mono.kultur #18 takes us into the offices of Dutch architecture studio MVRDV. Our first issue to feature two interviews in one, we talked to the founders Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries – MVRDV is an acronym of their surnames – highlighting their approach to architecture in theory and practice.

MVRDV count among the most innovative and exciting architecture studios practicing today. They gained immediate worldwide attention with their first built project, the headquarters for Dutch TV station VPRO in the mid-90s, by creating a forward-thinking work environment which not only looked spectacular but also preceded and tested many aspects of flexible working conditions that by now have become common practice.

MVRDV lived up to their reputation as a refreshing addition to a too often conservative profession with spectacular buildings such as the Dutch Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover or the WoZoCo residential unit, combining technological innovation with style and a sense of humour. In addition to their architecture practice, they published several studies on various aspects of city planning and technology which aroused a fair amount of controversy with their provocative and consciously exaggerated theories.

With mono.kultur, MVRDV talked about the interrelation between theory and practice, the importance of sustaining curiosity and why game designers create more beautiful cities than architects.

Interview by Carson Chan / Images courtesy of MVRDV / Design by Konst & Teknik
Autumn 2008 / English / 15 x 20 cm / 36 Pages / Printed on Two Different Stocks of Paper / Partial Cover

“MVRDV: On Statics and Statistics might look odd at first sight. Pages from two different pamphlets appear to have been shuffled together by accident, so that full-colour pages alternate with pages printed only in blue. Pictures overlap, bleed off the edges only to resume on the next page, and sometimes change from colour to plain blue. There are no captions to help you grab hold of this communication on one of the Netherlands’ most acclaimed architectural team. This is issue 18 of mono.kultur, a Berlin-published high-concept interview magazine that offers one Q&A per issue. Previous interviewees include photographer Taryn Simon, cult performance artist and writer Miranda July, and celebrity architect David Adjaye. Once you start reading, the MVRDV issue – consisting of two conversations, one with Winy Maas, the other with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries – becomes much clearer in conception. As interviewer Carson Chan notes in his introduction, each Q&A gives a very different sense of what MVRDV is about. The two layout styles express this ‘split identity’ while still locking together.”
— Rick Poynor for AJ Magazine