The House of Cultures is intended as temporary accommodation for people posted there by companies or organizations to promote cultural exchange among those people and between them and the local population. The design is rooted in the supposition that in an episode of increasing globalization when national boundaries are disappearing, new territorial lines will present themselves. These new regions are diffuse, however, and scarcely formalized so that tensions between cultures show through.

My design for a House of Cultures, projected on Sint Jobshaven, a harbour basin in the west of Rotterdam, constructs a programme where such cultural exchange can be enacted. This trade-off is not exclusively based on language or knowledge, but rather on informal activities and sensory motor experiences.

Besides the temporary accommodation, the House also contains recreational activities connected with 'partying'. This makes visiting the House an attractive proposition. The activities are meant to stimulate contact between participants so that they can learn from each other. The House's architecture is so designed as to encourage participants to engage in the various parts of the programme.

The House of Cultures is assembled from four elementary components. The Base, a horizontal platform for the building's vertical programme, enables the building to mesh with the local urban context. The Shell has been abstracted to such a degree that people from all over the world would recognize it. Its glass cladding and steel skeleton convey a clear picture of the inner form to the outside world. The Shell refers to the sheltering archetypal form of a house. The programme itself is contained in the inner form or Monolith, whose individual spaces are interlinked. This is where the actual exchange between users takes place. The Arcades sit between the Monolith and the Shell and draw these together. They can be used in any way thought fit. Shell, Monolith and Arcades together present a cohesive and neutral whole which, given minor variations, can be deployed in every cultural context.

Place of education: Maastricht Academy of Architecture
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Theo Teeken, Jacques Eijkelenberg, Fred Humblé