Not Quite Obvious Densities

architects MVRDV
project Housing Silo (Silodam), Amsterdam, Netherlands
written by Vedran Mimica

 

In 1991, Winy Maas, Jakob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries founded MVRDV, an architecture and town planning office in Rotterdam. According to Rem Koolhaas’ foreword to a monumental monograph S, M, L, XL, Winy Maas “has left a deep imprint on individual buildings made by the Rotterdam OMA, and has significantly contributed to an intelligent office as a whole”.

 

MVRDV operates through research, design, construction and teaching, which are the basic activities of the leading team members. None of these activities starts from concepts based on developed theoretical or the French post-structuralist discourses, but from a highly accurate and pragmatic study of distinct facts which define contemporary architectural practice. MVRDV works with economic indicators, building regulations, consumerist behaviour, corporate structures, programme hybrids and computer programmes.