NL Architects

Text: Jeanette Kunsmann Photos: Allard van der Hoek

 Profile

THE STUDIO OF NL ARCHITECTS IN A little bit more? The proverbial extra mile is an integral part of the work
AMSTERDAM of Amsterdam-based studio NL Architects, which demonstrates an unwavering
clear idea of what it wants to achieve. Yet that is not more in the sense of vo-
lume, but more content, more system, more function. The architects initiated a
new trend in the late 1990s with their design for the faade of a heat exchanger
station in the Netherlands: To prevent vandalism, they transformed the shell of
the small, functional building into a climbing wall made of polyurethane, which
was originally developed as a road surface coating for parking decks. Thus the
black monolith with the integrated climbing holds became a surprising hybrid
of functional building and climbing wall, which is a vivid expression of the
studios approach.

NL Architects, not an entirely unpatriotic name, conceive their ideas and buildings
in an open-plan office that was presumably once a warehouse. The studio on Van
Hallstraat is located directly on one of the many small canals in central Amsterdam.
The architects occupy the rear section of a two-story 1930s commercial building.
Unfortunately the windows are a little high you have to stand on your tiptoes to see
the water.
They share the building with neighbors who could hardly better reflect the typical
Amsterdam blend of Rembrandt and red light: a wholesaler for art supplies, a PR
agency and a tattoo studio. This is where the architects work. Like silent witnesses,
the countless models stacked on the shelves recount the studios history over the
past 15 years. Outside the seagulls glide past.
 NL Architects was founded in 1997, in the SuperDutch era, by Pieter Bannenberg,
Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse and Mark Linnemann, who had met and started
collaborating at Delft University of Technology. Kamiel joined a little later. Mark and
I were the first of the group to graduate we worked on our first project with Pieter:
the interior design of a movie theater in central Amsterdam, recalls Walter van Dijk.
Mark Linnemann only recently started working as an architect in Germany (Molter-
Linnemann Architekten). Today NL Architects is headed by Bannenberg, van Dijk and
Klaasse. With 21 employees, astonishingly few of whom are Dutch, they are today a
medium-sized company.

BASKETBAR
CAFE WITH BASKETBALL PITCH FOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT
Utrecht, Netherlands, 2003

The three words Wow! What? Wow! embody NL Architects corporate philosophy,
WOS8 a reference to architectural theorist Robert Somol. He splits architecture into two
HEAT-TRANSFER STATION categories. One can be described as Wow! What?, the other as What? Wow! The
Leidsche Rijn, Netherlands, 1998 first functions via the visual effect, the second via its content. In addition, we seek to
create in our work a feeling of Wow! What? Wow!, explain the architects. They dont
like architecture that misses its chance.

After having garnered international attention with their first project WOS8 in 1998,
NL Architects received the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) Award (Rotter-
dam) in 2004 for BasketBar at Utrecht University. The jury was impressed by the
casual architecture and inventiveness with which the architects had approached the
very banal remit. In 2005 NL Architects won the Emerging Architect award of the
Mies van der Rohe Award for its unusual hybrid of coffee house and sports ground.

Following the first few successful years, things gradually slowed somewhat for NL
Architects. The construction industry stagnated, many of their experimental projects
were halted. In 2007 NL won first prize in the competition to design the Groninger
Forum by popular vote. Their proposal, which envisages a multi-use building that
opens up vertically to form an atrium, saw off competition from international studios
including UN Studio, Zaha Hadid, FOA Foreign Office Architects and Wiel Arets. In
2008 the quartet once again caused a stir and established its name with Sound Sho-
wer at the Venice Architecture Biennial.
 The studio has recently completed an apartment block in the east of Amsterdam with
an extraordinary roof, namely Funen Blok K. Two diagonally opposite corners of the
structure rise up, creating a hill-like landscape. And while in Vredenburg near Utrecht
work is well underway on the construction of the new concert hall Crossoverzaal, an
extension of Hermann Hertzbergers music hall, the media-savvy architects can boast
several ongoing projects this year: 2012 is projected to see the completion of, among
others, two residential complexes in Rotterdam, a new entrance pavilion for an in-
dustrial park in Arnhem and Port Transformer in Amsterdam. Groninger Forum, their
largest and most intricate project to date is currently on hold again. They want to
start work on the underground carpark section next summer, and on the Forum itself
in 2014, reports Kamiel Klaasse. Architects certainly need a good deal of patience.

After 15 years NL Architects are able to present an extensive portfolio. Their works are
difficult to describe in few words, be they wild, humorous, experimental or radical.
The crucial factor is always what can arise beyond the required design parameters
FUNEN BLOK K and what unexpected potential it offers. They themselves describe their architecture
APARTMENT BUILDING as a remix of reality. In the interview Walter van Dijk and Kamiel Klaasse talk about
Amsterdam, Netherlands, their expectations of architecture, sports facilities, and why all good stories begin in a
completion 2011 car.
 Interview

AT THE STUDIO OF NL ARCHITECTS Its Friday lunchtime and things are quiet in the office of NL Architects: the
IN AMSTERDAM weekend is fast approaching. Along one wall, all the monographs and publi-
cations are lined up as if on sale at a newspaper stand; models are stacked on
shelves or wedged in-between. While we talk, Walter van Dijk and Kamiel Klaas-
se arrange the models around their laptop like a landscape. In the background
low music envelop the office in a peaceful mood; it is gradually growing dark
outside.

Its nice and cozy here! How did it all start?

Kamiel (reflects):
Oh, thats a long time ago.

Walter:
Unfortunately, neither of us has a very good memory these days.

Kamiel:
It all started in the car. Back then we lived in Amsterdam and studied in Delft a kind
of car-sharing studio.
As architects we In a car? What make?

basically grew up in Kamiel:

It was a metallic blue Ford Escort station wagon.
the 1990s a time
How are we to envision that? How do architects work in a car?
when lots of things
altered and total- Walter:
We were a group of perhaps 15 students from Amsterdam. You travel a good hour
ly new possibilities from Amsterdam to Delft; we used the time to talk about architecture and discuss
projects. Thats how it all started.
opened up .
Kamiel:
A very concentrated work situation! You spend a lot of time together.

Walter:
There were lots of traffic jams a lot of time for discussing!

Kamiel:
Later we rented an office to work on our study projects there are no studios at Delft
Uni.

Kamiel:
In the first few years we took part in many competitions; back then you still got those
nice state subsidies and that meant we could finally buy a BMW! (laughs)
No, that really was a big advantage for us. Especially at the beginning it helped us
enormously to ease our way into the world of freelancing. It was a good time!

Which architects influenced you?

Kamiel:
The list is probably endless. There is so much happening out there that we find
inspiring. As architects we basically grew up in the 1990s a time when lots of things
changed and totally new possibilities opened up both on the virtual level and in
reality. It was the age of optimism, anything seemed possible.

KAMIEL KLAASSE You caused quite a stir with the first project you realized, the WOS 8 heat-trans-
fer station in Utrecht.

Walter:
It wasnt really our first project. Before that we developed a movie theater and desi-
gned a few other interiors. But that wasnt as exciting, which is why you wont find it
in our portfolio.

Kamiel:
Incidentally, the cinema was recently modernized.

Walter: Yes! Totally amazing: After 15 years they modernized it exactly in line with
our initial plan. Normally you would re-design a room after that length of time but
there you can hardly see a difference. The interior is our first monument!
 Kamiel (interrupts):
That is the big dilemma in architecture: You only do every project once yet you can
learn so much from it! For instance, we just completed a gymnasium. As the building
was not to have any windows but only indirect light, it looks as if youre doing gym-
nastics in heaven. Its a building type you could simply copy and paste similar to
fast-food outlets. With every additional gym you would perfect this type of building
more and more.

GYMNASIUM WELGELEGEN
Utrecht, Netherlands,
completion 2011

How did you get the contract for the heat-transfer station?

That is the big dilem- Walter:

In 1994 there was a large urban-development master plan for the entire region in
ma in architecture: Leidsche Rijn. Rients Dijkstra from the Rotterdam-based studio Maxwan Architects
had decided that infrastructure buildings such as these should be designed specially.
You only do every He recommended us to the energy supplier, and they were grateful for it. Everything
project once yet you had to be done really quickly so there was no time for a lot of decision-making
luckily for us!
can learn so much
Kamiel:
from it! The seamlessness of the polyurethane skin was quite meaningful: it is the architects
dream to finally solve the clumsiness of gridded buildings, but it was also the subli-
mation of the process on the inside

In a way this was one of your first pieces of sports architecture; other projects
followed, such as the Basket Bar and other functional buildings with integrated
climbing walls. Is that your central theme?

Kamiel:
Sports applications in architecture are a very inspiring field. You have an infinite
number of options. The buildings can be read as a kind of sculpture that is activated
through sport and serves to precipitate social interaction. And you can do wonderful
 things visually theres so much you can develop just from the lines of a basketball
field! In Sanya in China we are now working on a pavilion with a small velodrome as a
roof: the curves of the cycling track the bank are in a way reminiscent of Chinese
temples!

WOS8
HEAT-TRANSFER STATION
Leidsche Rijn, Netherlands, 1998

Walter:
That is the main aspect of our work: an additional program for our buildings to
intensify their use. But to return to the heat-transfer station: Such buildings are often
located quite a way from the city; their faades quickly fall victim to vandalism and
BASKETBAR graffiti. In our design we offered an alternative: people can meet here, play basketball
CAFE WITH BASKETBALL PITCH FOR or climb. We wanted the heat-transfer station to radiate a positive message, to be
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT more than an attractive shed.
Utrecht, Netherlands, 2003
You are best known for the Basket Bar. How did you come up with the idea?

Kamiel:
We wanted this place to be both part of the campus and part of the city. The brief
was to expand the university bookstore into a grand caf with a bar and restaurant.
It was an elegant glass pavilion; we enlarged the roof to the size of a basketball court
and opened up new options for the building. We see basketball as a very urban sport
and we wanted to invigorate the place, although it wasnt part of the plan.

Walter:
The Basket Bar is also planned from the perspective of the neighboring high-rises. It
looks entirely different from above.

It is a wonderful stage in the middle of the city.

Walter:
Yes, it was not just about basketball. The entrance is also more than just an entrance,
thanks to the ramp it is barrier-free, but also a meeting point, a terrace, an arena...
 Kamiel:
And an enormous orange ash tray! (laughs)

Walter:
That is always the big problem with projects in the public space they get dirty
quickly. Everyone goes there to smoke. It is only cleaned once a week by the city, but
now the bar takes care of the daily cleaning. The success of a project is not only deter-
mined by its design, but also its functionality.

How would you describe the architecture of NL Architects in general?

We are very much Kamiel:

Our projects are shaped by logic sometimes fuzzy logic, sometimes hardcore logic,
interested in form, sometimes amplified logic, sometimes logic pushed too far... We hope that our pro-
jects will bring out the hidden potential of the world we live in, that they will helpto
but the idea is create a form of understanding and reveal beauty.
always dominant. Walter:
In this way, we hope to produce buildings and ideas that are communicative. Our
bottom line is to aspire to create a form of poetry. In concrete. Or in wood or foam or
pixels

LOOP HOUSE
EXPERIMENTAL APARTMENT
BUILDING
Heiry Art Valley, Korea 2004

What role do aesthetics play in your projects?

Kamiel:
We are very much interested in form, but the idea is always dominant. As such, sha-
pes become meaningful. If were lucky. We hope to find sexy reductions: throw all the
ballast overboard just keep the core, find the essence. It can be flat as long as it is
not shallow!

Walter:
Usually we like to tweak only one parameter; as that way the intervention remains in
the domain of what you know, just slightly different, not entirely new or alien. Then
the project is readable, or understandable. But it is also in our nature to contradict:
we tend to undermine our own preoccupations, to break our own rules
 You said you learn from your own projects. Do you return to the scene and look
how your buildings are accepted?

Walter:
Yes, we are often in Utrecht, for example. When we want to visit the heat-transfer sta-
tion we have to put on bullet-proof vests because the neighbor hates this building!
It was built in a garden behind a house whose owner received generous compensati-
on. His neighbor, who has to look out at the black building from his house, never got
a cent and boy is he annoyed! And on top of that has all the architecture tourists
trampling over his property....

GRONINGER FORUM
Groningen, Netherlands, estimated
completion 2016

Kamiel:
It is really an unfortunate situation: His property has depreciated in value and he
hasnt been able to sell his house.

Walter:
Incidentally, this is one of our most current projects, a gymnasium in Dordrecht. You
have to realize that climbing is a very popular sport in the Netherlands although we
dont have any mountains at all.

Kamiel:
The climbing wall is also an additional program in the gymnasium in Dordrecht we
were supposed to design a complex with four large sports halls. The climbing hall is
intended to activate the faade.

Walter:
Unfortunately, it wasnt that easy finding someone to realize it. We had to sort it out
ourselves and phoned around a lot. It wasnt a matter of just drawing up the idea; in
order to create this form of animated beauty we had to stretch the notion of what an
architect is: we had to become realty brokers!
The sports center was finished two years ago, and now the spectacular climbing walls
developed by Cas Oosterhuis will also soon be completed. We can finally see if the
WALTER VAN DIJK hypothesis works
 You are not only sports architects, but also storytellers. Your collages virtual
realities, which were exhibited in 2008 at the Venice Biennial, depict radical sce-
narios. Will you continue them?

Kamiel:
They are intellectual games. Architecture without the usual constraints, like gravity
for instance. What if you could swim in the canals? Can we make windmills look more
attractive? Power Flower, Google Forest and Cruise City are important images for us.

Walter (showing a small model):

The Power Flowers are more than just an idea; we have had inquiries from around the
world, above all from Mexico and Dubai. (With an accent) Hello, I would like to order
two million windmills.

POWER FLOWERS
SELF-INITIATED STUDY
2011

You also work as designers do you see this working on a small scale as a way of
practicing your skills?

Kamiel:
Yes, there is an unconscious connection for us.

Walter (placing something on the table):

We always show this vase at the beginning of lectures to demonstrate our design
strategy. It is a three-dimensional collage, a combination of three different but
completely normal vases. A simple idea really (turns the vase upside down) but that
produces a totally new shape!

Kamiel:
You can only put a little water in it: less is more! We also designed a bridge (places
another model on the table, a heart-shaped bridge). Very Dutch, isnt it?

Walter:
And here we have another small, but exciting project (fetches another model). The
Port Transformer a sculpture at the Amsterdam docks for fashion shows and per-
formances. The fashion industry loves docklands! Since the whole object can rotate,
the catwalk can turn into a diving board!
Models are like a Ah with a catwalk, but without a climbing wall...

built thinking pro- Walter (laughs):

No, just for a change you cannot climb here.
cess for us and very
You have an amazing number of models!
important for our
work. Kamiel:
We keep all our models; there are a lot more up in our workshop. Models are like a
built thinking process for us and very important for our work. We can go up and look
at the studio if you like.

Id love to! Just two more questions: Why NL Architects?

Kamiel:
The name comes from the time when we worked a lot in the car so you can relate it
back to the Dutch license plate. The dot in our logo stands symbolically for our passi-
on for the highways of the World Wide Web.

Walter:
We thought about the right name for a long time. Lots of people means lots of sug-
gestions and little willingness to compromise. Lego topped the list for a long time.
Then we struck it out again and in large letters we wrote Not Lego over it. Then NL.
became our logo.

Thanks very much for talking to me!

Interview: Jeanette Kunsmann.

Jeanette Kunsmann studied architecture at Berlin Institute of Technology. She has worked
among others for Francis Kr, raumlabor Berlin and Archplus. Since 2008 she has been
working as a freelance journalist and editor for BauNetz.

Project management: Ines Bahr

WHAT? WOW! WHAT?

2011
 Projects
GYMNASIUM WELGELEGEN
Utrecht, Netherlands,
completion 2011

FUNEN BLOK K
APARTMENT BUILDING
Amsterdam, Netherlands,
completion 2011
GYMNASIUM DORDRECHT
Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2011

POWER FLOWERS
SELF-INITIATED STUDY
2010

PORT TRANSFORMER
MULTI HILL, HAPARANDADAM,
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
ORDOS 100#13
DESIGN FOR A VILLA FOR THE
CHINESE ARTIST AI WEIWEI
(FAKE DESIGN)
2008

VIRTUAL REALITIES
CONTRIBUTION TO ARCHITECTURE
BIENNALE
Venedig, Italy, 2008

GRONINGER FORUM
Groningen, Netherlands, estimated
completion 2016
NICOLAS BEETSPLEIN
SQUARE
Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2006

LOOP HOUSE
EXPERIMENTAL APARTMENT
BUILDING
Heiry Art Valley, Korea, 2004
LAAK BLOK 6
SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE
Amersfoort, Netherlands, 2004

BASKETBAR
CAFE WITH BASKETBALL PITCH FOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT
Utrecht, Netherlands, 2003
3VASE
CERAMIC VASE F COR UNUM
2003

WOS8
HEAT-TRANSFER STATION
Leidsche Rijn, Netherlands, 1998