Today, on November 25th 2020, the new city architect of Groningen was appointed during a press conference at the city hall. From January 1st 2021 onwards, Nathalie de Vries will succeed the current city architect Jeroen de Willigen and will lead the municipality of Groningen’s City Architect Atelier.

The city architect advises on both the current urban development and architectural projects in the municipality. She will guide Groningen’s major housing projects in the right direction and provide insight in several neighbourhoods as well as neighbourhood renewal.

Nathalie de Vries states: "As city architect, I would like to keep an eye on the broad outlines of the Groningen’s development and help realize the ambitious plans that the city has to improve its quality of life."

She continues: "Groningen is a city with a lot of guts when it comes to urban design and architecture. That courage is certainly needed to find solutions to the issues of our time: How do we ensure that Groningen remains a smart and future-proof city and that available space and facilities are distributed fairly?."

She states that first, she will explore the city of Groningen, on foot and by bike, with an empty notebook. She aims to get in touch with as many inhabitants of the city as possible along the way.

Nathalie will combine her new position as city architect of Groningen with her work for MVRDV. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Groninger Museum and the Professor of Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology.

During the same press conference, a new earthquake zone supervisory architect, Dianne Maas, was appointed. The city of Groningen has dealt with earthquakes triggered by the subsidence due to decades of gas extraction beneath the soil, where thousands of houses have experienced damage.

Top image courtesy of Barbra Verbij.

> via MVRDV