Chris Van Duijn, the globally acclaimed architect from the esteemed firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), urged aspiring attendees and practitioners to foster creativity and innovation in shaping ideas and architectural designs. He recently imparted his wealth of knowledge in a public discourse arranged by the Architecture Program of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) School of Environment and Design (SED), in collaboration with the Berlin-based public relations agency Send/Receive.
“In architectural design, even if it is functional like a box, architects can always find ways to innovate and be creative about it,” he said.
Van Duijn spoke on the design process and heritage sustainability, providing exclusive glimpses of their creations and concepts. He also highlighted cultural conservation practices and mixed-use advertisements of complex buildings in several Asian nations.
The OMA veteran holds a Master of Architecture from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands.
Van Duijn has been involved in some of OMA’s most esteemed projects, such as the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California, USA; the Prada stores both in New York and California; Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal; CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, China; and Prada Transformer in Seoul, South Korea.
Among his recently completed infrastructures are the Hanwha Galleria department store in Seoul, South Korea; the MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre in Toulouse, France; the Axel Springer Campus in Berlin, Germany; the extension of Beijing UCCA Center for Contemporary Art; the Genesis Gangnam Car Dealership in Seoul, South Korea; the Prada Foundation in Milan, Italy; the Bibliothรจque Alexis de Tocqueville in Caen, France; and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia.
The event was attended by over 400 students and mentors from various schools in the country, including the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, and DLS-CSB. They were joined by professionals from the Design Center of the Philippines. (Source: The Manila Times)
