The video shows an interview with Ellen van Loon. In 1998 she joined OMA and since 2002, she has been in charge of a large number of OMA’s building projects such as the Cordoba Congress Centre, the headquarters for NM Rothschild bank in London, and the Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen. Van Loon also played first fiddle in the design and construction of the award-winning Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal and the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin. Van Loon combines a fine feeling for design with in-depth understanding of all technical and operational aspects. During the interview, she tells us among others about sustainability in architecture and how does she imagine being an architect in the future.
Van Loon asked about a reason for rising attention to green urban regeneration explains that this is not a matter of fashion, but necessity. We need to take into account that resources we are used to use are running out. It’s time to rethink urban development and regeneration of cities and reuse of existing structures to make them fit for the future. It something that we all have to deal with. We need to figure out how to live in the next three hundred years.
Moreover, she points out that the problem with the discussion about sustainability is that in some of them you can get an impression that sustainability is the most important thing in building but actually sustainability is only one of the twenty parameters which are important. In her opinion, it doesn’t make any sense to design a building which is very sustainable but nobody wants to live in it. It is very important to find the balance between sustainability and quality of life.
As far as her profession is concerned, she thinks that architects must become more knowledgeable and much more intelligent. An architect can’t continue in the profession in the traditional way by getting a program from clients, design a building and that’s it. A future architect will have to consider all kinds of factors: environmental, economic, cultural and also of course the health of human beings. It is obvious that people are not able live without lights because they would die, so it must be considered during projects. In her opinion, an architect will be the person that will have a lot to do in the future.
