Interview with Melse Crouwel

The wide spectrum of projects from your studio is astonishing. However, we would like to focus this conversation on engineering and transportation structures, to which more than half of your exhibition at GJF is dedicated. Do the Dutch have a close relationship with transportation structures?
In the Netherlands, we are forced to design everything. Our entire country is man-made. Since we are below sea level, we had to create a system of dikes and drain new polders. All of our nature has been shaped by humans. In this spirit, infrastructure also plays a significant role in determining the movement of people from one place to another. It is evident at first glance that people are spending more and more time commuting as they travel from surrounding areas to work in urban centers. Previously, people used personal cars for this purpose, but today, due to increased traffic, we rely on public transportation – and why shouldn’t these places be beautiful and meaningful?
So the answer is twofold: designing everything is in the Dutch nature, and it is also our common interest to create things that show people that infrastructure is not just an expensive affair, but that they are getting undeniable benefits for their money.

So this is not about activities of the past few decades, but a long-term concept?
There is an entire ministry in the government that deals with the system of waterways and transport infrastructure. Already in the 1950s, when the first highways began to emerge in the Netherlands, great attention was paid to the bridge system, road crossings, and the entire landscape along these linear constructions.

We can also expand the history of transport constructions to railways, where you had the opportunity to expand the main Amsterdam station by Cuyper from the late 19th century.
Here we carefully considered how the original station was built and how to incorporate the new section so that the expansion would not be perceived as a separately detached part, but rather that the proposal conveyed an integration and continuity with the original structure. The primary function, which is mobility, remains, but it has added various additional uses that did not exist before and contribute to the overall improvement of operations. Our main goal was for the new addition to adapt to the original and work well into the future.

Engineering constructions are not only meant to protect the landscape from natural influences but also to accelerate movement, increase competitiveness, and advance society as a whole.
The threat of rising water levels still looms over us, as in fifty years we could be underwater. The struggle with water is ever-present. The same applies to Dutch agriculture, which is highly efficient, as we use innovative solutions compared to other countries. Although our history is short, we are looking even more toward the future.

In the past two decades, extensive investments have been made in railway hubs, where train connections have reached standards comparable to air travel. Your office is behind more than half of these new central stations. Could you briefly describe this concept?
It was a government program introducing high-speed rail. They selected six most suitable stations that should be connected to these lines as soon as possible and precisely defined the program they should meet. Additionally, funds were allocated for connections to existing stations. From the beginning, it was anticipated that the high-speed hubs would be used very intensively, so it was essential to incorporate them into the urban structure to ensure the infrastructure did not disrupt the city's functioning. The government paid great attention to these six projects and also allocated an adequately increased budget. Our office was fortunate to be involved in four of these projects.

Your collaboration with the largest Dutch airport, Schiphol, began in the 1980s and continues to this day. How has the development of this segment of transportation changed over the past four decades?
Even before that, we designed seven border crossings on highways. Here, we first addressed the context of people traveling to and from the Netherlands. We got the Schiphol airport project after seven years of our existence, when our office had six architects and no significant experience with buildings longer than fifty meters. Nevertheless, we gained their trust and started working with the client on an overall plan that defined a vision far into the future. The master plan was flexible enough to respond to new demands, but throughout, we tried to stick to the main ideas of the plan so it would not need to be changed every four years with a new director. By creating an adaptive master plan, we avoided difficulties that can otherwise be seen all over the world.

Is this project for central stations part of a broader concept of car-free cities, alongside improvements in rail transport?
It is a natural evolution. Initially, people traveled around the city by car, then through public transportation, and now they are seeking out new technologies such as electric bikes or self-driving cars which use urban space in a far more efficient manner. Public transportation cannot satisfy all needs, so we must continually seek additional hybrid solutions. However, these central railway stations will continue to represent the main places where all of these various modes of transport intersect and will be able to adapt to all the changes that await us in the future.

Is it customary for architects to participate in transportation engineering projects in your country?
Not in the Netherlands; transportation constructions are designed by engineering firms. However, due to our collaboration with Schiphol airport, we often came into contact with these engineering companies, which at first were not very pleased, but gradually we established a position among them until they eventually invited us to collaborate on railway station projects.