Based in Rotterdam but running offices in São Paulo and Paris as well, KAAN Architecten was set up by Kees Kaan, Vincent Panhuysen, and Dikkie Scipio as a new professional venture after the 2014 closure of Claus en Kaan, the firm they had worked together as partners in. Interested in the cross-fertilization of fields of knowledge while remaining fiercely committed to the essential principles of the architectural discipline, KAAN Architecten prides itself on an oeuvre that is as efficient in the functional as it is powerful in the formal, where scrupulous attention to programs comes hand in hand with confidence in the sculptural worth of bold geometries and austere materials. Arquitectura Viva is pleased to present the team’s prolific work through three projects, recently completed in Belgium and France, that perfectly illustrate the characteristic fortes of KAAN Architecten: the Crematorium Siesegem in Aalst, the Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat in Lille, and the Institute of Molecular Sciences in the Paris-Saclay campus.