Frame - 17 February 2018

Ellen van Loon

1963 Born in Hulst,

the Netherlands

1991 Graduates from the

Faculty of Architecture at Delft

University of Technology

1992-1998 Works at Foster and

Partners in Berlin

1998 Joins OMA

2002 Becomes partner at OMA

2003 Completion of the

Dutch Embassy in Berlin

2005 Winner of the European

Union Mies van der Rohe Award

Completion of

Casa da Música in Porto

2007 Winner of the RIBA Award

2009 Completion of the Prada

Transformer pavilion in Seoul

2011 Completion of New

Court, the Rothschild Bank

headquarters in London

Completion of Maggie’s

Centre near Glasgow

2013 Completion of

De Rotterdam, the largest

building in the Netherlands

2014 Completion of the G-Star

Headquarters in Amsterdam

2017 Completion of the

Rijnstraat government offices

in The Hague

‘I prefer to work on very big projects. Small
buildings are not really my thing. The more
complex, the more interesting. The design of
a large project can’t be understood all at once.
I see it as an advantage, because the sheer size
forces you to consider the separate layers of
the architecture over a longer period – from
large-scale elements to the tiniest details. Big
projects give you the time needed to develop
the various layers, independent of one another.’

‘In the case of Rijnstraat 8 [Frame 120, p. 88],
a building that houses a number of Dutch
ministries, our redesign went beyond offices
and workstations to include representation
and the political process. The same can be
said of the building for the Dutch House
of Commons, which OMA will renovate in
the near future. What exactly happens in the
political process and where does it take place?
And how do people meet one another? Our
client – the government – talks about “formal”
and “informal” methods of working, terms
that imply all sorts of intermediate layers that
aren’t expressed in words because they’re not
politically correct. That leads me to the roles
of lobbyists and journalists, among others,
who are also involved in the political process.
As an architect, you want to enable such
roles spatially while also expressing them
architecturally. The theatricality of politics,
which is obvious in countries like France and
Italy, is something the Dutch would rather
not contemplate. In England, many political
decisions are taken in clubs, in environments
that are reminiscent of classic cigar salons. It’s
all theatre, and I like to use the same tactics in
some of our Dutch projects.’

‘The Rothschild Bank in London is a fantastic
case in point. The Rothschilds are a Jewish
family, originally German, with an enormous
history and an enormous archive. Tradition
within the organization is quite explicit, but

it doesn’t appear on paper. It took me two

years to understand how it worked. A good

example would be the renderings we made

for the planning application, which included

Photoshopped figures – a couple of bearded

men among them. The first comment I heard

was: “At Rothschild, nobody has a beard.” It’s

an unwritten law that the entire staff is aware

of. “No hats either. Remove them as well.”’

‘Social processes within a building have

consequences for the architecture. In their

former office, for instance, they had directors’

dining rooms, where the executives had lunch.

Very traditional. Every day at noon, a couple

of people from the organization are invited

to join them. Receiving an invitation means

being recognized for an outstanding achieve-

ment. I find that terribly interesting. Banks

like Rothschilds are extremely conserva-

tive organizations, and these bankers were

accustomed to classic rooms, with wooden

wainscoting, old masters and antique furni-

ture. We wanted to make a modern interpreta-

tion of their familiar surroundings – to do

something with their history, but not literally.

It took buckets of blood, sweat and tears to

convince them. You not only have to research

an organization’s history; you also have to

persuade your client to follow the direc-

tion you have in mind. These are intensive

processes. Most people resist change.’

‘The most important lesson I learned from

all these projects is: don’t take anything for

granted. Make sure to question customs

and traditions. Be sceptical about every-

thing you encounter and always stop to

reconsider. Doing these things makes every

project an adventure. And don’t be afraid of

a challenge. I’m certainly not. We can fly to

the moon and back, and anything’s possible

in architecture.’ ●

oma.eu

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