Living: Indoor-Outdoor

The M.Arch Jury Week Keynote Speaker for Housing and Urbanism is ​Prof. ir. Nathalie de Vries.

Where does the home begin? How far does it extend? In the work of MVRDV, the design of housing has always been an exploration of multiple collectivities and the dynamics of belonging. Through a series of projects, MVRDV co-founder Nathalie de Vries will be describing a trajectory of research into the ways the home is situated in changing understandings of the city, its ways of life, emerging challenges, and constraints. The architecture of dwelling is part of broader composition of novel urban patterns, and the role of the architect has never been more central to our critical reflection on the contemporary city.

Prof. ir. Nathalie de Vries is a co-founder and principal architect and urban designer of MVRDV, an interdisciplinary studio that works at the intersection of architecture and urbanism. The award-winning Dutch practice was set up by De Vries alongside Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs in 1993 and has established an international identity with a wide variety of building typologies and scales that are self-generated, innovative, experimental, and theoretical.

De Vries has created a diverse body of work in a variety of scales and typologies that are grounded in connecting individuals, communities, and environments. Over the past 25 years she has designed and realised highly acclaimed projects such as Villa VPRO, Silodam Housing, and the Spijkenisse Library as well and the masterplans for Nieuw Leyden and Westerpark West in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recent projects include the award-winning Baltyk office Tower in Poland, as well as office projects in Łódź, Shanghai, and Colombo, housing projects in Rennes, France, San Francisco, USA and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She also worked on Resilient by Design San Francisco and created masterplans for sites in the Netherlands, Germany, China, and Thailand, among others.

In addition to her work for MVRDV, De Vries engages as Professor of Architectural Design at Delft University of Technology and is the city architect of Groningen. She regularly lectures and serves as a guest critic at renowned universities internationally.

Image: Villa Stardust by MVRDV ©Daria Scagliola