Noël van Dooren

All the Best. Five and a half years at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam

From the Introduction:

"More than five years at the Academy; they have flown by! At the end of this period, there is the obvious wish for an overview. The Academy is in a way small theatre that stages performances at a high speed. They are often good, there are the occasional failures and sometimes something really out of the ordinary happens in which case, we are proud of these projects but do not always know how they came about. Why the one studio is very good and the other only average is sometimes difficult to explain. As I am a reflective landscape architect, I thought it relevant to show some of the remarkable moments I experienced. I hope to put my finger on what gives rise to the 'out of the ordinary'. This little book presents 21 projects, people, moments. My choice is partly arbitrary, as I could have chosen other very special projects. At the same time this choice is quite exact, as it is determined by whether I have something to say about the didactic or organisational aspects, and whether this contributes to understanding the Academy. The space available to me in this book is not nearly enough."

Concept and text: Noël van Dooren
Advice: Machiel Spaan, Yvonne de Nood and Marina Roosebeek

© 2009 Amsterdam Academy of Architecture