Wiel Arets (, born ) is a Dutch

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

architectural theorist Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

, urbanist,

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

and the former Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. Arets was previously the 'Professor of Building Planning and Design' at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

(UdK), Germany, and studied at the

Technical University of Eindhoven The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

, graduating in 1983. The same year later he founded

Wiel Arets Architects Wiel Arets (, born ) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, industrial designer and the former Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, in the United States of America. Arets was pr ...

, a multidisciplinary

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

studio, today with studios in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Munich, and Zürich. From 1995-2002 he was the Dean of the Berlage Institute 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 ''"N ...

, where he introduced the idea of 'progressive-research' and co-founded the school's architectural journal named ''HUNCH''.

Life and career

Wiel Arets was born on 6 May 1955 in Heerlen,

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 ...

to Wiel Arets (1929) and Mia Heuts (1931). His father was a book printer and his mother was a

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

, both from whom he learned respect for the tradition of

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

and a love of books and reading. He briefly studied

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, and then

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, before ultimately deciding on architecture. He divides his time between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, living and working in each city. He is married and has two children. Arets' work is generally characterized by a minimalist, geometric and austere approach that responds to local contingencies in a flexible way, with Arets explaining:

'We want our buildings to fit into the existing context, yet remain flexible and open to change'.

During his studies at the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) Arets became fascinated by the works and words of

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

, Giorgio Grassi and Cesare Cattaneo, quickly developing his admiration for 'the dialogue' as an operative method, best exemplified by Valéry's 'Eupalinos' and Cattaneo's 'Giovanni e Giuseppe'. While studying Arets co-founded the architectural journal ''Wiederhall'' and organized a series of visiting lecturers at the TU/e that included the architects

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...

Tadao Ando is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize. Early life Ando was born a few m ...

and

Peter Eisenmann Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructive ...

, among others. Subsequently, Arets organized the first European exhibition of Tadao Ando's work. It was during this period that Arets 'rediscovered' the work of Dutch architect Frits Peutz, who transformed the city of Heerlen from an industrial coal mining hub and into a modern city through his many built commissions funded by the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

industry, most recognizably the Glaspaleis. With the decline of industry the city lost most of its status as an industrial area in Limburg and Frits Peutz faded from architectural prominence. As a student Arets undertook extensive research in the archives of Peutz's office, eventually producing the monograph 'F.P.J Peutz Architekt 1916-1966' (1981) and an accompanying traveling exhibition. After graduating from the TU/e in 1983 Arets travelled extensively throughout Russia, the United States and Japan. While in Japan Arets visited and interviewed several prominent architects including

Fumihiko Maki is a Japanese architect who teaches at Keio University SFC. In 1993, he received the Pritzker Prize for his work, which often explores pioneering uses of new materials and fuses the cultures of east and west. Early life Maki was born in Tokyo. A ...

Kazuo Shinohara was a Japanese architect, forming what is now widely known as the "Shinohara School", which has been linked to the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa. As architectural critic Thomas Daniell put it, "A key figure who explic ...

, Itsuko Hasegawa and

, later publishing these interviews and articles in the Dutch architecture magazine ''de Architect''. Arets first garnered international architectural attention with the completion of the Maastricht Academy of Art and Architecture in 1993, described by

Kenneth Frampton Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York. He has be ...

as:

'Revitalizing an existing institution within the old urban core in such a way as to transform both the institution and the urban fabric...All of this was achieved without abandoning for the moment the minimalist expression of an architecture degree zero, derived in part from
Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
and in part from
Tadao Ando is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize. Early life Ando was born a few m ...
.'

In 2004 Arets completed the

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

, situated in the Uithof area of the campus designed by OMA which dictated a strict orthogonal requirement for all buildings. The library's exterior glazing is screen printed with an image of bamboo shoots created by the photographer

Kim Zwarts Kim Zwarts (Maastricht, 1955) is a Dutch photographer. Kim Zwarts studied at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts. He has worked as a photographer on several architecture books, including monographs of Thom Mayne/Morphosis, Luis Barrágan, Wim Qui ...

, returning as a tactile imprinted surface pattern on the library's interior prefabricated concrete panel walls, which are painted black. This 'tactility' has since returned to more of Arets' projects in the form of imprinted-concrete or screen printed glass exteriors. Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA remarks of the library:

'The building is fascinating in many ways, but most of all I feel some warm humanism from it. Within its crisp black envelope Wiel Arets has carved out an arsenal of different spaces – some low, some high, some wide, some spacious, some compressed, some bright, some dark. This is a building that would never appear dull. It offers a moment for everyone.'

In 2011 Arets' studio won an international competition to design the IJhal at Amsterdam Centraal Station, part of the city's plan to revitalize the waterfront by reconnecting it to the river IJ., and recently finished construction on the Allianz Headquarters in

, Switzerland.

Theoretical position

In 1991 Arets published his first theoretical text, 'An Alabaster Skin', in a monograph of the same title. The text merged Arets' fascinations of his studies and early career, including:

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

, the '

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

', technology of the 20th century, the membrane or

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...

of a building,

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and the act of cutting and

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

(in regards to cinematography), as well as the

Postmodern architecture Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henry- ...

of the 1980s.

Greg Lynn Greg Lynn (born 1964) is an American architect, founder and owner of the Greg Lynn FORM office, an o. University Professor in the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and a professor at the UCLA School of the Arts a ...

interprets the piece as so:

'A precedent for this alabaster
urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and m ...
is Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s
Beinecke Rare Book Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...
at
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
that utilizes an alabaster curtain wall that breaks down the boundary between the interior and exterior without transparency. Light is admitted from the outside during the day and the interior emanates a glowing light at night. The polished surface of the blank curtain wall reflects the adjacent buildings while allowing permeability. Likewise, in Arets’ work there is the stealth of a
chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...
.'Lynn, Greg. ''Maastricht Academy for the Arts and Architecture''. 010 Publishers, 1994, p. 40.

Teaching

Arets was Dean of the Berlage Institute from 1995-2002 where he changed the school to a research based institute focusing on 'progressive-research', public lectures, publications, field trips, and intensive debates. Prior to that position he was and is a professor or guest professor at many architecture schools, mostly within

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the United States, and was until 2012 the 'Professor of Building Planning and Design' at the

(UdK), Germany. While at the UdK 'Tokyo Utopia/TOUT', was Arets' research theme, and he has previously used other research themes, such 'Double Dutch', to structure output and debate while teaching; they often return to give content and context to publications such as ''HUNCH''. Of the importance of such a 'progressive-research' based theme Arets states:

'That's why, when I became Dean, I changed the name to the Berlage Institute Laboratory for Architecture, I wanted to invite people to come do their research alongside students and to publish their work with the studios. The research, the production of the students, the publication, the seminars, the field trips, the lectures that were happening – all had to be part of one thing. I think laboratory simply means you have a theme, and you collectively do investigations and research. And then, at the end of the year, you have a result, which is presented in the school's publication, ''HUNCH'', which was originally edited by
Jennifer Sigler Jennifer Sigler is an American editor and cultural producer based in Rotterdam and Cambridge, Massachusetts. She leads and supports the creation of books, exhibitions, events, and multimedia projects as platforms for interdisciplinary exchange. F ...
. This was, and still is, not just a publication of only student work; rather, ''HUNCH'' was where we also published the work of guest lecturers, the important research of the trips, and everything we thought belonged to the year theme.'

Academic positions

*1986–1989 Architectural Academies of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Netherlands *1988–1992 Architectural Association,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom *1991–1994 Visiting Professor at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States *1991–1994 Visiting Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, United States *1994 Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark *1995–2002 Dean of the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands *2005–2012 Professor at the

, Berlin, Germany *2005 Guest Professor at the

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

, Germany *2006-2012 Guest Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain *2010 Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, St. Louis, United States *2012-2017 Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, United States

Quotes

*"Architecture is therefore a between, a membrane, an alabaster skin, a thing that is at once opaque and transparent... It can only become part of the world by entering into a marriage with its surroundings." * On his line of Dot bathroom fittings for Alessi: "We were very clear that we didn’t want to do something fashionable, we wanted it to still look new in ten years." — ''

Wallpaper* ''Wallpaper'', stylized ''Wallpaper*'', is a publication focusing on design and architecture, fashion, travel, art, and lifestyle. The magazine was launched in London in 1996 by Canadian journalist Tyler Brûlé and Austrian journalist Alexander ...

'', 2007 * On his idea of the emerging global metropolis: "To understand the world we are living in at this moment, we have to redefine the 'Map of the world', a mental construct which at least since 1492 has undergone many reinperpretations. We could read the world anno 2020 as a collective living space for us all, in which all the continents are in reach within 288 minutes, and the maximum travel distance at each continent will be 72 minutes, the time in which every city on each continent will be able to be reached." *"Sometimes in spring there are beautiful trees that bloom, and suddenly, there are white blossoms everywhere. You don't look at one particular spot. And I personally think that's also true in architecture."

Notable projects

:''See article

Awards

*Victor de Stuers Award (1987) * Charlotte Köhler Award (1988) *Rotterdam Maaskant Award (1989) *Best Dutch Book Design Award 1989: ''Wiel Arets Architect'' (1989) *Victor de Stuers Award (1994) *Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture: Special Mention Emerging Architect (1994) *BNA Kubus (2005) *Best Dutch Book Design Award 2005: ''Living Library: Wiel Arets'' (2005) *iF Product Design Award (2009) *Good Design Award (2009) *Amsterdam Architecture Prize (2010) *ContractWorld Award (2011) *Best Dutch Book Design Award (010): ''STILLS: A Timeline of Ideas, Articles & Interviews 1983-2010'' (2011) *Geurt Brinkgreve Bokaal Award (2011) *Communication Arts Typography Annual Award (2012): ''STILLS: A Timeline of Ideas, Articles & Interviews 1982-2010'' *D&AD Award (2014): ''NOWNESS: IIT Architecture 2013-2014'' *The Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award (2014): Allianz Headquarters

Bibliography

*''Wiel Arets Architect'' (1989) *''An Alabaster Skin'' (1992) *''Maastricht Academy'' (1994) *''Wiel Arets: Strange Bodies'' (1996) *''Wiel Arets: AZL Heerlen'' (1999) *'' The Hoge Heren'' (2002) *''Wiel Arets: Live/Life'' (2002) *''Wiel Arets: Works, Projects, Writings'' (2002) *''Wiel Arets: Works & Projects'' (2004) *''Living Library: Wiel Arets'' (2005) *''STILLS: A Timeline of Ideas, Articles and Interviews 1983-2010'' (2010) *''Wiel Arets: Autobiographical References'' (2012) *''TC Cuadernos nº 109/110- Wiel Arets Arquitectura 1997-2013'', (2013) * ''Wiel Arets. Inspiration and Process in Architecture'', (2012) * ''NOWNESS: IIT Architecture Chicago 2013-2014'', (2013) * ''Wiel Arets–Bas Princen'', (2015) * ''Ellen Kooi Above Rotterdam: One Glass Tower by Wiel Arets & Nine Situations by Katrien Van Den Brande'', (2016) * ''Crown Hall Design's Dialogues: 2012-2017'', (2017)

Films

* Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam 2011: 'Perspectives' * Venice Biennale 2002: Arsenal International Exposition – 'Utrecht University Library' * Venice Biennale 2002: Arsenal Internationale Exposition - 'Stadium, Haarlem' * Venice Biennale 2002: 'The Europol, Hague Netherlands'

References

External links

WAA

Complete List of Projects (Dutch)

Wiel Arets
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arets, Wiel Architecture educators 1955 births Living people People from Heerlen Members of the Académie d'architecture Columbia University faculty Cooper Union faculty Technical University of Madrid faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty 20th-century Dutch architects 21st-century Dutch architects Architectural theoreticians Eindhoven University of Technology alumni

Life and career

Theoretical position

Teaching

Academic positions

Quotes

Notable projects

Awards

Bibliography

Films

Further reading

References

External links