Times change, and so do the role models in architecture. What are the values of contemporary architects, and who do they represent nowadays? Does the principle of a ‘starchitect’ as a role model still stand, or can inspiration also arise from collective and collaboration? And is there enough diversity in the range of role models in terms of gender, origin and other aspects?
In response to the publication Women in Architecture, nai010 publishers organized a panel discussion with Arcam Architectuurcentrum Amsterdam and Pakhuis de Zwijger.
Dikkie Scipio was part of this debate together with Linda Vlassenrood, Eileen Stornebrink, Peter van Assche, Pınar Balat, Murtada Alkaabi, Erica Smeets-Klokgieters and Jurrian Arnold. The event also had Indira van ‘t Klooster (Arcam Architectuurcentrum Amsterdam) discussing new values, ownership and authorship in architecture.
The event took place last December at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. If you missed it, you can watch the discussion here.
Anticipating the upcoming inauguration of the new Visitor Center at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten on December 12th, we remember a significant construction achievement: the completion of its remarkable concrete fascia, achieved through a unique and complex multi-day process.
Fascia is the vertical band forming the outer surface of the building’s abstract cubic volume suspended above the landscape. Captured on film by Marcel IJzerman, the structure was slowly and carefully lifted over the course of several days by a coordinated system of hydraulic jacks to its final position. There, it will permanently hang from the visitor centre’s roof structure, allowing light to enter behind and giving it the appearance of floating in place.
We are incredibly proud and excited to reveal the finished space very soon.
Film by Marcel IJzerman
Sound design by Morten Brogaard
Commissioned by KAAN Architecten and American Battle Monuments Commission
With thanks to Groep van Roey, Civiele technieken deBoer bv, Camuse
We are thrilled to celebrate the second anniversary of our acclaimed short film series, MINUTES. These films have allowed us to delve deeper into the connection between architecture and film, and to showcase our projects in a unique and exciting way. To mark this special occasion, we are sharing the twelfth film in the series – ‘On an Immortal Being’.
Shot in the stunning Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, this film is part of a larger body of work that explores the narrative possibilities of architecture and film through a captivating vampire tale.
Directed by Jaime Levinas and created in collaboration with a talented team of artists, including Tina Makharadze, Ruben Hamelink, Nadia de Vries, and Noah Chevan, this film is a testament to the power of creative collaboration and experimentation. Watch the film on our MINUTES platform
MINUTES has received critical acclaim for its unique approach to exploring the intersection of architecture and film. Since its launch two years ago, the series has gained a significant following and has been featured in various film festivals and architecture events worldwide. Each short film in the series has been carefully crafted to showcase the beauty and complexity of the built environment in a new and captivating way.
From the film by Romain Loiseau & Tristan Soreau – To Become one
“Film and architecture have an almost uncanny bond with each other”, claims Brendan Cormier, senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, noting that “it is somewhat surprising that until now, films that focus exclusively on the representation of architecture remain a relatively niche pursuit.”
From the film by From Form – Await
In his essay ‘Why are there so few films about architecture?’ Cormier marks MINUTES as a milestone on a joint historical timeline of architecture and cinema. He writes: “By commissioning these films, KAAN Architecten is doing a wonderful service for architecture culture in general. It gives space for new experiments with the portrayal of architecture on film while showing valuable ways to enrich our documentation of architecture for future generations to experience.”
As the MINUTES series continues to grow and evolve, we look forward to seeing what new stories and perspectives it will bring to the world of architecture and film.
From the film by Benita Vlok – Crafted
Visit MINUTES website to discover more information about directors, films and architectural projects.
Film credits:
Featuring: Tina Makharadze Written and directed by: Jaime Levinas Director of Photography: Ruben Hamelink Line Producer: Sara Halbertsma Creative Producer: Inge de Leeuw Editing: Andrew Aaronson Original music and Sound design: Noah Chevan Words by: Nadia de Vries Production Designer: Rosie Stapel Setdresser: Lorien Mouyal Propsrunner Anne van Soest Props assistants: Freya Filarski, Anjelica Belgrave Special props: Jos Crezee With thanks to: Opera Ballet Flanders, Jacobs Interieur NV te Bree, ’s Zomers Bloemen Rotterdam, Antiquariaat Looijestein, Diana van de Vossenberg
Jaime Levinas is an Argentinean filmmaker based in Rotterdam. He graduated from Brooklyn College as a Fulbright grantee and Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds fellow. His short films Midnight Coffee (2020) and PINPIN(2021) have been selected for festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, BAFICI, IFFR, Maryland and others.
Yesterday a festive ceremony marked the unveiling of the first artwork reinstalled in the historic halls of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The exciting and emotional moment was captured by photographer Sanne De Block.
Rubens’ Baptism of Christ was hoisted straight up into the Rubens Hall through hatches in the floors. These slots come in handy for transporting the paintings to and from the underground depot for safekeeping.
Photo by Karin Borghouts
After the Rubens, other ancient and modern masters will follow based on a strict plan worked out by the curators and restorators. In total, 650 works will soon be placed on the walls of the restored and new museum rooms.
Following a thorough extension and renovation by KAAN Architecten, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts is set to open on 24 September 2022.
Images courtesy of KMSKA and Sanne De Block, unless otherwise indicated.
We are delighted to introduce the short film ‘Floating Stillness’, now freely available worldwide on the MINUTES web platform. This film marks the tenth release for the series, consisting of 12 short movies directed by international filmmakers and portraying a selection of projects by KAAN Architecten.
Directed by Miguel C. Tavares at Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat Hauts-De-France, Floating Stillness portrays a specific moment in time. It is a meditation on a paradoxical period at a multifunctional building for collective use. Instead of weaving together people and stories, the big machine is on standby, its parts suspended mid-air.
Floating Stillness guides us through different spaces as the temporarily vacant building is revealed in fragments. The sound emerges, unveiling an expectant inner soul. In this narrative, the building is the starting point for a poetic analysis of the moment we are living in.
Miguel C. Tavaresworks as an independent filmmaker and frequently collaborates with different artists and disciplines. Together with Ana Resende and Tiago Costa, he started a series of films that explore visual constructions from architectural works. Their latest projects are The Construction of Villa Além (in collaboration with Rui Manuel Vieira), a film that follows the construction of a house by Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati on the Alentejo coast.
Visit MINUTES website to discover more information about directors, films and architectural projects. To keep up to date with all upcoming events, online lectures and film releases related to the series, subscribe to the newsletter.
We are delighted to introduce the short film ‘Await’, now freely available worldwide on the MINUTES web platform. This film marks the ninth release for the series, consisting of 12 short movies directed by international filmmakers and portraying a selection of projects by KAAN Architecten.
‘Await’ is a visual essay about the transformation of grief captured in and around the Heimolen Crematorium, directed by From Form.
The crematorium’s symbolic architecture reflects on moments of loss, acceptance, and finding relief that often seem to flow into each other and raise the question of whether this occurs in the past, present or near future.
From Form is a Rotterdam-based film and design studio founded by Jurjen Versteeg and Ashley Govers. They’re passionate about working across print, spatial and film. They have also designed the MINUTES visual identity, including the opening sequence for the series and all film posters.
Visit MINUTES websiteto discover more information about directors, films and architectural projects. To keep up to date with all upcoming events, online lectures and film releases related to the series,subscribe to the newsletter.
We are delighted to introduce the short film ‘Territory of the Beings’, now freely available worldwide on the MINUTES web platform. This film marks the seventh release for the series, consisting of 12 short movies directed by international filmmakers and portraying a selection of projects by KAAN Architecten.
Directed by Dutch visual artist Mirte van Duppen, ‘Territory of the Beings’ pays homage to the classic wildlife documentaries by exploring the office setting as if it were a natural habitat of an animal species – the ‘beings’.
Set in the District Water Board Brabantse Delta office building, the movie is a comprehensive survey of the beings (the employees) in a modern ecosystem consisting of flexible islands (the office). The narrator takes you on tour: displaying, analyzing and describing the beings’ behaviour and how they occupy and defend their territory.
Visit MINUTES website to discover more information about directors, films and architectural projects. To keep up to date with all upcoming events, online lectures and film releases related to the series, subscribe to the newsletter.
On Tuesday, 28 September 2021 at 20.00, Pakhuis de Zwijger will host a MINUTES event titled ‘Building Stories – Architecture on Film’. See you there!
During the event at Pakhuis de Zwijger, a curated selection of 2 films and a performance from the MINUTESseries will be screened. The event will be a hybrid between a screening and a talk followed by live and online audiences.
This period of intense uncertainty inevitably led us to reflect on our lives and the physical (or symbolic) space we occupy in our environment and society. The three selected projects reflect on the ‘meaning of being’, metaphorically touching the topics of birth, death and immortality.
It emerges through the forces of creation (Craftedby Benitha Vlok), the acceptance of mortality (Staticby Spirit of Space) or possible immortality (Notes on an Immortal Being by Jaime Levinas). Building stories will explore this conceptual fil-rouge crossing over the 3 projects while discussing the potential of intertwining cinema, architecture and other creative practices.
The talk-screening Building Stories will be moderated by Dana Linssen, a film critic and writer. During the evening, 3 works from the MINUTES series will be presented by Benitha Vlok(via Zoom), Spirit of Space and Jaime Levinas, introducing his upcoming expanded cinema project ‘Notes on an Immortal Being’ with a performance. Besides them, KAAN Architecten founder and associated partner Dikkie Scipio and Martina Margini, MINUTES film series curator, will also participate in the discussion.
To explore the MINUTESproject, visit the project website.
We are delighted to introduce the short film ‘Crafted’, now freely available worldwide on MINUTES web platform.
Directed by South African director Benitha Vlok, ‘Crafted’ is a short poetic depiction of craftsmanship that holds hands with architecture and directly links to the humanity of the buildings we occupy. This film marks the second release for the eponymous series, consisting of 12 short movies directed by international filmmakers and portraying a selection of projects by KAAN Architecten.
In the last months, countries all over the world have been collectively taking stock of their healthcare infrastructures, both spatial resources for therapeutic care, but also centres for research and prevention. Within The Netherlands, such a place is the BSL3 laboratory (Bio Safety Laboratory level 3) – a state of the art addition to the Erasmus MC complex in Rotterdam designed by KAAN Architecten.
The video below explores the BSL3 as a workspace designated to the research of infectious diseases threatening public health. Even after 6 years since its completion, it is a unique space since there are less than a hundred of these type of laboratories worldwide and BSL3 is currently the only one of this size in The Netherlands, working closely with research partners and public health authorities.
This January marked the two year anniversary of starting the renovation and extension of Paleis Het Loo. During the past year, major progress has been made in the Bassecourt, which was excavated to make room for the new entrance facilities and exhibition spaces.
The deepest point of the construction pit has been reached and concrete was poured and cured underwater to make sure the structure is without tears or leaks. Following that process, first walls of the underground facilities have been raised.
Watch below the recap of the past two years, or click here to keep up with the ongoing video series following the construction progress.
In anticipation of the project release, KAAN Architecten presents a teaser video for CUBE in Tilburg.
The new addition to Tilburg University campus designed by KAAN Architecten, aptly named CUBE, will serve as the Education and Self-study Center (OZC). Comprising a floor area of 11,000 sqm, the OZC will support all faculties within the university, new building spaces forging connections among them. The teaser video offers a glimpse of the building just before it will open to host 2500 students and educators.
We are really happy to share with you the new look of KAAN Architecten’s website which includes a freshly released Videos section. Since its launch, KAAN Architecten has been very interested in visual media as a tool to narrate buildings from a different point of view. Along with “The Learn’d” and “Today”, video-interviews and construction time-lapse videos, a new video project called “Minutes” will be released soon including iconic projects such as the Netherlands Forensic Institute and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.
“Past, Present, Future: about being an architect yesterday, today and beyond” is a series of video interviews conducted by Gianpiero Venturini of Itinerant Office. The project features eleven internationally renowned Dutch and Italian architects and explores the figure of the architect and his or her role in contemporary society.
Kees Kaan talks about his first steps into the architecture school, passing through the first projects and commissions till winning international competitions and the change of approach to the design process in the last decades. New keywords and important aspects of the future role of the architect such as the redefinition of functionality combined with the increasing sustainability debate and the complexity of fast developments in a time of technology are at the core of the video interviews.
Watch them on Itinerant Office Vimeo channel and below!
We are pleased to release the official video of the new Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Terminal design by the international consortium KL AIR consisting of KAAN Architecten, Estudio Lamela, ABT and Ineco, with the support of Arnout Meijer Studio, DGMR and Planeground.
The new Education and Self-Study Centre (OZC) of the University of Tilburg is currently under construction. Completion is set for May 2018.
The building, a collaboration between KAAN Architecten and VORM, will support all faculties within the university by providing auditoriums, lecture rooms, meeting places and cafeterias for the students to meet and study. This video shows the special operation from day 17 of the construction process: the positioning of four 50.000 kg concrete beams with a span of 50 meters. Two cranes were needed to achieve this, weighing in at 650 and 750 tons respectively.
The new Geosciences and Environmental Research Center of the University of Tübingen (Germany) is growing fast. Since March 2016 a webcam has been documenting the progress on-site.
The first year of construction was dedicated to the construction of the concrete structure; followed by the building’s roof featuring all the mechanical plant units. The glazing of the two meter deep galvanized steel “façade rings” has started and last week the surrounding site was filled with soil to match the ground level of the campus.
The building is expected to be completed by Summer 2018.
On the occasion of the nomination for the Simon Architecture Prize 2016, KAAN Architecten has produced “Today”, a short film about daily life inside the Provinciehuis of North-Brabant.
The Provinciehuis of North Brabant in ‘s-Hertogenbosch is a lively structure and its inhabitants are the engine of this efficient governmental apparatus. The iconic building, originally designed by Hugh Maaskant, prominently standing out in a countryside landscape, is the setting for a multitude of personal daily interactions.
Filmed by Dutch director Marcel Ijzerman, “Today” is a short non-fiction movie consisting of seven recorded conversations collected in the building that reveal the complex social structure of the administrative body, paired with a specific overview of the spaces as seen through the eyes of its users.
Director: Marcel Ijzerman (Dordrecht NL, 1986)
Runtime: 3.40min
Completion date: October 2016 Production by: Ijzerman Media Assistance: Martina Margini, Chris De Krijger, Foekje Fleur van Duin Drone: Andries Altenburg (Skymovie) Sound recordings: Levi Westra Sound engineering: Tjeerd Melchers Translation: Rachel Sander, Phil Procter Thanks to: Rob van der Plas and the staff of Provinciehuis of North-Brabant
The short film, directed by Victor Vroegindeweij (The Office for Nonfiction Storytelling, Hazazah Pictures), is a two and a half minutes narrative capturing the Education Center of Erasmus MC, an intervention designed by KAAN Architecten, that transformed an abandoned external atrium into an enlightened inner square.
The Education Center is part of the Rotterdam academic hospital Erasmus MC, originally designed in 1965 by Arie Hagoort (OD205) in collaboration with Jean Prouvé, and recently extended by EGM architecten. Since its completion in 2013, the new building has merged all medical student programmes under one column-free roof.
The narrative bonds the poetry of light and space of the Education Center with Walt Whitman’s written lyric one. A deep voice reciting “When I heard the learn’d astronomer” from Leaves of Grass meets the sharp harmony of forms, diverse material’s temperatures, and ethereal light of the roof geometry in a crescendo of tension. The discreet presence of two young figures, running and hiding themselves, is changing the focus of the stills and gives shape to an unconventional reading of the building’s structure and its elements.
“The Education Center is part of an imposing medical city, a post-war concrete jungle shaped by pragmatism and cost-cut” says Vroegindeweij. “I was surprised to come across this oasis of humanism and softness, at the very heart of it”.
The short film has been realized in recognition of the shortlist nomination for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2015. It is part of the exhibition that opened its doors on May 8th, 2015 at the MUHBA Oliva Artés centre in Barcelona.
For more information, please contact KAAN press (Maria Azzurra Rossi): press@kaanarchitecten.com.
To download the short film stills and project images, please follow this link.
Synopsis: The Learn’d
In an empty building, a temple of knowledge, movement is detected. Two people in their youth, desperate for meaning, are looking for human contact in a world of facts and figures. The beautiful words of “When I heard the learn’d astronomer”, Walt Whitman’s poem, accompany the stunning imaginary and convey the need to explore reality rather than science, to be human first, and a learn’d after. The same values are embodied by the architecture of the Education Center.
A video of the first “Talking Architecture” event has been released by Fundació Sorigué.
Kees Kaan was part of the first talk, of the series presented during the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture of Shenzhen (China), together with South African, Lindsay Bremner; Algerian, Zinedine Seffadj; Chinese, Li Xiangning; and Swiss, John Palmesino.
