Gerben van Dijk (Vernieuwing Bouw) and Sander van Schaik (De kort Van Schaik architecten) were our guests during our Souper end of May. Transformation was the logical subject of discussion with these two guests in Restaurant Huson.

Gerben is as process manager concerned with change in the full width of the building construction and real estate. He has a broad knowledge of rehabilitation and shares his experience in detail via his twitter account. Sander designs and implements small-scale transformation projects in the Netherlands and Belgium. Characteristic of these projects is the careful integration into the existing context. Sander organizes occasional bijeenkomsten with young European architects for exchanging experiences. In a cheerful evening Gerben and Sander told about the conditions, opportunities and pitfalls of preservation.

After such a evening it’s clear to me that the future city is not dreamed perspective, it is the existing city. The current spatial task is not to create something new on a blank spot, but turning an existing place into something new.


Daan Bakker (Daf-architecten), Jeroen de Willigen (DeZwarteHond), Jasper de Haan (architect) and I invite each month a number of colleagues to eat, drink and discuss about our profession, the city of Rotterdam and related matters.