The tradition of a country which has entirely reinvented its own territory could be said to be well represented by West 8. Adrian Geuze (1960) is the visible head and founder of this team which has its headquarters in Rotterdam. The company´s name derives from a frequent wind of the city, the Force 8 Westerly. Geuze attributes his appreciation of the architecture of polders and the beauty of man-made landscape to his grandfather, a civil engineer. His studies at the Agricultural School of Wageningen gave him a solid grounding in botany and gardening and Geuze himself now teaches Landscape in Delft and Harvard. Although West 8 is usually associated with the architecture of landscaping, this does not reflect the importance of its urban work. The team, for example, has been responsible for the general plans of the residential area of Borneo-Sporenburg in Amsterdam. Another distinctive feature of the group is their willingness to work with other architects; although Geuze has never been part of OMA, he is a habitual collaborator with Rem Koolhaas. After completing the landscaping of the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (see Arquitectura Viva 53), West 8 has drawn up projects in Tilburg and Amsterdam...[+]