In light of strenuous discourse on climate vulnerabilities, strengthening national infrastructure and the role of architects within urban innovation and sustainability, it is crucial to give attention to and evaluate successful infrastructure that is both conscious of its environment and gives precedence to smart design. Enter NEXT Architects, a Dutch firm founded by Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, John van de Water and Michel Schreinemachers. After opening an office in Amsterdam, the firm expanded in 2005 and opened an independent office in Beijing with an additional partner, Jiang Xiao Fei. This duality has allowed for a diversification in project commissions and impact environments, a topic addressed in the following interview with the firm.
Through a multitude of projects, which cover the full spectrum of the architecture field from private residential projects to interior architecture, education design and urban planning, NEXT has experimented with architecture as a tool for cultural and place identity, urban transformation, landscape and biodiversity preservation. In the following interview, Michel Schreinemachers — managing director of the office in Amsterdam — talks about some of the firm’s infrastructure projects, with a particular focus on designs for bridges that transform the experience of a site, revealing the significance of a material and metaphorical connection between two or more points in space.
© Raymond Rutting
© Raymond Rutting
Vlotwatering Bridge, Monster, the Netherlands, 2015
Chloé Vadot: NEXT Architects is a practice that challenges the boundaries of the architecture discipline. What are some projects in which NEXT has seen the most fruitful cross-disciplinary collaborations and productions?
Michel Schreinemachers: “Connecting” and working in a cross-disciplinary manner is the red thread that runs through all of our projects. This is because, when designing a bridge or any other object, we aim at looking further than what is strictly asked from us: We are interested in architecture’s role within the broader social, cultural, ecological and historical context. Connecting not only disciplines, but also people, places, needs and experiences.
The bat-friendly Vlotwatering Bridge is a good example. This pedestrian and cyclist bridge is the entrance to a green recreational area and simultaneously offers shelter and roost for several bat species in the town of Monster, the Netherlands. We collaborated with LOLA landscape architects and ecology experts from the Mammal Society — Herman Limpens and Marcel Schillemans. The bridge has recently been nominated by the jury of the Dutch Design Awards 2016 as an example of how “building with attention for biodiversity does not have to affect good design.”
Zaligeburg Bridge, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 2015
Another of our Dutch projects, the Zaligebrug (Blessed Bridge) gives access to the new recreational island of Vleur-Lent, Nijmegen. The bridge is part of a larger project ‘Ruimte voor de Rivier’ (Room for the River), initiated by the Dutch Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment, Dutch municipalities and provinces. This ‘River Program’ comprises more than 30 locations in the Netherlands and is intended to better manage rising water levels by giving the river sufficient space for safe flooding.
In Vleur-Lent, it was important for us to create something that would strengthen people’s experience of the environment. The river has an average fluctuation of 5 meters [16 feet], affecting into the floodplain. This particular property centered as one of the main design principles for the bridge. The result is an undulating bridge that is partially submerged when the river’s water level rises, becoming inaccessible for a few days in the year. Every project by NEXT tries to add a similar layer to the design, offering a new connection and perspective on the place where it is located.
© Julien Lanoo
© Julien Lanoo
Lucky Knot, Changsha, China, 2016
With your recently completed project Lucky Knot, there is a visible intertwinement of public infrastructure, attraction and cultural landmark. How did you approach this project, and what were your principal inspirations for the design?
The Lucky Knot bridge in Changsha is a key project within the broader development of the public space around the river. The design is part of a larger plan for a theme park, consisting of recreational, ecological and touristic programs. The river functions as a linkage on multiple levels and heights, from the shore to the road or the higher-placed park. The shape of the Lucky Knot makes reference to the ‘knotting’ and connecting of all these different routes. The streams of people that pass at different heights from one side of the river to the other overlap and intertwine, resulting in a strong movement that resembles a Chinese knot — a symbol of luck and prosperity in ancient decorative Chinese folk art.
As part of the entertainment program of the park, the Lucky Knot also integrates a light show with LED lights. The sides and bottom of the bridge are entirely clad with a steel mesh that allows light to permeate through its walls. The Municipality of Changsha developed the light show specifically for the bridge, and tour boats regularly stop at the bridge to enjoy the show.
Melwerbrug Bridge, Purmerend, the Netherlands, 2012
On your website, you mention that “NEXT Architects starts each project with an intensive workshop.” What are some of the shapes these workshops take, and could you talk about any unexpected outcomes you’ve encountered through this initial step?
The point of departure for all of our designs is the context and the demands of a specific location; hence, we give much importance to holding a dialogue with our commissioners and collaborators. It is only by analyzing and digging into the program of demands that we can discover what is truly needed, even when it is not explicitly formulated in the original commission. The second step is to direct a survey into existing forms of well-known bridges and point out features that made them successful. From there, we start developing our own models and storylines to tell the concept behind a bridge’s design. Throughout the whole process the commissioner is closely involved.
For the Lucky Knot, for instance, we developed 16 different storylines, which resulted in 16 different concepts and shapes. Together with the representatives of the client, we talked through all of them and selected the most appropriate forms. The Möbius-strip model, which lays as the basis for the final Lucky Knot bridge, was initially not amongst the storylines we selected. It was only after we started rendering a number of the models that we felt it was the right direction to take.
What are the main differences and challenges of working between the Netherlands and China, where the relationship between the public and architecture is dramatically different?
The Lucky Knot bridge was part of an international competition in Meixi Lake, Changsha. From the very start, we collaborated intensively with our colleagues from the NEXT offices in Beijing. It was crucial to combine the Dutch team’s experience in the field of bridges and water management and the Beijing team’s knowledge of the local context to understand the specific demands of the client. At the beginning, the models created by the Dutch team were deemed too modest, while the Beijing team’s proposals were too exuberant. By finding a middle ground and combining the know-how and expertise of both teams, we were able to create the winning design for the Lucky Knot.
De Centrale As, Friesland, the Netherlands, Under Construction
NEXT Architects has completed extensive work in public infrastructure and urban transformation. To what extent do you perceive that the profession of architecture will become more intertwined with urban planning and civic design in the future?
At NEXT, we are building an extensive portfolio of unique bridges. What is special about these type of commissions is that they come to represent more than a mere crossing or infrastructural connection. Bridges are part of the broader urban fabric and landscape. It is not a matter of calculating and building the shortest route from point A to point B, but rather, it is about connecting with all the different issues and needs at play to reflect the complexity of a location in the final design. It is very representative that our bridges are never straight, always curving, undulating and knotting with the environment.
NEXT worked on De Centrale As, a 25-kilometer [16-mile] highway in the Dutch province of Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. It is rare to build new roads of this size in the Netherlands nowadays. But the project was particularly exceptional because De Centrale As pierces straight through 8,000 hectares of natural park and landscape, which required us to take into account nature, landscape, culture, tourism, recreation and safety all at once. In collaboration with H+N+S Landscape Architects, we were responsible for the design, vision and integration of the road within the landscape as well as for the design of several bridges and hop-overs. Rather than trying to ‘hide’ the road as if it was a scar running through the landscape, we effectively managed to integrate the curving shape of the road into the landscape, enhancing the identity and experience of both.
Traditionally, civic design and engineering were dominated by the study of forces, such as tensile and compressive forces. In the 1990s and 2000s, bridges were seen primarily as an opportunity for spectacle. Think of the bridges that the Spanish architect Calatrava built in Haarlemmermeer. Today, bridges are seen as a platform and a place for urban activities and interaction. Architects are increasingly looking back to designs like the medieval Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the old and now-demolished London Bridge or the 16th-century Ponte Rialto in Venice, and can see structures that were completely integrated within the urban fabric. Building bridges is about designing connections in both a literal and metaphorical manner.
Dafne Schippersbridge, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Under Construction
What is next for NEXT Architects? Any exciting projects you are working on?
A very special project, currently under construction and which will officially open in the first months of 2017, is the Dafne Schippers bridge in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Named after the Dutch athlete and winner of a silver medal at the 200 meters during the last Olympic Games in Rio, the design for this bridge is integrated with that of the newly redesigned OBS Montessori School, also a project by NEXT.
Here, NEXT proposed something very unique by merging the school with the bridge. For a moment, the roof of the school becomes part of the bike lane and the landing of the bridge, thereby creating a very literal multiuse building, a recreational park and a bicycle route. This is a key example that goes in showing what we try to achieve within all of our projects: to connect and reinforce the social, cultural and ecological needs of a specific location by designing a unique form into the landscape.
All images courtesy of NEXT Architects. To read more about the firm’s projects, visit its full Architizer profile.