Mecanoo   United Arab Emirates   The Dutch firm Mecanoo, under the leadership of Francine Houben, has officially unveiled its design for a new museum currently under construction in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District. Like rock formations, it presents geometric compositions such

Mecanoo   China   The new library will rise by Tap Seac Square in the historical center of Macau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its grid facade recalls the exterior of the building that stands on the site, the former Hotel Estoril. Where the main entrance is, the skin

Mecanoo MAYU architects   Taiwan   The 37,000-square-meter building for Taiwan’s oldest city presents an inverted stepped shape designed by Mecanoo, the Dutch firm headed by Francine Houben, in collaboration with the local office Mayu Architects. Held up by quartets of slender white c

Mecanoo   Russia   The Delft-based firm Mecanoo, headed by Francine Houben, has won the competition of masterplans for an educational campus on the shores of Lake Senezh, in the Russian town of Solnechnogorsk. Lecture halls, auditoriums, a library, and apartments are l

Mecanoo   Taiwan   A large bracket stretches horizontally, establishing a narrow connection with the environment; on top of it, the perfect cube that contains the archives is protected, like a precious object, by a facade of natural stone and thin aluminum slats... [+]

Mecanoo   China   Inspired by the small-scale urban fabric of Chinese historic cities, the project uses a permeable grid that allows pedestrian connections inside and outside. The design is divided into two towers and a network of plazas and plant-filled terraces... [

Mecanoo   China   Inspired by the textile production of the international company, the tower – 238m tall – is covered with a bronze metal grid, interrupted by a succession of stepped terraces that offer panoramic views of Shenzhen Bay... [+]

Mecanoo   China   The dynamic digital facade evokes the clouds in traditional Chinese paintings. The building marks the entrance to the commercial district of Qianhai, and symbolizes its innovative drive. The planted terraces bring users contact with nature... [+]

Mecanoo   China   Public life in the city of Shenzhen thrives in semi-open spaces, so the center takes the shape of a 150m tower that breathes and lets in sunlight, opening up at street level and inviting pedestrians into a square filled with vegetation... [+]

Mecanoo   Germany   Next to Frankfurt am Main Central Station, a new mixed-use complex of 58,000 m² is built with two volumes joined by a podium. The tallest, reaching 140 m high, has a dynamic shape generated by the changing geometry of its balconies... [+]

Mecanoo   United Kingdom   With a palette of simple and honest materials, the articulation of the form and a clear structural expression on the facade, the design seeks to create a flexible environment for learning and research that reveals what happens inside... [+]

Mecanoo   Netherlands   Perfectly integrated into the existing street pattern and inspired in the wooded landscape of the Veluwe area, the station is protected with a roof formed by wood triangles that, like a canopy of leaves, lets light pass through... [+]

Mecanoo   Luxembourg   Factors like the features of the site and budget determined the compact design in which the manipulation of the topography rationalizes the complex program. The skylights and the glazed facade bring in sunlight and frame the views... [+]

Mecanoo   Netherlands   To go unnoticed but without sacrificing an architectural language of strong personality: this was the fundamental consideration in the course of designing the villa in Vught, a municipality in the southern Netherlands. To this end, rather than concen

Mecanoo   China   Two museums – one for science, the other for art – are joined by a youth center, a book mall, and restaurants and cafés in forming a cultural complex in Shenzhen, China. Designed by Mecanoo, the Delft-based firm led by Francine Houben, the 95,000-squ

Mecanoo   Taiwan  

Mecanoo   South Korea   Located close to the old south gate into the city of Seoul, the Namdeamun Market is the largest in South Korea and also the oldest, dating back to the 15th century. In the past decades it has become an important commercial destination and a popular t

Mecanoo   Spain   Seeing the need to modernize the city courts, the regional government of Andalusia called a competition for the construction of the new City of Justice of Córdoba. On a plot of 12,000 square meters, in a new urban area, the project would give the nei

Mecanoo CCDI   China   The Dutch team is building a new complex, comprising three cultural centers and a large bookstore, in the city of Shenzhen, on the southern coast of China. Fragmented into four volumes, the project seeks revitalizing its environment acting as an urba

Mecanoo   Germany   The proposal explores the classical principles of typology and draws inspiration from musical rhythms both in its bronze facade and in the hall’s interior. The glass-enclosed foyer becomes a large space for gathering and visits. 

Mecanoo   Spain   Winners of the international competition called in 2006, the Dutch studio Mecanoo – together with the Spanish engineering firm Ayesa – is building the City of Justice of Córdoba since 2014. The new complex of 50,000 square meters is designed to gathe

Mecanoo   Taiwan   The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Wei-Wu-Ying) symbolizes the huge transformation of the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung over the last years. The city is China’s second largest in size and importance after the capital Taipei, with a population

Mecanoo   United Kingdom   With a population of a million, Birmingham is one of the United Kingdom’s leading financial and educational centers. Its urban core has historically been maltreated, however, so the past two decades have seen ambitious plans for it launched with the

The firm Mecanoo, based in Delft but also working from London and New York, has completed a cultural complex in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The National Center for the Arts is a huge complex that attests as much to Taiwan’s economic power as to

Known for the formal freedom with which it tackles its projects, the Dutch firm Mecanoo has demonstrated more restraint in building the new Palace of Justice of the southern Spanish city of Córdoba. The Delft-based practice has distributed the comple

The Dutch office Mecanoo has recently presented an alternative proposal to generate electricity through wind: the EWICON (standing for ‘electrostratic wind energy converter’). The first prototype has been installed in front of the faculty of Electri

Luis Fernández-Galiano   En el concurso celebrado en 2005 para construir en Lérida un Palacio de Congresos resultó ganador Mecanoo; la Llotja recientemente inaugurada muestra su deuda con la modernidad holandesa de los años sesenta. 

El estudio holandés Mecanoo, dirigido por Francine Houben, ha iniciado recientemente las obras del que será el mayor espacio teatral de Asia, el Centro de Artes Escénicas Wei-Wu-Ying en Kaohsiung, con 1,5 millones de habitantes la segunda ciudad de T

Junto al río Segre y próximo a la estación del AVE, se levanta el Teatro Municipal y Centro de Negocios y Convenciones La Llotja. Obra del estudio holandés Mecanoo —dirigido por Francine Houben— en colaboración con los barceloneses Labb Arquitectura,

Cuca Flores   La particular visión que Erick van Egeraat (Ámsterdam, 1956) tiene de la arquitectura como reflejo de su tiempo, y vinculada ahora por tanto a disciplinas como el diseño y la moda, está muy alejada de los planteamientos teóricos de los colegas holand

Adela García-Herrera   Desde hace más de una década la producción de Suiza y la de Holanda monopolizan el interés de los arquitectos. Del país alpino se admira, entre otras cosas, su precisión constructiva casi maniática, y del país de los pólders sorprende, sobre todo, la

Adela García-Herrera   Francine Houben ostenta el liderazgo de Mecanoo y actúa como portavoz de esta nueva monografía del grupo, en la que a través de veinte proyectos se expone su decálogo, los temas que nutren su producción e inciden en su manera de enfocar la profesión:

Adela García-Herrera   A efectos de publicaciones de arquitectura, la mención de los Países Bajos sugiere de inmediato fotos de satélite con aglomeraciones urbanas, vistas aéreas de prados cultivados y más prados con vacas en el horizonte. Sin desviarse de esa imagen ya fa

Hans van Dijk   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

Ed Melet   Dutch Architects Visualize their Concepts

Francine Houben   Basilea  2001  
Birkhäuser   - 254 Pages 

Bart Lootsma   Londres  2000  
Thames & Hudson   - 264 Pages