Luis Fernández-Galiano   MVRDV’s work takes us to the other side of the looking glass. As is known, much of recent Dutch architecture is effervescently experimental. Tirelessly inventive and imaginatively innovative, we like to think that its roots can be found in the manufa

Laura Fernández Suárez   The visionary and illusionist work of MVRDV is overwhelming in its prolific variety. The Dutch company has gone from three founding members whose last names give it its name – Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries – to an international inf

MVRDV   Netherlands   Located in the Western Garden Cities of Amsterdam built midway through the past century, the block is part of a densification plan set forth in the 1990s. The increased density threatened the parks and open green spaces, one of the main qualities of

MVRDV   Netherlands   Located on the Ij River in Amsterdam, the Silodam houses a mixed program of 157 apartments, shops, offices, retail areas, and public spaces. The different uses are stacked in ten levels over the water with a structural grid of piles and loadbearing w

Blanca Lleó, MVRDV   Spain   Sanchinarro is a large and relatively new residential area on the outskirts of Madrid. Its urban tissue is configured as closed blocks rising six to eight stories high, except for the main roundabout, where the Mirador was developed as a reference po

MVRDV   China   On a huge block in Tianjin, the TEDA plan is designed to densify a fragment of urban fabric combining horizontal and vertical construction. In Chinese cities, a significant part of the traditional neighborhoods have been replaced with urban developme

MVRDV   France   Le Monolithe is located in the Lyon Confluence area and its design is the result of the collaboration between five studios, based on the masterplan by MVRDV. The urban superblock is a mixed-use development comprising of a mix of social and rental hou

MVRDV   Netherlands   Located in Hilversum, a town southeast of Amsterdam, the headquarters of the Television and Radio Center of the VPRO Public Broadcasting Corporation does not follow the usual spatial configuration rules of an office building. Villa VPRO – as it is co

MVRDV   Netherlands   Located in the metropolitan area of Rotterdam, Spijkenisse is a town that has undergone a huge transformation over the past 40 years, growing from a small population of farmers to become a modern mid-size city. In the urban center, the new library is

MVRDV   Netherlands   The new market in the historic center of Rotterdam, characterized by its roof which is a horseshoe arch of 40 meters in height, offers a mixture of different programs aimed at revitalizing the Laurenskwartier district where it goes up. Aside from the

MVRDV   Netherlands   The historic center of Schijndel suffered bombings during World War II, which left voids in its urban tissue. In one of these voids, located between the church, the town hall, and the main street, is the Glass Farm, a building with public amenities s

MVRDV   Netherlands   Designed to house a flagship store on PC Hooftstraat – Amsterdam’s luxury brand street, which used to be mainly residential –, this building replaces two traditional houses, transforming their volume to increase the interior space and adapt it to ret

MVRDV   Netherlands   In a residential environment of macroblocks, these 37 pieces create a small multicolor neighborhood within a larger one, on grounds that had once served as an airfield. The project, designed as a pedestrian island, materializes a place with a domesti

MVRDV   Netherlands   The extension of this attic in the city of Rotterdam opens up an exploration path for the densification of cities, based on the expansion of the area of the existing historic house and atelier. Color and texture become key aspects, because they estab

MVRDV   Netherlands   So as not to interrupt working activity during the renovation and extension of the Cancer Center Amsterdam, the studio planned the construction of a temporary building made from prefabricated containers on the northern edge of the same block, within

MVRDV   South Korea   The brief called for the renovation of Chungha Building in Seoul’s Gangnam neighborhood – world famous after the success of the hit ‘Gangnam Style.’ Even though the building was completed not so long ago, it was already outdated in a street dominated

MVRDV   Germany   The Funari district is included in a major redevelopment of the old Benjamin Franklin barracks in Mannheim, built after World War II and in use until 2012. The Funari masterplan foresees the design of 27,000 square meters of housing, gardens, and pub

MVRDV   Japan   In contrast with the low-rise traditional constructions in the high-end Omotesando district, contemporary buildings raised recently in the area are minimalist boxes that stand out for their height and for their slender and elegant facades. Many of th

MVRDV   United Kingdom   Balancing Barn is situated in the English countryside near Thorington in Suffolk. It is a summer residence built for Living Architecture, a company that offers temporary rentals of signature houses, under the motto “Holidays in modern architecture.”

MVRDV   China   The initiative for a museum especially designed for this relatively recent art form brings the opportunity to create a platform which will unite the worlds of art and entertainment. By using one of the cartoon’s prime characteristics – the speech bal

COBE Architects, MVRDV   Denmark   Located between Roskilde city center and the site where the music festival of the same name takes place yearly, the Rockmagneten is an art and culture center that takes up an old factory. The brief demanded preserving the existing building – already

MVRDV   Netherlands   Since the year 2001, the center of the Dutch municipality of Zaanstad has been gradually transformed to agree with the style of the nearby UNESCO World Heritage site the Zaanse Schans. The City Hall and Inntel Hotel reinterpret these vernacular forms

MVRDV   Netherlands   The headquarters of NTR (formerly RVU) is located on the business campus of one of the channels of the Dutch Public Television Broadcasting System, next to Villa VPRO. Although a four-storey building could be erected according to the building regulat

MVRDV   Germany   The 2000 World Exposition in Hannover was held under the motto ‘Man, Nature, Technology,’ and the Netherlands Pavilion built for the event pondered on these issues posing questions like the compatibility between population growth and the improvement

MVRDV   South Korea   Perched high up on a hill close to the city of Anyang, in South Korea, the project is included in a plan developed in 1999 to revitalize the natural environment and attract visitors through a series of artistic interventions. The path leading up to t

MVRDV   Netherlands   The city of Almere, within the metropolitan area of Amsterdam, is on the verge of experiencing a large population growth geered by urban plans like that of Oosterwold or Almere 2030, which foresees the construction of 60,000 new homes. In this contex

MVRDV   South Korea   Since its construction in the 1970s, the overpass by Seoul’s Central Station connected Namdaemun market with the area located east of the train tracks until safety inspections in 2006 deemed the structure unsafe and intended to demolish and rebuild i

MVRDV   Netherlands   In 1999, the Netherlands had a population of 15.5 million people and almost the same number of pigs, with 15.2 millions distributed in a total of 16.400 farms. Pig City proposes an alternative solution to the current bio-industry, exploring how to ch

MVRDV   Netherlands   Subtracted temporarily from the world wide flow of trade, 3,500 containers are gathered in Rotterdam to form a megacontainer on the scale of the city: the City Container. These containers are used as the envelope – floor, walls, and ceiling – of an i

MVRDV   China   Over the last twenty years, the incredible economic growth of China has led to enormous urbanization, with massive migrations from rural to urban areas. Though impressive in size, most of these urban developments are rather monotonous, lacking divers

MVRDV   Netherlands   In contrast with urban plans where the structure is rigid and predictable, the proposal for the development of Almere Oosterwold is based on freedom of both individual and collective initiatives. The area of 43 square kilometers, located at the edge

MVRDV   China   Traditional neighborhoods in China, known as hutongs, have for centuries been the standard form of settlement for people that moved from the countryside to the growing cities. With its basic structure of houses around courtyards, the Hutong combines