Past Present Future: UNStudio

UNStudio was founded in 1988 by husband-and-wife architects Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos. It now boasts nearly 200 employees on two continents. Short for United Networks Studio, UNStudio's main Amsterdam office was joined by offices in Shanghai (2009) and Hong Kong (2014), reflecting the large amount of work the firm is doing in Asia and, as of last week, Australia. Watch the short videos for insight on the past, present, and future of UNStudio or visit the "Past, Present, Future" website to read a transcript of Itinerant Office's interview with Caroline Bos.

After living in London to attend the Architectural Association and cover architecture for Dutch publications, Bos and van Berkel returned to Amsterdam and managed to pull off what Bos calls "a fluke": the commission for the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. The client had to decide between an established designer and UNStudio; selecting the latter gave the office of Bos and van Berkel a fortuitous push toward many more projects of various types.

Three offices on two continents is far from an accident for Bos and van Berkel, who aimed from the beginning to be more than a Dutch firm. Early on they explored projects outside of the Netherlands and continue that to this day, though on a larger scale. The diversity of place in their offices and projects extends to typologies of buildings (infrastructure, residential, cultural, office) as well as designs, with the firm tackling furniture and technology as well as buildings.

Although Bos doesn't mention UNSense by name, the ideas behind the "arch tech" startup launched by UNStudio in March 2018 are evident in her words on the future. Bos speculates about a future where architecture is mainly software, where architecture is adaptive and is based around sensors. At the same time, she embraces opposition and for the younger generation to say, "No! I would never do it that way."

"Past, Present, Future" is a project curated by Gianpiero Venturini, founder of Itinerant Office, with the support of the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rome. World-Architects is proud to be a media partner of the project.