Gideon Maasland

Director and Architect Gideon Maasland (Sliedrecht, NL – 1978) joined MVRDV in 2016. With extensive experience acquired over a 15-year career at several high profile Dutch offices, Maasland leads MVRDV’s Studio 8, which is responsible for large-scale, complex buildings. Renowned for his detailed and dedicated approach, which is due to his diverse educational and professional background that not only includes extensive architectural practice, but also carpentry and construction methodology, Maasland’s work is hands-on. This proved invaluable to the success of his studio in the design and construction of multiple complex, large-scale projects, which meet design expectations in the completed building, and in consistently managed processes. To ensure the highest quality, Maasland is often on the construction site directly overseeing building processes.

AWARDS

• Valley: best skyscraper of the world

PROJECTS TO BE PRESENTED DURING THE EVENT

Project #1: Future Cities

Start year: 02.02.2021

The MVRDV-designed Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre transforms an outdated tower from the 1990s into a vibrant and colourful mixed-use skyscraper hosting a hotel and a wide range of facilities for the welfare of women and children: a library, an auditorium, a children’s theatre and “discovery hall”, as well as therapy rooms and offices for staff. With its colourful façade, the building is a refreshing presence in Shenzhen’s Futian district; more importantly, at 100 metres tall, the building sets an important precedent for repurposing buildings in a city that is soon to see a “great wave of adaptive reuse”.

Project #2: Tripolis

Start year: 01.01.2019

Tripolis Park renovates and transforms one of the last projects completed by the celebrated Dutch modernist architect Aldo van Eyck, restoring two of the three listed heritage buildings in line with Van Eyck’s original designs. The design also adds a 12-storey “landscraper” along the edge of the site to shelter the complex (which includes Van Eyck’s Amsterdam Orphanage next door) from noise and dust generated by the adjacent A10 highway. The new building is careful in its relationship with the heritage buildings, keeping a respectful distance so that an exciting in-between space emerges where the two meet, with bridges crossing overhead to connect old and new.