Hong Kong University lecture

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:54:39 +0800

‘ John van de Water will question the limits of Western architectural thinking in the light of the next Chinese urban decade. Based on a series of anecdotes, critical self-analyses and (research) projects, he aims to formulate new focus-points and news tools for an architect with China's Urban Billion as a working field. Are Western design skills able to evolve in a cultural context as radically different as that of China? And how to equip yourself as an architect for China's Urban Billion?’

1st April 2013 - 19:30 - Shanghai - link for more information

‘Heart and Mind’ interview

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:13:30 +0800

Follow the links below for the first of a series of interviews with ‘key-people in the cultural sector’ by hollandinchina.org

read the interview in Chinese
read the interview in English

John van de Water will elaborate on different design approaches between Europe and China, NEXT architects Beijing and his book ‘You Can’t Change China, China Changes you’

Archined ArchiTV

Sun, 2 Dec 2012 17:31:26 +0800

Follow this link for a ArchiTV documentary of ‘Building in China’.
‘John van de Water has been living and working in China now for more than eight years. Last year he wrote 'You can't change China, China changes you', a fascinating "architectural novel' about his experiences as a Western architect working in the fastest economy, but also in a complex, difficult to fathom culture. In this documentary we follow him to the building site of one of his ongoing projects in Beijing: 8 mixed-use towers (130.000 m2)’

VANKE affordable housing

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:58:10 +0800

NEXT architects, as part of a team of nine other Dutch and Chinese architecture offices, have been working for the last year on a project for affordable housing for VANKE. The project consist of 15 and 21 m2 apartments for young starters.
The project is part of a matchmaking program initiated by the Netherlands Architecture institute and initially organized by movingcities.org Other companies involved are NL architects, AEG architects, Barcode Architects, KCAP architects, Standard Architecture, Urbanus, O-office Node architects and CAFA University.

The project is located in Beijing and construction is scheduled to start next year.

2012 China Golden Design Award!

Sun, 2 Sep 2012 11:15:12 +0800

Fuzhou Waves has been awarded the 2012 China Golden Design Award! The snapshot shows Jiang Xiaofei elaborating the ideas behind the project. Construction currently reaches six floors.
view project

China International Design Summit Keynote

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 09:46:55 +0800

You are cordially invited to attend the 2nd China International Design Summit. John van de Water will keynote with the lecture ‘What is it?’ and participate afterwards in a forum with among others Enzo Eusebi (安泽·朱塞彼) and Enrico Taranta (塔然).

venue: Beijing International Agricultural Exhibition Hall
time: 15:00-18:00
more info: link

Interview: Cutting Edge Magazine

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:45:02 +0800

For those of you who can read Chinese, follow the link for an interview with Cutting Edge Magazine. In it the story of living and working for over eight years in China and the inherent cross cultural dialogue between Western and Chinese architectural thinking.

NEXT_CE_magazine.pdf

CDD; the first 500 units sold on day one

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:34:20 +0800

Construction of Beijing CCD ‘Creative Design District’ runs at full speed. And with potential buyers queuing outside the sales center, the first batch of 500 apartments has been sold on the very first day.
Buyers will enjoy a 5,5 meter high mini-lofts in different sizes and configurations.

interviews: Designers & Books and China Construction Daily

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:59:57 +0800

Follow the links for two recent interviews with John van de Water:
- Designers & Books (English)
- ChinaConstructionDaily.jpg (Chinese)

Lianjiang-bay under construction

Sun, 3 Jun 2012 21:29:03 +0800

The first villa’s of Fujian Lianjiang Bay are under construction. In total the project will include 155 villa’s, townhouses, two high-rise towers and a spa/hotel.
The site is characterized by immaculate beauty; a backdrop of mountains and proximity of water. Qualities are reinforced by introducing water in front of every building. Each villa exploits qualities by orientating itself either towards the water or towards the mountains. A private pool floats in front of every villa. Different materialization express different directions.

NEW BEIJING OFFICE

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:08:47 +0800

We recently moved to a new office near Andingmen, one of Beijing’s old city-gates, and now enjoy a magnificent view over Ditan park. Brick by brick we installed a Yingbi - a screen-wall that blocks the entrance from negative Qi. Just by simply reorganizing the typical Beijing bricks, an intriguing distortion is created.

NEXT architects Beijing
Emperor House #1101
136 Andingwaidajie Dongcheng Qu
100011 Beijing CHINA
phone +86 (0)10 68080139
fax +86 (0)10 68080130

荷兰 NEXT 建筑事务所
北京市东城区安定门外大街136号
皇城国际中心A座1101室 100011
电话 010 - 68080139 传真 010 - 68080130

movingcities.org - interview + book-review

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:49:07 +0800

China Green Design Summit: keynote + forum

Tue, 8 May 2012 16:27:22 +0800

May 16th 2012, John van de Water will keynote and participate in a forum-discussion about Green Design in China. Other speakers are Executive President Mr Ning Liu - China Industrial Design Association, President Mr Kim Tai Ho Korea Association of Industrial Designers and Executive President Ms Shangyuan Jiang from the International Design Association in Hong Kong.

May 16th, 2012 - 13:00-19:00
Beijing Zhaolong Hotel - No 2 North Road of Beijing Workers Stadium
Chaoyang District - Beijing link

Chengdu; lecture, debate and jury-meeting

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:40:35 +0800

April 25-26 2012, John van de Water and Jiang Xiaofei will lecture, debate and participate in a jury at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in Chengdu.
The recently published book ‘You Can’t Change China, China Changes You’, will be presented. The debate will focus on ‘Cross Cultural Design’. The jury will select the Sichuan Architect of the Year, as organized by Soufun.com

lecture: Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts - Chengdu, 25th April from 19:00
debate and price ceremony: Crowne Plaza Chengdu, 26 April from 14:00

CDD groundbreaking

Mon, 9 Apr 2012 22:36:00 +0800

Beijing CDD recently celebrated its groundbreaking ceremony. The 200,000m2 project is located near Xihongmen and consists of eight towers of each eighty meter in height. Two of these are grade 5A office buildings and six are flexible SOHO towers. All are organized around a three level public area.

Tangshan club under construction

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:49:36 +0800

Construction started of the Tangshan Club. Located on a small hilltop, the building fluidly fits between several existing trees. The club is around 2,000m2 in area and is scheduled for delivery end of 2012.

Luneng Guihe Plaza reaches top floor

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:18:19 +0800

With over 60 meter in height, Guihe Plaza currently towers out over Jinan’s main Spring City Square. Delivery is scheduled for the end of 2012. Crown Plaza, Jinan’s first Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci, Armani, Boss and other high-end retail brands are scheduled to open their doors by then. View project.

English edition available!

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 16:21:25 +0800

The English edition of You Can’t Change China, China Changes you is available. From the press: ‘Gripping from the start and reads very much like a novel.’ Order online, or available at bookstores around the world.

book-review by Hans Teerds

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:25:19 +0800

'... Van de Water adds [to the existing literature on China] a perspective from the inside - not solely out of curiosity like a journalist would write, but rather as a dialogue between Western and Chinese architectonic, cultural and social values...'

'... The beautiful aspect of Van de Water is that he writes without self-conceit or compassion. He is and remains astonished though. In the concluding chapter, he states that it is exactly this astonishment that kept him focused all these years in China'.

Read the full review ‘The power of surprise’ on Archined.

Interview and lecture

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 18:17:51 +0800

John van de Water will be interviewed for Radio Kunststof 15th February from 19:00 to 20:00. The interview will be broadcasted live.
On 16th February he will lecture at Eindhoven University of Technology, (lecture organized by Eindhoven Center for Architecture, Casa Vertigo and TU/e) Both events are connected to the recently published book ‘You Can’t Change China, China Changes You’

XIDAN nears completion

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 16:55:06 +0800

Interior construction for Lafayette’s China Flagship store (first six floors) and Bank of China (top six floors) has started. The building is scheduled to be fully operational end of this year.

Architect of the Year Audience Award 2011

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:52:51 +0800

NEXT proudly received the Architects of the Year Audience Award 2011. The award aims to highlight – alongside the already established high architectonic qualities of their realized works – the professionalism and innovative qualities of Dutch architectural firms to clients, the press and the public.

China Radio International - interview

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:24:07 +0800

Follow the link for an interview with John van de Water about NEXT architects China and the book ‘You Can’t Change China, China Changes You’.

NEXT @ Shenzhen-Hong Kong Biennale ‘11

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 08:44:52 +0800

Two NEXT projects are to be exhibited at the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale: an affordable housing project for VANKE and five sustainable office buildings for 20+10 ORDOS.

The affordable housing project for VANKE is initiated by the Netherlands Architecture institute and Moving Cities. Five Dutch architecture offices, together with five Chinese offices, designed a residential neighborhood for Beijing Huilongguan. The project consists of around 1000 units of only 14 and 21 square meter. Our design aims to provide maximum villa-like spatial quality for minimum sized, affordable housing units.

ORDOS 20+10 is a project where 20 Chinese architecture offices and 10 foreign offices co-operate to design the new sustainable CBD of Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

Dutch version book-launch!

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:24:19 +0800

Book launch of the Dutch version of You can't Change China, China Changes You! [The English version is forthcoming, January 2012.]
23rd november 2011 in Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam 20:00-22:00 and 24rd november 12:30 at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology.

Jinan Guihe Plaza under construction

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:19:48 +0800

Construction recently started of the Jinan Luneng Guihe Plaza complex. The building consist of 110,000m2 of shopping, leisure, office and includes a five star hotel. It is located next to Jinan’s central Spring City Square and is scheduled for delivery the end of 2012.

‘Blue eyes looking at China’ - online

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:26:45 +0800

Follow links below for a report of the discussion (Chinese only):

part 1: 蓝眼睛看中国：中荷建筑师谈中国城市（下)
part 2: 蓝眼睛看中国：中荷建筑师谈中国城市（上)

‘Blue eyes looking at China’ - discussion

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:59:07 +0800

In the past few years, many Western architects and urban planners have made an attempt to become involved in projects in China – with varying results. How do Western designers experience the tempestuous developments that are now taking place in China? What can they contribute to Chinese building practice? And what can the West learn from the Chinese approach? In this round table discussion, architecture critic Zhou Rong interviews three Dutch authors of recently published books about their experiences as architects and researchers in China: John van de Water (You Can’t Change China, China Changes You, 010 Publishers), Daan Roggeveen (with Michiel Hulshof: How the City Moved to Mr Sun – China’s New Megacities, SUN Publishers) and Harry den Hartog (Shanghai New Towns. Searching for community and identity in a sprawling metropolis, 010 Publishers).
The discussion is part of ‘Open Landscape - Open Book’ - Beijing International Book Fair, Dutch authors supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB)
4 September 2011 16:00 - Ullens Center For Contemporary Art|尤伦斯当代艺术中心 - 798 Art District, Jiu Xian Qiao Lu No.4, Chao Yang District Reservations required: 010-57800200
link

Fuzhou Waves under construction

Sun, 3 Jul 2011 22:22:36 +0800

Construction started of the Fuzhou Waves building. Delivery is scheduled for the beginning of next year.

view project

‘A very good place to be!’ - lecture

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:56:25 +0800

June 30rd 2011 John van de Water and Jiang Xiao Fei will lecture at the ‘7th international hospitality design conference’ in Beijing. Within the overall theme of the conference: ‘Harmony: Win-Win’, the lecture is called ‘A very good place to be!’

venue: U-town hotel, Sanfengbeili 3, Chaoyang district, Beijing
date / time: June 30rd 2011, 16:15 - 17:15

Beijing International Design Triennial lecture

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:32:30 +0800

June 17th 2011, John van de Water will provide a keynote-lecture at Lanzhou University in the context of the Beijing International Design Triennial. The lecture is called ‘Dynamic Perspectives for China’ and is part of the theme exhibition ‘reason-design-emotion’ of which professor Fang Xiaofeng is curator. The lecture will start at 11:00 in the main auditorium.

link BIDT
link Zuangshi magazine

lecture at ‘China’s first residential housing design conference’ in Dalian

Fri, 27 May 2011 14:34:22 +0800

John van de Water will lecture in Dalian at ‘China’s first residential housing design conference’. The lecture will take place on 3rd June 2011 at 15:00 in the Bangchui Island Hotel.

more info about the conference (chinese only)

1st Prize Xianghe UP-museum competition

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:49:14 +0800

NEXT recently won the international competition for the Xianghe Urban Planning Museum. The museum is around 15,000m2 in area and will accommodate permanent and changing exhibitions. It will be located in Xianghe, a new city three hours by car east of Beijing.

view project

Creative Amsterdam lecture

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:42:01 +0800

May 15th 2011, John van de Water will lecture in Pakhuis de Zwijger, 17:45 in the Main Hall. ‘Creative Amsterdam will host leading Dutch creative entrepreneurs operating outside the Netherlands. It will celebrate the talent and hard work of these successful go-getters with a varied program: from open design sessions, business dates and export circles to talk shows, an award show and the first Open Studio Night.’

Main topic of the lecture will be a preview of the book ‘You can’t change China, China changes you’, in which the development of work and thinking of NEXT architects in China is described.

more info

1st Prize Hangzhou Xiasha competition

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:54:16 +0800

Together with Quanjing Architecture Ltd., NEXT won the international competition for Xiasha, a satellite city of Hangzhou. The competition involved an area of more than one million square meters. The planning strategy involved a ‘reversal’ of typical Chinese city planning, in which residential area’s typically are divided from public areas by a thin strip of commercial program. In this proposal all commercial program is concentrated in a diagonal that connects two important squares and adds three smaller squares in the diagonal itself. In stead of infrastructure connecting (commercial) program, in this proposal, (commercial) program is the infrastructure that connects urban spaces.

view project

You Can’t Change China, China Changes You

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:53:11 +0800

NEXT is proud to announce the forthcoming book. It will be published by 010 Publishers and will be available in bookshops around the world from November 2011. The book describes the development of work and thinking of NEXT architects in China. It starts from the very early initiatives to the eventual construction of over a million square meter of projects in China.

“Young, eager and ambitious, architect John van de Water set off in 2004 to a China that was modernizing at a furious pace. His intention was to take the conceptual thinking of NEXT architects, highly rated as this is in Europe, and put it into practice. Five turbulent years ensued, with upward of a million square meters of projects being built on Chinese soil. This meant constantly placing the borders of Western architecture’s frame of reference in the light of the Chinese context. A whole range of emotions sprang up in the space between Western and Chinese architectural thinking: incomprehension, confrontation, misunderstanding, acceptance, awareness, understanding and, eventually, advantage. You Can’t Change China, China Changes You is a personal reflection on this experience. In it, the development of architectural thinking is described, researched and tested. Just how tenable is Western architecture in a cultural context as utterly different as that of China? And can we imagine an enhanced architectural value emerging from the trade-off between Western thinking and the Chinese context?”

more information or pre-order the book

ORDOS I

Sun, 5 Dec 2010 16:34:55 +0800

Located in a new CBD of Ordos - Inner Mongolia, NEXT has been commissioned to design five office buildings on two different plots for a project called 20+10. The number refers to twenty Chinese architects and ten foreign architects-offices that participate in the ambitious city extension.

The buildings on the two plots are designed based on a combination of green interventions. Aim is to create zero-emission architecture in the harsh climate of Inner Mongolia. ORDOS I is addition of solar chimneys, dynamic brise soleil and and winter gardens.

view project

ORDOS II

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:56:35 +0800

ORDOS II is located on a planar site close to a river. Here as well, the buildings are designed based on a combination of green interventions. ORDOS II is addition of solar chimneys, partial double skin and winter gardens.

view project

‘MULTIPLICITY’ - area dialogue lecture

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:15:04 +0800

John van de Water will lecture at ‘Area Dialogues’, at the Shanghai Center of Architecture. The lecture is part of the academic and cultural program of the Shanghai World Expo. The lecture is called ‘Multiplicity’ and aims to illuminate NEXT architects’ motives from different perspectives.

Several other speakers will attend, after which a debate ‘Acting in Public’ will take place. Findings will be published in <Area China>.

Shanghai Center of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
no 298 North Suzhou Rd
14th September 2010 - starts 15:00

2X DUTCH DESIGN AWARD FINALIST

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 17:26:46 +0800

‘Forum stair’ has been nominated finalist spatial design for the category ‘best private interior’ for the 2010 Dutch Design Award. NEXT architects has as well been nominated finalist with the project ‘Growth Monument’ in the category ‘best autonomous spatial design’.

Final result will be announced October 23.

View project Forum Stair
View project Growth Monument
View website Dutch Design Award

FUZHOU waves

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:38:00 +0800

NEXT recently submitted relevant documents to the Fuzhou government for the approval of the ‘Fuzhou waves’ building. The building will accommodate around 330 apartments in different sizes. Apartments differ in size from 30 to 120 square meter.

A design concept is developed in which not the amount of apartments, but the building as a whole is emphasized. Furthermore, in order to create variety in apartments, a range of balcony types is provided. As a result, even smaller apartments are offered choice between for instance large setback balconies to interior ‘French balconies’.

MEIBI snapshot

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:01:02 +0800

MEIBI is a private villa of around 3,500m2 in the North of Beijing. Next to a range of private spaces, the building will include shared spaces for guests like a VIP-room, golf room, library, pool and cinema.

In stead of dissolving shared and private spaces into one single volume, the shared spaces are proposed as distinctive volumes. The contrast between private and shared is furthermore emphasized in materialization: the private volume is of travertine, the shared spaces of zinc.

Cross Cultural Design

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:51:37 +0800

Follow the link below to download the article in the Chinese magazine Urbanism and Architecture. The article discusses our vision of how to create in China in stead of how to make in China.

download_article_(Chinese_only).pdf

XIDAN takes shape

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:05:36 +0800

Located in one of the popular shopping streets in Beijing, the 120,000m2 building is scheduled to be finished third quarter of 2012.

--> view project

UP-museum realized

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:34:18 +0800

The urban planning exhibition museum has been realized in just nine months from competition to opening. The museum is located in three old factories in Chaoyang Park. The design exploits the relation between old and new, history and future.

The 17,000m2 museum accommodates a range of exhibitions about the urban development of Chaoyang District, Beijing’s CBD, the art district 798 and the Olympic Green. The design further includes a cinema, a 4D theatre and a range of interactive exhibitions.

--> view project

ORDOS 20+10

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:56:54 +0800

NEXT goes Inner Mongolia! 20 Chinese architects + 10 international firms have been selected to develop designs for the new business area of the Inner Mongolian capital Ordos. Among them Zhu Pei, Qi Xin, Wang Hui, Chang Yung He and Ma Qing Yun. NEXT architects has been assigned two plots for the development of 20.000 sqm. office floors within the overall theme of sustainability in the local climate conditions of the northern Chinese desert.

G6 nears completion

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:16:23 +0800

G6 nears completion. The first families moved into the nearly nine hundred units of the building complex.

--> view project

China Forum

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:21:39 +0800

Sneak shot of NEXT architects participation in the 2009 Hebei high-end forum on urban and architectural design. Presented were several research-projects from Europe and their relationship with a range of China projects.

UNH-residence

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:56:43 +0800

UNH-residence will be located in Shijiazhuang, a city two hours South-West of Beijing.

The project includes around 100,000m2 of residences, accommodated in three buildings. The three buildings loosely resemble the letter UNH and include a large variety of apartment types in size and layout.

IBM Google Earth view

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:57:52 +0800

Google Earth view of IBM.

--> view project