News

3 August – The British Architecture Centre led by Ellis Woodman has set up the online platform The 100 Day Studio, where international guests give

3 July 2020 – The first terraced houses at Stationslaan in Breda are nearly there. They are part of the Drie Hoefijzers development which has

10 June 2020 – “The film is better than the book, Hans,” my client said when we walked through our completed project. Rob Thijssen was

3 June 2020 – My practice, together with Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor Architects, has won a place on London Borough of Southwark’s Framework Agreement

28 May 2020 – How can it be that the world renowned Dutch social housing has run into a dead end? Under the title ‘towards

May 2020 – They have not been idle during the Lockdown at the Architecture Foundation. The British architecture centre, led by Ellis Woodman has formed

28 April 2020 – Sebastian van Damme made pictures of the Houses with Two Doors at Persoonshaven. Ik have known Sebas for a long time.

22 April 2020 – In January I gave a lecture at the Aachener Tagung – Identität der Architektur. This is a yearly conference where architects

20 April 2020 – Today we present the results of this year’s design and research studio at RAvB. As part of the ongoing investigation of

17 April 2020 – Upon invitation of my colleague Antje Freiesleben I wrote an article about her architectural practice Modersohn Freiesleben in Berlin. I accepted

16 December 2019 – The scaffoldings at the building site at Persoonshaven in Feijenoord have been removed. A funky project with stacked maisonettes appears. The

2 October 2019 – Today I received the news that my column Analogen, is nominated for the Geert Bekaert Award. Analogen is an edited version

1 October 2019 – The book Street Architecture which our office has published last year has been selected as one of the best designed Dutch

8 August 2019 – Following the exhibition of Alternative Histories in London last spring, the exhibition travels to Belgium this September. Acknowledging that architecture is a

15 July 2019 – We are commissioned by ERA Contour and Heijmans Projectontwikkeling to work at a new residential area in Rotterdam. The urbanist Adriaan

3 May 2019 – The sustainability of much affordable housing needs to be improved as a matter of urgency. That is a complex task. How

5 June 2019 – The architect and professor Uwe Schröder, much admired by me, invited me for a lecture in Aachen. The series Werkberichte explores

4 June 2019 – Yesterday we have assessed the mock-ups of the Persoonshaven facades. The contractor had provided variants with different mortars and joints. Together

29 April 2019 – One weekend ago, the daily newspaper De Volkskrant published an interview about the position of architecture in The Netherlands. The conversation

7 maart 2019 – Weigeliaplein is a particular urban space in the The Hague Heesterbuurt district. Based on an urban design made by H.P. Berlage,

29 January 2019 – It is an old desire to draw my housing projects as a consistent catalogue. I have opted for simple diagrams with

27 December 2018 – At the end of each year the media publish their retrospections. The magazine De Architect reports that housing has dominated the

18 December 2018 – Architecture on Stage is a series of architects’ talks programmed by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Barbican Centre in

4 December 2018 – Today, Divisare published a chique box set with six booklets on my work. Five of those present photographs taken by my

30 October 2018 – The November edition of Architectural Review is about tendencies in Dutch architecture. In his article Triple Dutch, the Dutch critic Hans

12 September 2018 – Densification, the architecture centre of Amsterdam, Arcam, organises a debate in which new and realised dwelling concept are discussed within this

30 August 2018 – ‘Street Architecture, Work by Hans van der Heijden’ was launched by Ellis Woodman at the AA Bookshop in London. The book has

31 July 2018 – The Swiss magazine Modulør is dedicated to ‘New Dutch’ architecture. The subtitle of the issue which appeared today is: Mind the

16 July 2018 – This spring I had the privilege to tutor two groups of architecture students from Vaduz (Liechtenstein) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands). In

30 May 2018 – The design for the Houses with Many Doors for Old Kent Road in London is on show at the exhibition La

29 May 2018 – The block which in the 2004 urban renewal scheme for Lakerlopen, Eindhoven was rather prosaically referred to as Block 3 will

21 May 2018 – There are two kinds of housing typology. The first studies extreme possibilities. I always call it the Sherwood School, after Roger

23 April 2018 – The architectural historian Werner Oechslin invited me to contribute to the colloquium Civilian Architecture. We met in Werner’s library in Einsiedeln,

9 April 2018 – Hans van der Heijden Architect has been appointed by Travel for London (TfL) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to the

28 February 2018 – It doesn’t happen every day that Dutch social housing, a refurbishment project even, makes it to the Wall Street Journal. The

26 February 2018 – Last weekend I was in New York for the opening of the exhibition ‘Social Housing, New European Projects’ in the Center

6 February 2018 – Street Architecture is published. After three and a half years of hard work in my own office, a new portfolio appears

5 February 2018 – We work on a new social housing project at Persoonshaven in Feijenoord, as Rotterdammers say: Upon South. On the occasion of

24 January 2018 – Across Europe, a new generation of architecture practices are transforming affordable housing. Responding to continued need, changing clients, and new funding

15 January 2018 – The scaffoldings on the construction site of Churchillpark in Leiden are being taken down. Now it shows how beautiful the repeating

1 December 2017 – A book has been published on the manifestation City Heart Dwelling (Wonen in Stadshart, WISH). The city of Groningen commissioned me

21 November 2017 – In the context of a lecture series on the urban dwelling block I was invited to present the houses at Oranjeboomstraat

19 November 2017 – In the spring of 2018 I will be a guest teacher at the Architecture School of Rotterdam and Universität Liechtenstein in

6 July 2017 – Yesterday evening I had the pleasure to present Post Piraeus, the publication we made with 10 architects about Hans Kollhoff’s renowned

27 June 2017 – On the Archined website Elmar Koers discusses the Kloosterbuuren project. ‘The spatial quality of the new ensemble is high. In masterly

14 June 2017 – On the 2nd and 3rd of June I was a guest at the CANactions architecture festival in Kiev. The theme of

23 May 2017 – Imagination, the word does not always have a nice resonance. Yet, the Dutch state architect Floris Alkemade used the word quite

19 May 2017 – Mock-ups of the brickwork were made at the construction site of Churchillpark. The brightly red bricks of the atrium block appear

29 March 2017 – The renovation project for the splayed apartment blocks in Rotterdam Ommoord features in a new reference book on social housing design

14 March 2017 – This year, the artists of the Bluecoat in Liverpool are celebrating the 300th anniversary of their building. In 1717, Bryan Blundell

18 January 2017 – Ever more people like city living. There is ample space available, yet many people do not find a proper place. Especially

16 December 2016 – German architecture schools still offer courses in Building Studies. At the university of Kaiserslautern the students Sandra Brand and Eric Schindler

30 November 2016 – The ground breaking ceromony of the dwellings at Churchillpark in Leiden was guided by Paul Laudy, Counselor of the City of

24 september 2016 – My designs for Berlin feature in the book WerkBundStadt Am Spreebord which presents the location for the new WerkBundStadt, comments on

7 September 2016 – Because city living becomes ever more popular in Groningen, the City Council is organizing the event City Heart Dwelling. Together with

10 August 2016 – The website of the magazine De Architect opens with a picture that I took of one of the most beautiful buildings

3 August 2016 – Ten years after completion of the so-called Starter Homes in Pleinen, Hoofddorp the project is topical again. This month, the magazine

11 July 2016 – I am going to build in Berlin. Together with 30 other architects I was invited by the Berliner Werkbund to contribute

7 July 2016 – The first design of Hans van der Heijden Architect will start on site shortly. Amvest has reached an agreement with Bouwbedrijf

20 June 2016 – Once a year the so-called City Dialogue takes place in Bremen, Germany. Representatives of social housing trusts, real estate managements, city

25 May 2016 – After twenty years, a new monograph on the work of my Flemish colleagues De Smet Vermeulen Architects is now available. Critical

3 May 2016 – Some weeks ago, together with my colleague-architect Hugh Strange, I re-visited the housing project at Oranjeboomstraat in South Rotterdam. As a

12 April 2016 – The Yearbook Architecture in the Netherlands 2015-2016, which I am an editor of, is finished. This year again I have studied hundreds

23 March 2016 – The tasks for design of the model housing estate at the river Spree have been divided. The 34 participating architects drew

1 February 2016 – The social houses at Oranjeboomstraat have drawn attention in Switzerland. The magazine Werk Bauen + Wohnen published an article by the

21 January 2016 – By coincidence I was present at a special [and perhaps even historic] event in the autumn of last year. There was

28 December 2015 – The book ‘Brick, an Exacting Material’ edited by Jan Peter Wingender is out. As visiting professor at the Amsterdam School of

21 December 2015 – Last Wednesday the Rotterdam Architecture Price 2015 was awarded. My ‘houses with two doors’ at Oranjeboomstraat were nominated for the price

13 October 2015 – Chief editor of the magazine De Architect Harm Tilman went on a field trip together with my friends Floris Cornelisse, Job

8 October 2015 – Alderman Joris Wijsmuller led the ground breaking ceremony of the second phase of my Kloosterbuuren project by drilling the ‘first pile’

  16 July 2015 – On 7 August I will be flying with Jan van Grunsven and Wouter Veldhuis to London to chair a panel

3 August 2015 – The renovation of the Splayed Apartment Blocks in Ommoord feature in a special edition of The Architect’s Journal: Exemplary Housing Estate

25 June 2015 – In the newspaper De Volkskrant of today Kirsten Hannema gives four stars to the ‘social mansions’ at Oranjeboomstraat. She wrote a

21 mei 2015 – Vorige jaar rond deze tijd keken collega-architect Reimar von Meding en ik elkaar aan bij een docentenlunch op de Rotterdamse Academie

6 May 2015 – I have just presented the preliminary design of the housing at Churchillpark in Leiden to the Design Review Committee. The project

2 April 2015 – The Kloosterbuuren estate around the Bossche School church in the Hague proceeds well. The first dwellings of phase 1 are due

25 February 2015 – My Architecture Yearbook-collegue Tom Avermaete has organised a debate on the significance of such a book. Participants are the editors of

19 February 2015 – During my guest lecture I looked upwards. Auditorium A of the Architecture Faculty at TU Delft appeared to have no ceiling.

5 January 2015 – The magazine Stedenbouw en Architectuur [Urbanism and Architecture] invited me to edit an issue about urban renewal. The issue that just

22 December 2014 – In the new year I will start working on a project in Watergraafsmeer together with Wouter Veldhuis of urban design firm

26 November 2014 – Together with Gertjan Smits and Joost Zwanenburg of Waterpas I have presented the final design of the public realm of Kloosterbuuren

7 November 2014 – The scaffoldings of the construction site at Oranjeboomstraat are being taken down. That is always exciting. The different tones of the

24 October 2014 – The site works of the dwellings at Rotterdam Oranjeboomstraat have arrived at roof level. The roof edge contains prefabricated concrete gargoyles.

2 October 2014 – The site works of the first fase of the urban plan Kloosterbuuren in The Hague Moerwijk progress very well. The schools

30 September 2014 – The Amsterdam architect Gus Tielens invited me for a talk at the Amsterdam School of Architecture last Friday. Gus asked me

8 September 2014 – Property developer Amvest just called with the message that I may design 120-150 dwellings in Leiden. Today that is no everyday

27 August 2014 – The research project Catch and Steer is ready. When the Architecture Foundation called for proposals to investigate the innovation of urban

18 July 2014 – Today I have assessed the brick samples on the construction site of Kloosterbuuren. The brown-greyish tones establish a nice anology with