Jo Coenen & Co Architekten

Architecture Firm Amsterdam / Netherlands

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Jo Coenen & Co Architekten 4
Jo Coenen & Co Architekten
An architect for over thirty years, practicing in The Netherlands, Jo Coenen (1949) has simultaneously contributed to the built environment by the design of individual projects and masterplans, and also as a professor and as Dutch Chief Government Architect. Jo Coenen’s collaborative approach is based on his view that buildings cannot be regarded isolated; they are inextricably linked to the surroundings, and vice versa. His architecture can be seen as a composition rather than as an abstract system of rules. Coenen has always been fascinated by urban life, curious to see how people move in the city, how they use it and how they live it. Working on the interior of the city is his favourite activity. The built object, as well as its public and private surroundings, has to be designed with great care and attention. While he was working on the masterplans for the Céramique in Maastricht and the KNSM-island in Amsterdam, building the NAi in Rotterdam and many other objects all over the country and at the same time lecturing at various universities, he experienced that large-scale projects ask for a different approach; they ask for a supervisor, a sort of director or conductor who does not only concentrate on the human scale but also on the realm of thoughts. Nowadays it is very important for a city to have a supervisor, especially since the surrounding world is becoming ever more incoherent and nearly any project aims at offering a solution for this problem. In order to let a city remain a city, there has to be a search for cohesion, for connections and integration. As Chief Government Architect for the period 2000 - 2004, as a ‘Minister of Architecture’ he was involved in every large transformation in the metropolitan areas of the country, working with architects from all over Europe, who contributed to his masterplans. During that period, but also afterwards, he has been occupied with the changing role of the architect. The most important aspect of supervision is the research, not only technical but also philosophical. He set up the Research Center ®MIT, abbreviation for Modification, Intervention and Transformation, within the Technical University of Delft. As former director of ®MIT and during the many lectures in and outside The Netherlands, he explains his observations and concerns with regard to the identity of the current clients, the problems of the large-scale projects and the fact that the architect has to express the client’s profits. The scheme of the eternal triangle between architect/designer – investor/developer – state/politicians (town, region) is a recurring theme. He will never let a chance go by to stimulate future architects to fight for the discipline of architecture.
Jo Coenen & Co Architekten
Jo Coenen & Co Architekten

An architect for over thirty years, practicing in The Netherlands, Jo Coenen (1949) has simultaneously contributed to the built environment by the design of individual projects and masterplans, and also as a professor and as Dutch Chief Government Architect. Jo Coenen’s collaborative approach is based on his view that buildings cannot be regarded isolated; they are inextricably linked to the surroundings, and vice versa. His architecture can be seen as a composition rather than as an abstract...

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