Mecanoo architecten

Francine Houben

Netherlands Architect
Creative Director, Mecanoo

Francine Houben (the Netherlands, 1955) is Founding Partner and Creative Director of Mecanoo architecten. Her work ranges from theatres, museums and libraries to neighbourhoods, housing and parks. Each design is founded on observation of people, location, culture and climate. This analysis amounts to designs that respond to current needs yet are also prepared for (un)predictable change.

With her practice, she has gained international acclaim. She holds Honorary Fellowships of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) was granted lifelong membership to the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In 2015, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands presented her the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize for her entire oeuvre.

Francine Houben was professor of mobility aesthetics at Delft University of Technology and also taught at the universities of Harvard and Yale. As curator of the First International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, she brought the theme of the aesthetics of mobility to the forefront of international design consciousness. She holds Honorary Doctorates from Utrecht University and Université de Mons.

Selected works include Delft University of Technology Library, Delft (1997), La Llotja Theatre and Congress Centre, Lleida, Spain (2008), Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom (2013), Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Boston, United States (2015) and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Taiwan (opened in 2018). Currently, she is working on the renovation of the New York Public Library and the central library of Washington, DC – designed by Mies van der Rohe which will both re-open in 2020.

｜Competition Declaration｜

The Future of Housing-before and after a pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis has put our way of living under review. We know that this pandemic is not a one-off event. Viral outbreaks have occurred in the past, and they will happen again in the future in our high-density, globalised world. If this time we want to be prepared, we need to re-design our way of living. Lately, resilient cities has been a big research topic. In 2020 we discovered that our homes must be resilient as well.

With social distancing, borders of private and public drastically changed in a matter of days. Homes became the only place we people were considered safe, shielded from friends, neighbors and even family. But what is the extent of homes? Are collective spaces in buildings still safe? Should we design our homes for quick changes between private and public domains?

Connection with others (emotional or physical) and a sense of community are fundamental human needs. Further isolation can be highly problematic in a world where we are already suffering from a loneliness epidemic. Nowadays, we have a huge diversity of households. The traditional nuclear family is not as common as it once was. The number of single-parent families has been increasing worldwide, and more importantly, more and more people live alone. The sudden confinement to people’s houses could have a serious impact on mental health. How can achieve both social distancing and social connection? Should we re-define the “household” in a way where we, under all circumstances, ensure a sense of community?

Being confined to a home, we realise how much we rely on outdoor space, both private and shared. How can we safely integrate outdoor space for everyone in the future of housing? This also brings the inequality between rich and poor to the surface. Being constricted to a villa with a garden is not comparable to being isolated in a tiny space under poor living conditions. In addition, high-density housing may no longer meet the hygiene requirements of the post-COVID world. How can we create an affordable quality of life for the ones who are suffering the most in these crises?

For this competition, we are looking for a new affordable housing typology, where residents can live sustainably, and can feel both protected and connected.