At what age are you still a young architect? Several answers have been proposed: young equals under forty; you are young when you haven´t yet built your first big building. Young architects cannot afford to refuse commissions. Young architects, the ‘promising’ ones, are welcome to present their work in magazines or galleries, but cannot be given a job: ‘too little experience’. Visitors from abroad are surprised that in the Netherlands so many young architects are given the opportunity to build. Many examples are mentioned: Wiel Arets, Jo Coenen, Sjoerd Soeters, Rudy Uytenhaak, Mecanoo, DKV Architects, Duinker &Van der Torre, Van Berkel and Bos. The Netherlands, that well ordered delta of the rivers Rhine and Maas, seems to be a paradise for young architects.

In 1998, most of these architects no longer fit in one of the above mentioned definitions. But they did when they started their professional careers in the early or mid-eighties. Since then they have produced a vast body of work, that has attracted attention because of its high architectural quality. AV Monographs is not the first non-Dutch magazine that wants to know the secret of its success...[+]