Malcolm Smith, head of the Zuidas Design Team, is responsible for the general design strategy and principles of Amsterdams 'South Axis' development project. Sustainability plays a signficant role in his design work, including urban regeneration projects. Smiths Urban Design Team, part of the ARUP consulting engineering group, is preparing a green masterplan for Stratford City in a derelict part of Stratford, London, the epicentre of the Olymic Summer Games in 2012.
Smith aims to enrich the Zuidas district with greater diversity and layering. The area around Amsterdam Zuid Station is presently dominated by office developments, but in future at least as much emphasis must go to housing, art and culture. In effect, Zuidas must function as a prelude to the historic inner city of Amsterdam.
www.arup.com

This lecture is in Dutch.

www.urbanunlimited.nl

Exactly 25 years ago this documentary on five young architects Francine Houben, Jan Benthem, Jo Coenen en Frits van Dongen was shown on TV. Now, 25 years later these architects seem to have made it in any way. This asked for a critical evaluation. During the film the five mentioned architects werel present at the first row and had a discussion afterwards.

Herman Kossmann (1958) and Mark de Jong (1960) both studied architecture at TU Delft. In 1998, they set up a design office for exhibitions and interiors. In addition to temporary and permanent museum displays, they also design interiors for, among other things, visitor centres, clubs, hotels, themed pavilions and large-scale events. In their work, spaces are charged with meaning and imagination. The aim is to create an intense experience, in which a mix of different media is often employed.
Projects include, among other things, the Dolhuys, museum for psychiatry in Haarlem, the Wonderkamers in the municipal museum in The Hague, café-restaurant Bazar in Amsterdam and fairly recently they collaborated on the refurbishment of the architecture faculty building in Delft. They are currently working on a pavilion for microbes in Artis, an interior for the new maritime museum in Helsingore, Denmark, the Florence Nightingale Museum in London and the ‘Urbanian Pavilion’, one of the five Chinese themed pavilions at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. See also: www.kossmanndejong.nl

Cartoonist and designer Joost Swarte (Heemstede, 1947) studied Industrial Design and made his debut with a comic strip in the Eindhoven newspaper ‘De Andere Krant’. He has designed, among other things, stamps, posters, furniture (the well-known glass table with root legs) and watches (Swatch). Since 1990 he has also concerned himself architecture. For example, he designed the Toneelschuur in Haarlem and the interior of the Hergé Museum in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), designed by Christian de Portzamparc. A dwelling designed by Swarte in Amsterdam city centre is due for completion in early 2010, a project he spoke about during his lecture in the Brakke Grond.
In one of the other apartments an exhibition is on show on his drawings form 13 February till 7 March.

For more information, check: www.ymere.nl/joostswarte.