"We love to play with models because you can create many variations or changes for what you want to reflect, but physical models are still important for us," says Jan Knikker, Partner at MVRDV, world-renowned architecture and urbanism firm. 

Speaking at the Architecture of the Future Conference today, Knikker has made a fascinating presentation with the studio's recent projects, explaining that how MVRDV's buildings contribute to "a sustainable living" for the future. 

Image © Allard van der Hoek

Knikker stressed the importance of sustainable living with the use of outdoor spaces and variety that are dominantly used in the studio's projects in general and he shared a broad perspective on how they manage the design process in terms of efficiency and usability of these spaces. 

Knikker, in relation to a question about how to use a lot of green spaces in their projects, stated that "if you have enough soil on your balcony, you can grow your plants because you can test how much sun or rain comes in different periods of the season."

"You can test it parametrically with software tool". However, Knikker also added that "we don't talk about only digital models as a generative process, but we love also physical models and they are still very important part of thinking process. We put physical models in the middle of the table and all architects in the studio discuss about it because architecture is a social interaction as well."

Knikker shared some visuals of important projects of the studio, including Market Hall in Rotterdam, the Public Art Depot in Museumpark Rotterdam, the Seoul Skygarden, (W)ego house, Peruri 88 in Jakarta, showing that how they transformed the cities from small scale to larger scale and brought a new life and use.  

In his lecture, he explained how the firm transformed the car city with Seoullo bridge, how the firm transformed the post-industrial city with Market Hall, and how the studio transformed the Art Depot and made the art visible to the public. 

Knikker's presentation has mostly focused on how MVRDV works and how it really creates habitable and usable spaces in any city. In his presentation, Mr. Knikker explained how they solved the over budget problems in the production process with clients and how they produced alternative models from overly expensive solutions.

Architecture of the Future Conference is being held on October 4-5, 2018 Kyiv, which is the biggest architecture conference in Eastern Europe, and brings together authorities, architects, engineers, developers, media to discuss the "architecture of the future trends" in Kyiv, Ukraine for the first time. 

Today's conference is composed of two major panels, including "New Forms, Materials and Approaches" and "Sustainability" panels. Knikker was one of the speakers at "Sustainability" panel and he said that....

The conference is curated by Riyad Joucka, Founder/Architect MEAN* Middle East Architectural Network. United Arab Emirates, and the conference is seeking to change the city through the development of advanced technologies and the creation of iconic projects with key speakers and leaders.

Knikker joined MVRDV in 2008, starting his career as a journalist he then shaped the public image of OMA for nearly a decade. At MVRDV Jan leads the Business Development and Public Relations efforts, forming a client oriented, fast and strategic department which now also includes a strong visualisation team. 

He worked on openings such as the Spijkenisse Book Mountain and Markthal Rotterdam, generating huge amounts of free publicity and raising public interest. He further worked as MVRDV’s editor and contributor to a range of publications amongst which ‘MVRDV Buildings’.

Riyad Joucka and Jan Knikker on the stage at Architecture Of The Future conference

The conference is being shaped around six major topics: How VR/AR/AI are changing present and future of the architecture, 3D printing as a new shape for architecture, Zero energy architecture, Smart city as new platform for living, the sustainable strategies for the cities development, Mega projects, supertalls and new cities within the existing cities. 

World Architecture Community is official Media Partner of the conference and is bringing you the hottest topics, key discussions and keynote sessions from the two-day event.

Top image © The Market Hall from the West at dusk, completed in 2014 in Rotterdam. Image © Ossip van Duivenbode

All images © World Architecture Community, unless otherwise stated

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