Van Sambeek & Van Veen Architects

Neutrality, exclusivity, family, seriality, position, interiority, time. These are the seven organizational principles essential to the design philosophy and methodology of Dutch architecture firm, Van Sambeek & Van Veen. Naturally, these are the themes by which this comprehensive volume of their projects--the only monograph of their work to date--is organized. For each of their designs, architects Erna van Sambeek and Rene van Veen ask how the essence of the task can be reduced to a combination of two or more of these themes. Each project therefore appears at least twice in the book, but with images and text specifically tailored to address the dominant theme of the particular chapter. Again and again when looking through the firm's more than 18 years of projects; some unbuilt, we are reminded of their design philosophy: to seek the richness that architecture can gain from a consistent concentration on the essentials, and a clear separation of primary and secondary aspects.