This practice brings together a great variety of interest and methods that range from landscapes and architecture to narratives and literature. We are not restricted to a singular approach or perspective but address the spatial questions within multi-layered research and design methodologies. With our architecture, we aim at finding contemporary and relevant solutions for future problems, without neglecting the tradition and landscape in which it is rooted.
Our projects focus on finding relevant solutions for spatial problems that range from domestic transformations, the rehabilitation of built heritage to the (re)-organisation of urban and rural landscapes. From the scale of renovating the facade of a house, to the larger assignments of renovating former industrial facilities, we pursue a similar approach.
Within each project special attention is given to the relationship between the program, the building and the landscape surrounding it. Either in an urban or rural context, a plural and narrative approach is favoured over currently dominating visual trends.
The result of a project is therefore the outcome of a dialogue between the client, program, and context. A dialogue in which research and collaborations are necessary tools within the growing complexity that mark the current architectural practice.
Restrictions in budget, regulations and the environment form challenges that demand an approach beyond the obvious. Therefore, our architecture is recognised by idiosyncratic solutions for the spatial problems we have faced during the collaborations.
Rooted within the region of South Limburg, and with an academic base at the department of dwelling at RWTH in Aachen, this practice offers a global and intellectual perspective on challenges that are relevant within the context of the Euregion and beyond.
With a special interest in spatial landscapes and the post WOII modernism of Scandinavia and North America, our referential framework is build upon architects such as Jørn Utzon, Arthur Erickson, Arne Korsmo, Christian TH. Sørensen, Vilhelm Wohlert, Finn Juhl and Sven Ingvar Andersen.
ir. Mark Proosten, architect
Mark graduated as an architect in 2011 at the Technical University Eindhoven. Upon graduation he started working as an independent architect in the region of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Since October 2013 he works as an Assistant for Prof. ir. Wim van den Bergh, within the chair of Wohnbau at the RWTH in Aachen. He is a guest teacher at the interior Master of ArtEZ in Zwolle and lectures at the Maastricht Academy of Architecture.
Mark is one of the contributors of WRITINGPLACE, laboratory for architecture and literature. He co-edited the book ‘Writingplace, Investigations in Architecture and Literature, nai010 2016.
/My practice is based upon my academic interest in finding relevant solutions to spatial problems that transient the boundaries between landscape and architecture.
/My research focusses on mid-century modernism in Scandinavia and North America, in which I am pursuing a PhD upon the topic of the so-called Utzonian houses of the Danish architect Jørn Utzon.
/My teaching and writing is devoted to narratives in general and the relationship between architecture and literature in particular.
Education/
2011 /master
Technical University Eindhoven, Faculty of Architecture; Master Architecture.
Subject master thesis: Invisible Amsterdam, the spatial reading of characters and stone; research and design within the urban context of the ring of canals, Amsterdam (NL)
2007 /bachelor
Bachelor Building Technology with the differentiation architecture, Hogeschool Zuyd, Heerlen (NL)
Relevant work experience/
2014 /MMA+, Maastricht Academy of Architecture, (NL)
2014 /ArtEZ, Institute of the Arts, Zwolle (NL)
2013 /RWTH Aachen
WOHNBAU, lehrstuhl und institut für Wohnbau und Grundlagen des Entwerfens (DE)
2012 /Writingplace
WRITINGPLACE, laboratory for architecture and literature (EU)
2011 /mlpproosten/architecture theory|practice, Maastricht (NL)
2012/2016 /Studio Stad
Studio Stad, architecture, public works and urbanism, Maastricht(NL)
2011/2014 /LABFORYOU Ruumte
Architecture laboratory in collaboration with Rob Jansen and Rob Pohlen.
Conference
2014 /symposium
Against the Grain, on the narrative characteristics of architecture,
2013 /conference
Writingplace Conference, Literary Methods in Architectural research and Design, November 2013 TUDelft (NL)
2012 /symposium
Verhaal van Nederland, (Story of the Netherlands)
2011 /conference
Writing, paradigms, power, poetics, praxes, 12-14 November 2011, Interdisciplinary.net, Prague (CZ)
Awards/Grants
2015/ Victor de Stuersprijs
award for the renovation of the former fire brigade in Maastricht
2015/ Adaptive dwelling within the family homes of Jørn Utzon grant of the Dreyers Fond (DK),