Landscape architect Sven Stremke has been appointed professor of Landscape Architecture at the Academy of Architecture and will lead the research group ‘High-density energy landscapes’. He has been appointed for a period of four years. His research focuses on the development of sustainable energy landscapes with special attention for the roles of design and the designer in energy transition. In February, Sven Stremke will begin a series of lectures on this topic.

The appearance and spatial organisation of our future urban and rural landscape will be greatly influenced by the generation, transport and storage of renewable energy. Designers, planners and engineers play an important role in the reintegration of renewable energy in our living environment in a socially fair, environmentally friendly and economically feasible way. Sven Stremke (1976) is an expert in this field of research. His research at the Academy will focus on high-density energy landscapes and the implementation of sustainable energy transition in the densely populated deltas. He is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Wageningen University (WUR) and co-founder of the NRGlab – a laboratory focused on the investigation and design of sustainable energy landscapes (www.NRGlab.net).

In addition to research, Sven Stremke will also be involved in education. On Wednesday 8 February, he will kick off the first lecture series Ontwerpen met energie (Designing with energy), which he will be organising. At the beginning of the new academic year, Stremke will deliver his inaugural lecture.

Research groups
With the appointment of Sven Stremke, the Academy now has three research groups, one for each of the Master’s study programmes in Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Architecture. Floris Alkemade has been professor of Architecture since 2014. Sven Stremke is the successor of Han Wiskerke and Thomas Oles. Eric Frijters and Marco Broekman have headed the Urbanism research group since 2013. These research groups provide an important impetus to the interaction between the ‘state of the art’ in art and design practice on the one hand and teaching and research at the Academy of Architecture on the other hand. This ties in with the ambition of the Amsterdam University of the Arts to offer high-quality education at Master’s level in each discipline.