In the summer of 2010 the city-centre of Amsterdam's famous canal district was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list. The United Nations’ organization praises the city as an ‘outstanding example of a built urban ensemble, civil engineering, town planning, construction and architectural know-how’. As an architect I should be thrilled with such high recognition of my professional field in my hometown, but I am not. ...

Eternal Ise

Article in Monu magazine #14

Beauty shows itself to us when we don’t expect it. It grabs you by the throat. A city where you can expect anything but where you are hardly ever prepared for, is Tokyo. It is not the city itself but rather its urbanity, its scale and density that make of this city an inexhaustible source of beauty. Dealing with the beauty of Tokyo is dealing with the beauty of urban life itself.

Big is beautiful

Article in Monu magazine #6