Info
One Architecture is an Amsterdam based architecture and planning firm.
One Architecture is directed by Matthijs Bouw (Amsterdam, 1967), who studied architecture at the TU Delft. During his studies, he designed his first building, the Soest Day Care Center, with four friends. This building was described by critic Bart Lootsma as ‘one of the five most important Dutch buildings of the decade’.
Architecture can be much more than building icons or making nice facades. It creates culture. It can help clients generate money. It can change organizations. It can even have a political impact.
That is why One Architecture wants to do much more than provide professional services and make beautiful projects. One Architecture wants to engage in the full complexity of today’s society. One Architecture’s work integrates design and process. Through an understanding and engagement of the deep structure of planning (stakeholder’s agenda’s, organizational aspects, technology and program), combined with design intelligence, a diverse range of projects is made.
One Architecture’s approach is to involve in an early stage the different disciplines of engineering, programming and costing in order to explore the potential and the feasibility of a project both simultaneously and interdependent.
One Architecture’s approach has resulted in successful projects which include the much discussed design for Les Halles in Paris (with OMA and XDGA) in 2004 and urban plans Deventer, Dordrecht, Eindhoven and Tbilisi (Georgia). Recently, the office has been selected for architectural projects in the United Arab Emirates.
Matthijs Bouw has published, lectured and taught extensively, most recently as the professor i.V. for Gebäudelehre at the RWTH Aachen and as a visiting professor for the University of Kentucky, faculty College of Design.