The english Gerard Maccreanor (1961) and Richard Lavington (1962) have been working mainly in Holland since 1992, when they won the Europan competition with a residential project for the town of Zaanstad and set out to construct it. Situated on the edge of the water, it comprises a luxury apartment block and two rows of attached houses that alleviate the severeness of the facade through the random rhythm of balconies and large windows individually requested by the residents themselves.

Benefitting from the housing programs of the Dutch government, Maccreanor and Lavington have been able to carry out several proposals manifesting their interest in an architecture of a clear and strong presence in which they take advantage of floor plan flexibility to assume the different functions that may arise over the course of time. On a plot of land at the former military airport of Ypenburg in The Hague, they have completed two slant-roofed, L-shaped blocks that present a klinker front to the public space while a wooden cladding emphasizes the more domestic character of the coutyard. Their proposal for Leidsche Rijn in Utrecht took inspiration from the surrounding farms, adding small annexes to the rows of houses to create semi-private patios that act as transitions between the houses and the neighborhood park. And for Westerdokseiland, in Amsterdam, they recuperated a dock along the Ij river building a large city-block complex of mixed uses that fills its interior with courtyard-houses...[+]