Ben van Berkel
Ben van Berkel
Ben van Berkelis a Dutch architect, working in the architectural practice UNStudio. With his studio he designed the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany and other building...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionArchitect
mother cities venice
My mother took me to Venice one time and showed me all the houses where famous composers used to live. It gave me a fascination for music and the city, but also for architecture. It was a valuable lesson.
art fall thinking
Architecture falls between art and airports. It's pragmatic-it helps you get from point A to point B. But it also works as art. It makes you think twice. It inspires you. It brings you back to yourself.
reading ideas novel
Ideas can come while reading a good novel.
expression dutch tongue
I never show the back of my tongue. That is a Dutch expression.
hide people places
You could never hide yourself in these places - in Mies's Farnsworth house, for example. That was a mistake of Modernism. People need places to hide from each other, too. You need everything.
almost becomes frank ground raising roof work
In the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright - and you can also see it with Mies - they make new ground by raising the ground. Frank Lloyd Wright did it so beautifully with the Robie House. The roof becomes almost a new ground.