About Us
Ard de Vries Architecten & Studio Donna van Milligen Bielke
Studio Donna van Milligen Bielke & Ard de Vries Architects share a fascination for redefining and positioning boundaries, and the influence of architecture on public space. Instead of seeing architecture as a volume, and the city as a collection of volumes, we see architecture as a means of shaping, connecting and responding to urban fabrics. We operate on the border between architecture and urban planning and move between different scale levels, from the architectural interior to the urban fabric.
From residential towers, villas and larger cultural buildings such as the Kunstwerf, a collective building for 4 different cultural institutions in Groningen, to design research for publications and exhibitions.
Our Story
Ard de Vries (1978) graduated from TU Delft in 2004. After graduating, he worked at the Atelier of the Government Architect. He then worked for 8 years on urban development projects at Jo Coenen's office, before starting his own office. The architectural firm Ard de Vries Architecten was founded with the need to take on assignments where architecture, regardless of its autonomous position, its architectural reality and programmatic aspects, is connected to daily use. The Architecture of the Everyday.
Donna Van Milligen Bielke (1983) is in 2012 afgestudeerd aan the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam. For Van Milligen Bielke architecture begins with architecture. And it ends with architecture as well. She uses the discipline’s history to kindle the fire of her own architecture. Even if she never mentions it explicitly, for Van Milligen Bielke, architecture suffices to make architecture. Instead of venturing into new and unfamiliar territories, borrowing from other disciplines or finding inspiration in fields outside architecture, she explores architecture itself, and offers re-readings of what is already there, reinterpretations of what has been done before, and recombinations of pre-existing elements.
Awards
Our Clients
