Houben, Döll and Steenhuis won a competition to design youth housing at Kruisplein in Rotterdam while they were still students at Delft University of Technology.[1] The project marked a turning point in Dutch social housing which was then mainly oriented towards family units.[2] Together with Van Egeraat and De Weijer, Mecanoo was founded in 1984 in Delft.
The name Mecanoo is a combination of three different words: the British model construction kit Meccano, the neoplasticist magazine Mécano drawn up by Theo van Doesburg and the motto 'Ozoo', adopted by the original founding members for the Kruisplein competition entry which was located in the area of Rotterdam's former zoo.[3]
Over the years (1988-2003), four of the five founders of Mecanoo - Steenhuis, Van Egeraat, De Weijer, and Döll - have left the company. Houben, as the creative director, is still involved with the firm. [4]
In 2020, Mecanoo became a partner in the Data and Knowledge Hub for Healthy Urban Living, an independent and open platform of public and private organizations working together for a healthy urban living environment. [5]
Office location
Mecanoo is located on one of the oldest canals of the Netherlands, the Oude Delft, in the historical city centre of Delft. This canal house dating from 1750 was designed by the Italian architect Bollina. The interior has a 40-metre long corridor with a stairwell, ceilings and doors with stucco work and carvings in Louis XIV style. After Oude Delft 203 had been occupied in the nineteenth century by several leading citizens, it was sold in 1886 to the Roman Catholic charity for the poor, later the St. Hippolytus Foundation. Until 1970 it served as lodging for the elderly and later as a hospital. In 1983 Mecanoo rented a part of the canal house and now occupies the entire building.
Mecanoo also has offices in London, New York and Kaohsiung.
Design philosophy
Mecanoo has extensive experience designing and realising exceptional buildings which serve client ambitions while creating vibrant end-user spaces. According to the practice each project responds to the philosophy of People, Place and Purpose: to the client’s requirements and the user’s needs (People); the physical context, climate and culture (Place); and the current and predicted potential of a building’s function (Purpose).
The result is unique solutions for each varying situation, in which the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, landscape and interior combine in a non-traditional way. Over the years Mecanoo learned that functions inevitably change. Therefore, they create buildings that are prepared for (un)predictable change.
Sustainability is an inherent aspect of their design approach, feeding into an ambition to create new identity in a world of globalization, resulting in inspiring and authentic places, socially relevant for people and communities.
Preoccupied not by a focus on form, but on process, consultation, context, urban scale and integrated sustainable design strategies, the practice creates culturally significant buildings with a human touch.
Oeuvre
Since 1984, Mecanoo has been working progressively on an extensive and various business. In the early years, the work is mainly consist of social housing projects in urban renewal areas. Currently they are focusing on complex, multifunctional buildings and integral urban developments. Project types include houses, schools, campuses, neighbourhoods, theatres, libraries, sky scrapers, parks, squares, highways, cities, hotels, museums and places of worship.
Mecanoo has been grown into a prominent Dutch architecture practice with an international, multidisciplinary staff who are architects, interior designers, urban planners, landscape architects and architectural engineers that have completed projects in the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway, Poland, and the United States. [6]
Mecanoo has become a prominent Dutch architectural practice with an international and multidisciplinary team of architects, interior designers, urban planners, landscape architects, and architectural engineers who have completed projects in the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway, Poland, and the United States. [7]
Selected works
Delft University of Technology LibraryBruce C. Bolling Municipal BuildingMontevideo Residential TowerLibrary of Birmingham
Faculty of Economics and Management, Utrecht (1995)
Houben, F., ‘Ingenieurskunst en mobiliteitsesthetiek’, in: Architectuur en de openbare ruimte, de dynamische delta 2, Ministry for Transport, Public Works and Water Management/ Mecanoo architecten, The Hague 1999
Houben, F., Maliebaan, een huis om in te werken, Andersson Elffers Felix, Utrecht/ Mecanoo architecten, Delft 2000
Houben, F., Composition, Contrast, Complexity, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam 2001 / Birkhaüser, Basel, Boston, Berlin 2001
Mecanoo, TU Delft Vastgoed, ING Vastgoed, TU Delft Masterplan, DUP Satellite, Delft 2002
Houben, F., Calabrese, L. M. (ed.), Mobility, A Room with a View, Rotterdam 2003
Mecanoo, Holland Avenue, Research Road Atlas; Holland Avenue, Design Road Atlas, Ministry for Transport, Public Works and Water Management, The Hague 2003
Houben F., Luyn S.D.B., Mgr. A.H. van, Adrichem, J. van, Rooy, M. van, En het eeuwige licht verlichte haar, Kapel Heilige Maria der Engelen, Rotterdam 2004
Brouwers, R., Betsky, A, Mecanoo, Masters of Architecture Series, Images Publishing Group, Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia, 2008
