West 8 is an

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

and landscape architecture firm founded by Adriaan Geuze and Paul van Beek in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1987. It is known for its contemporary designs and innovative solutions to urban planning problems using lighting, metal structures, and color. Van Beek is no longer part of the firm. Geuze founded West 8 in 1987 in

with Paul van Beek, who later left the firm. Geuze won the Dutch Maaskant Award for young architects in 1987 and the firm grew to employ more than 75 architects and planners, with offices in Rotterdam and New York City. The firm has produced several striking designs and is part of a wave of Dutch architects doing major works that have received international attention and recognition for novel design approaches.

Background

Geuze was born in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

in 1960 and graduated with a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Wageningen in 1987. Geuze's 1993 essay "Accelerating Darwin" advocated a "sensation of spontaneous culture which the city dweller creates". One of the firm's best known projects is the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (1996) using a raised platform lit from below and incorporating crane like structure to support lights that can be moved by inserting coins in a slot, "literally empowering the individual to light the square as they see fit." At the Oosterscheldedam Flood Barrier (1994) the firm used black and white striped mussel shells as art and landscape, and at the Carrascoplein in Amsterdam (1998) they converted a "forgotten place" beneath viaducts into a parking lot of abstract patterns with patches of green space with illumination of the viaduct soffits creating a "

Ballardian James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass med ...

urban park." West 8 developed masterplans for the Ypenburg Vinex showing that they can "marshal large plots and world-class architects with assurance", and produced a provocative design with palm trees in the sky plan for Arroyo Parkway,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

, in 2002, and won a 2003 competition for an urban plan in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

, Norway. West 8 became known in Europe for their ecological spatial planning and landscape projects. Ahead of time, their approach based on the environment reality was awarded a

Global Award for Sustainable Architecture The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture was founded in 2006 by architect and scholar Jana Revedin. The Global Award Community, which in 2022 consists of the 75 contemporary architects or architect collectives from around the globe who have ...

in 2014.

Projects

West 8's urban planning projects include striking new conceptions, such as the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam, a large public square made of a lightweight metal structure which "floats" on top of the roof of a parking garage. Geuze has been credited with having "almost single-handedly re-established landscape on the agenda of Dutch urbanism and is now taking his influence global in designing open spaces in or around buildings by most of the best Dutch contemporary architects." West 8 brings landscape architecture into city planning in a functionalist and pragmatic way; since the distinction between town and country in places like the Netherlands has largely disappeared, novel ideas for landscape use are often called for by city planners to fulfill the needs of modern urbanites. In the Netherlands, they are responsible for masterplanning a large-scale low-rise residential development on two peninsulas comprising the formerly dilapidated Borneo Sporenburg, part of the eastern harbor area of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, as well as for the bicycle bridges and

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

s leading to the area. Simcoe wavedeck Toronto

West 8 have produced several highly original bridges designs for bridges including the so-called "Reptile Bridge" proposal for a connection between

Leidsche Rijn Leidsche Rijn (, Utrecht dialect: ) is a neighbourhood in the west of Utrecht in the central Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = ...

and

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, and the helical truss

Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge The Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge (also called The Twist) is a helical truss bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic over the Vlaardingervaart canal in Vlaardingen, Netherlands.. Location Vlaardingen is a city in the Netherlands in the western out ...

Vlaardingen Vlaardingen () is a city in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality administers an area of , of which is land, with residents in . Geog ...

, a finalist for the

Dutch Design Awards Dutch Design Awards (DDA) honours the best Dutch designs across eight categories. It awards design initiatives and designers in the Netherlands each year, in first place by relevance and impact, but also to the extent to which they relate to thei ...

in 2009. Their design for a pedestrian bridge in Amsterdam was nominated for the 2001 Design Prize of the city of Rotterdam. Most recently, they won a design competition for a bridge across a railroad in Aarschot, Belgium. Undulating wave shapes are also part of West 8's designs, with DTAH, for a series of

wavedecks The Toronto Waterfront Wavedecks are a series of wooden structures constructed on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as part of the revitalization of the central waterfront. Waterfront Toronto committed to constructing a series of unique ...

on Toronto's waterfront. The wooden-planked walkways are part of a redevelopment project overseen by

Waterfront Toronto Waterfront Toronto (incorporated as the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation) is an organization that oversees revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront. Established in 2001 as a public–public partnership between the Cit ...

. The first three of the four planned wavedecks (Rees wavedeck, Spadina wavedeck, and Simcoe wavedeck) have been completed. In the United States, West 8 have gained a reputation for unorthodox design proposals, such as their proposal to fill in the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...

and turn it into a pasture. They were finalists for the design of the new exterior for the

New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896, and move ...

, and were part of the team of firms that won the design contest for an ambitious park (including free bicycles) on the southern half of

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

in New York. A list of projects includes: *

Schouwburgplein (Rotterdam) Theatre Square (or in Dutch : Schouwburgplein) is a plaza situated in the heart of the city of Rotterdam, and is flanked by the municipal theatre, concert hall, restaurants, and cafes. An urban stage and an interactive open space, the 12.250 squar ...

public square *The Whale housing project *Sporenburg Bicycle Bridge *Four

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

(Ontario)'s waterfront *

(New York) redevelopment

References

External links

West 8 website
*''Residential Waterfront, Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam: Adriaan Geuze, West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture'' edited by Rodolfo Machado, published by Harvard University Press, 2006
Adriaan Geuze, West 8, Royal Institution of British Architecture: International Dialogues Talk
(Video)
Video portrait of West 8
(Dutch Profiles) {{ACArt Architecture firms of the Netherlands Dutch urban planners Dutch landscape architects Modernist architects Prix de Rome (Netherlands) winners