinxkwartier. The project presents an alternative civic center that is built with reclaimed materials from an abandoned clay factory, engages a local community of squatters,...

Honigpoort: a community space for and by improvisation | bricolage

The shopping mall the Molenpoort (Nijmegen) was constructed in 1972 and is creating this hyperreality; an indoor world without rain, wind or snow. The invention of Victor Gruen, a foreign typology from America occupies all the negative space within the building block. Victor Gruen’s idea for the mall was a building where the community would...

Stitching up the community: The co-housing project in the Molenpoort

The co-housing project designed with the reused structure of the Molenpoort commercial centre from the 1970's. The future of the mall is currently being a matter of discussion since the municipality is planning to demolish the whole complex and introduce a completely new urban plan and functions in the area. The design proposal follows the...

City Curriculum: Constructing a common place for culture and knowledge exchange

The city of Nijmegen is in a process of losing its unique identity and urban fabric, as a result of a continuous commodification by the interests of private investments. The rise of commercialization creates an environment of strangers where the emphasis lays on individual perspectives and activities, accessible only to particular social groups,...

Common Ground: Urban Architecture

Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, is characterised by its topography, scale, and liberal attitudes. Described as ‘old city, young vibe’, Nijmegen is known for its left-wing politics, stimulated by the presence of Radboud University. It has a heterogeneous population of different subcultures, social groups and nationalities that...