Mecanoo

Library of Birmingham

Mecanoo is an architecture firm based in Delft, The Netherlands. It was founded in 1984 by Francine Houben, Henk Döll, Roelf Steenhuis, Erick van Egeraat and Chris de Weijer. The firm is directed by its original founding architect and creative director Francine M. J. Houben alongside partners Aart Fransen, Francesco Veenstra, Ellen van der Wal, Paul Ketelaars and Dick van Gameren. The firm's designs include technical, human and playful aspects. Mecanoo combines the disciplines of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture in a sometimes unorthodox way and with sensitivity for light. Each project is approached in terms of context and how it relates to the larger urban and social fabric; how it impacts the environment and the beauty of place.

Firm name

The firm's name Mecanoo is inspired by the Erector Set ‘Meccano’, a set of metal pieces, nuts, bolts, etc. and tools specially designed for constructing small models of buildings, machines, or other engineering apparatus. It symbolizes the joy to build. The diver logo represents freedom of thinking and optimism.

The name Mecanoo is a combination of three different words, the British model construction kit Meccano, the neoplasticist pamphlet mecano drawn up by Theo van Doesburg in 1922 and the motto 'Ozoo', adopted in 1984 by the original founding members of Mecanoo for their competition entry for a housing complex in the area of Rotterdam's former zoo. The competition was entered while they were still students at TU Delft.[1]

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.

Oeuvre

Since 1984 Mecanoo has been working progressively on an extensive and varied oeuvre. In the early years the work consisted mainly of social housing projects in urban renewal areas. Currently the work focuses on complex, multifunctional buildings and integral urban developments, combining urban planning, landscaping, architecture and interior design. Project types include houses, schools and complete neighbourhoods, theatres, libraries and sky scrapers, parks, squares and highways, cities and polders, hotels, museums and places of worship.

Design philosophy

From the start of the 1990s Mecanoo developed an increasingly clear signature. The three words in the title of Francine Houben’s book: composition, contrast and complexity, sum up the basis of Mecanoo’s architecture but say little about its nature, which in all respects is the complete opposite of cool, abstract and minimalist. Maximalist might be an appropriate neologism for this architecture that is warm and tangible and always offers a rich sensory experience.

Practice

Mecanoo has grown into a prominent Dutch architecture practice with an international, multi-disciplinary staff composed of architects, interior designers, urban planners, landscape architects and architectural engineers with projects in The Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, Korea, Turkey, the United States and Russia.

Selected works

TU Delft Library (1993–1997)
FiftyTwoDegrees
Montevideo

Selected awards and honours


Selected publications

Selected exhibitions

References

  1. ↑ Mecanoo: Experimental Pragmatism by Pietro Valle

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buildings by Mecanoo.