Past Present Future: video interview with Jacob van Rijs (MVRDV)

Past Present Future is a series of interviews by Gianpiero Venturini from Itinerant Office. Jacob van Rijs, co-founder of MVRDV, is the second of the architects to be interviewed.

“Past, Present, Future: About being an architect yesterday, today and beyond” is a series of video interviews conducted by Itinerant Office. Eleven internationally renowned architects have been asked to talk about their own past, present and future, exploring the figure of the architect and his or her role in contemporary society.

Interview with Jacob van Rijs

Past


The second instalment of this series is a conversation with Jacob van Rijs, a co-founder of the firm MVRDV in Rotterdam. The Dutch architect talks about how his office is evolving. From its 1998 publication Farmax (an acronym for “extreme floor area ratio”) to its recent use of contemporary technology and methods to analyse cities, the firm has cultivated one constant interest: urban density.

Interview with Jacob van Rijs

Present


“The general public thinks that the architect is a kind of a god, but that’s not the fact. There are other powers that are shaping our profession. And there’s s lot of construction happening without architects. It used to be like that before as well, but now is getting more visible.” 

Interview with Jacob van Rijs

Future

         

  • Past, Present, Future: About being an architect yesterday, today and beyond
  • Itinerant Office
  • Gianpiero Venturini
  • Luca Chiaudano
  • The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Italy and the Creative Industries Fund NL