Specialist Operations was tasked to make a quick volumetric study for the location Puntenburgerlaan 76 – 84, Amersfoort. The program consist out of 18 apartments and 4 retail units at ground level, hence replacing the existing building. The proposal honors the existing facade and window layout and incorporates this bluntly into the new scheme. Additional program is added, anticipating the urban sequence of the street. The underutilized plot is used to re-introduce a central garden.

Espoo’s FitLife architecture is predicated on this holistic understanding of human health, longevity and happiness. It is designed to facilitate and encourage a plethora of organized and informal social activities through a variable and nuanced integration of circulation, collective and private spaces. The project begins by recognizing a number of factors that evidence has shown to affect health and wellbeing among both general and hospital populations . The project attempts to apply architectural and urban tools to proven hospital typologies and to create a field condition which caters to those clients with the longest hospital stay – those whom recovery is most likely to be affected by such measures. In collaboration with Matthew Murphy.

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Bezalel’s plan – to consolidate and relocate a campus into a single building within the city – was an unprecedented opportunity for two experiments. First, the potential for an art school, dense and efficient, yet as informal as its previous incarnation and, second, the integration of that institution into the historic fabric of Jerusalem – into the culture of an Israel under contiual pressure to transform. Consolidated program is arranged according to a spectrum of potential that manages the vague borders between programme for focused production, that with the potential for disciplinary cross-breeding and functions and activities ripe for integration with the city. In collaboration with Matthew Murphy.

The subregional plan for the KNIA region exploits the potential for real estate development within a sustainable planning strategy. The linear structure enables not only the integration of natural resources such as the vicinity to the White Nile river and its fertile grounds, it also links local community interests to new economic development triggered by the airport KNIA. The establishment of a linear hub between the airport and the city enables for a productive connectivity between the informal of the African economy and new formalized international developments. In addition it creates a desirable buffer around the airport for future growth, beneficial as a future expansion areas, something that is increasingly problematic issue for airports. In collaborations with Leit-werk Ltd, London. Text Leit-werk Ltd.

Commission for site selection and master plan for new greenfield airport, urban concept, concept and detailed design and provision of tender documents, Khartoum, Sudan.
After selecting the location for the new airport, the urban master plan and the concept design for the passenger terminal, the ATC tower and further key airport buildings was developed.The master plan separates characteristic activities in two distinct areas: the Pax City and the Cargo City. By imposing a formal band structure a coherency between buildings and landscape elements is formally achieved. The PAX terminal creates a vivid image for the airport forming an iconic gateway for entering the country. In collaboration with Leit-Werk Ltd, London. Tekst by Leit-werk Ltd.

The project was conducted at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. The ongoing antiterrorism alterations in London gave rise to address the current security climate. The evidence of spatial fall-out of anti-terrorism measures is scattered across London, from little noticed upgrades to camera security to the – more visible – installation of concrete barriers around our most popular tourist attractions in Whitehall. These developments are significant on several accounts. When looking in greater detail they demonstrate that decisions taken in the name of security render many of the city’s physical, social, economic and statutory mechanisms unsustainable; that, once taken, they are in essence irreversible; and that – while spatial, architectural, urban – they are divorced from architectural discourse and practice. Specialist Operations was first to successfully put forward unconventional antiterrorism measures to the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

A generally accepted definition of terrorism is; “The use or threat of violence in service of a political aim, to ultimately change the system”. Architects are not the ones who are carrying machine guns or smuggle suicide bombs into an underground network. The connection is not violence. Nevertheless, the project shows similarities. First and most important of which is the unavoidable confrontation with authority. It’s also planned, calculated and systematic in nature where the outcome can only be predicted within limits. Secondly, the acts of terrorism is always concerned beyond the immediate target, like architectural terrorism. This kind of terrorism is not aiming, primarily, to hold or control territory or exercise any sovereignty. It creates a counter force (counter-condition) where there is none. It is aggressive in its speed and determinate character. Showing the condition of space and confronting this condition means operating at the borderline of duality. The introduction of a counterforce to unravel the conditioning of public space by authority forms the project’s objective. The project was undertaken as graduation project at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam.

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