30 October 2018 – The November edition of Architectural Review is about tendencies in Dutch architecture. In his article Triple Dutch, the Dutch critic Hans Ibelings elaborates on the developments in the home country of renowned international Starchitects. Ibelings mentions me as one of the architects manifesting themselves by focussing on the immutable core of the professions: the crafting of buildings. He is right in writing that this is not a return to something, but the continuation of a professional undercurrent which has never been absent. An example is the Piraeus book which appeared in 2017 and which I made together with 10 colleagues. It is suggested to be a ‘friends book’, made by ‘essentialists. Moi?’ An essentialist? It wouldn’t cross my mind.

Strikingly the article is illustrated with an image of affordable houses which I realised 15 years ago. Indeed, it was a project in which every single penny mattered and where budget was generated by dealing smartly with construction technique.