All Things Urban

Our roots date back to 2009, when we entered a competition that challenged us to find a holistic solution for several interconnected problems in the Dutch polder. With an integral design approach, we developed our first thriving neighbourhood on water, therein responding to the diverse needs of all stakeholders. We proposed that the farmers of Noord-Holland - required by law to store excess surface water on their land - use this otherwise empty surface to develop carbon-neutral floating houses. Our circular and innovative design not only won first place, but also sparked the creation of Space&Matter. For more than a decade now, we have worked with this integral design approach. Neighbourhoods are our preferred units of change because we know that small communities can trigger big impacts. Far too often, citizens and architects are excluded from important decision-making processes concerning the future of cities and we’re on a mission to change that. We believe that resilient cities are, first and foremost, created by the people who live in them. We exist to translate the needs of these people into designs that make them feel at home, on the one hand, and improve the health of the planet, on the other. We find in Schoonschip a compelling example of how people can take matters into their own hands and create the future they imagine.