The design story of Marker Wadden is unique. This man-made group of uninhabited islands in the Markermeer mainly comprises marshes and shallow waters, which makes them perfect bird habitats. Only the main island is accessible to the public.

This newest piece of the Netherlands – its landscape, the urban design of the settlement and the architecture – has been designed with care and attention. An impressive approach that leaves the shaping of the landscape largely to nature. By realizing M...

The city is not only the habitat of people, but also of plants and animals. Building Urban Nature is a plea for nature-inclusive, bioreceptive architecture that inspires designers to give nature a place in their work.

Through the presentation of realized projects, the book shows how the values of nature can be incorporated into our buildings. It discusses the conditions under which flora and fauna settle on and around our buildings, and the design methods, strategies and techniques that can h...

Reflections tells the story of the renovation of the largest seventeenth-century palace of the House of Orange and the new underground extension. Spectacular photography and captivating texts showcase KAAN Architecten’ ingenious design for the project, the history of the palace, the convergence of old and new and the palace's current role as an museum.

The underground extension is inextricably linked to the historical building even while leaving the facade and the interior of the palace unt...

Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891–1966) is regarded as the first woman architect in the Netherlands. She completed her first work as an unqualified architect in 1917. Less well known is that Grada Wolffensperger (1887–1965) became the first woman to complete the univer-sity course in architecture at the Technische Hogeschool in Delft that same year. A further twenty women had completed their architectural training by 1945.

Why and how did these women become architects at a time when women w...

All over Europe, cities struggle with an accumulation of environmental crises like global warming, the depletion of natural recourses, pollution and the extinction of species. If we want to keep our cities liveable, we have to make them circular and climate adaptive.

Making our planning methods, production processes and building economies circular in order to remove the causes of the environmental crises, is a tough assignment. Turning our cities into climate-adaptive environments, ready to c...

From nomadic labour to online services and from street food kitchens to pop-up shops, informality is on the rise as never before. Its transformative power can be seen in the new ways we produce, consume and live, with commerce playing a crucial role in these changes. The resulting tension between the formal and the informal is nowhere more evident than in the struggles over contested marketplaces.

This book provides a deeper understanding of the formal-informal linkages that have given shape ...