Koen van Velsen - architect chairman

Born in 1952 in Hilversum in Holland. Van Velsen started his own practice in 1977. His work covers a wide range of design disciplines including architecture, interior design, urban-planning and landscaping. The scale and complexity of the commissions realized by his office gradually developed from private houses to large public buildings in complex urban environments. In the last years the office completed a multiplex cinema in Rotterdam, municipal office buildings and landscaping in Terneuzen (in the southwest of the Netherlands), a museum for the University of Utrecht and the Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam.
Van Velsen does not cultivate a personal aesthetic. Each new
project is analysed and its specific features, contextual or programmatic, form the basic arguments for a design concept. Great care is taken for a precise and lucid realization of the design. Knowledge of building techniques and details play a major role in this process as does the input of external engineering. Van Velsen has won a number of prizes for his work, including the Mart Stam Prize awarded by the city of Amsterdam and the Rietveld Prize for the University Museum in Utrecht. Recently he has won the "BNA KUBUS 2002" for his complete works.