Bureau B+B Urbanism and Landscape Architecture

Bureau B+B has been around for more than 40 years. In The Netherlands it is righteously considered a cradle of successful landscape architects. Despite the vast portfolio and the inseparable heritage of B+B, the editors of Landezine were convinced and impressed by the latest projects that were designed by a team of young designers.

We recognize the work of Bureau B+B, mainly for their ability of combining innovative engineering approaches with context based design. They master a diverse span of attitudes; from being subtle and quiet, to making radical changes, or being playful. B+B’s recent designs reflect all the needed skills for handling complex tasks; from a busy urban train station to residential landscapes fit for the future, to wetlands.

But it is the work that tackles heritage sites that really separates B+B from an already remarkable crowd of Dutch landscape architects. The precision that is found in Tempel and Nieuw Rhodenrijs Estates or the conceptual clarity of the LILA 2019 winning project Objets Trouvés reflects the ability to untangle time-related complexities, to curate and to offer new, meaningful experiences.

The project Objets Trouvés convinces with outstanding artistic quality and visible historical awareness. Moving the bunker from its ancestral place and letting it re-appear in a new one is both astonishing and effective. This blunt dislocation, which first reacts to infrastructural requirements and finally turns the bunker into a ready-made, creates a whole new quality of visual perception. It is in this aesthetic space of resonance, where contemporary infrastructure development ultimately becomes conceivable as a possible instalment of the European warfare history. Consequently, the actual traces of history are kept visible with a genuine purpose – although this required such an action as moving a bunker. As a bold and even radical gesture, the project inscribes itself in the infusible tension between past, present, and future on the one hand, and between absence and presence on the other. In doing so, it formulates a notable reference point for the contemporary discipline of landscape architecture as an artistically informed cultural practice.

The spatial brief for Veghels Buiten consists of the phased realization of 2,000 residential units with extra facilities. Bureau B+B’s master plan is an organic-growth model based on slow development in accordance with need. The designers interpret the location as ‘Brabant en miniature’; in the course of the twentieth century various attempts to achieve a […]

In the 1990s, renewed attention was focussed on city centres – a welcome development after decades in which attention had been concentrated on designing urban expansion areas and rehabilitating nineteenth-century urban districts. Bureau B+B had itself set the new trend with the ‘De Kern Gezond’ project for the city centre of The Hague. In the […]

The next significant step towards a greener city center of Alkmaar has been taken with the transformation of de Laat. In 2020, Bureau B+B launched a strategy for the greening of the historic inner city center of Alkmaar. Besides a future perspective on the historic Bolwerkparks and greening the many shopping streets, Bureau B+B worked […]

The next significant step towards a greener city center of Alkmaar has been taken with the transformation of de Laat. In 2020, Bureau B+B launched a strategy for the greening of the historic inner city center of Alkmaar. Besides a future perspective on the historic Bolwerkparks (old defence bastions) and greening the many shopping streets […]

Hannah Schubert studied Town Planning a the University of Amsterdam and the Humboldt University in Berlin. After her Bachelor, she conducted a research master in Metropolitan Studies, both at the University of Amsterdam as well as the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Upon her return to the Netherlands, she started working as an editor at […]

You are invited for a tour of one of Rotterdam’s most hidden green oases; the estates Tempel and Nieuw Rhodenrijs. The two publicly accessible estates have a rich history dating back to the fifteenth century. From the beheaded statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt to the Russian KGB have taken refuge on the estates. The estates are […]

Lieven is an urban campus in the West of Amsterdam with housing for starters and students as well as a café, laundry bar and a gym. Bureau B+B was responsible for the design of the public spaces, roof- and courtyards and communal gardens with wadi’s for sustainable urban water management. Located between a metro station […]

The NIKE EMEA headquarters campus, located in the heart of the Arena business park in Hilversum, is being transformed into a work and experience campus for NIKE athletes (employees) and visitors alike. The public space plays a crucial role in this. Inspired by the rich nature of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the campus is being developed […]

Previous state and challenge – Disconnected neighborhood Utrecht is the fourth-largest and fastest-growing city in the Netherlands. The most important development location for the city is Leidsche Rijn, but it is separated from the historic city centre by the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. To make this new area attractive to current and future inhabitants, a fast and […]

Arnhems Central Station is a dynamic hub for trains, trolleys, cars, pedestrians and bike riders. UNStudio was responsible for the buildings and the master plan. Bureau B+B designed the public space: An urban landscape for encounter and interaction. Next Generation Station The new station in Arnhem is one of a new generation of completely new […]

The Mariahilfer Strasse is a fancy, nineteenth century shopping boulevard in Vienna. In the last decades it became very heavy with traffic. The City of Vienna decided to transform the street into an inviting, pedestrian friendly avenue. Mobility Transition Historically traffic in cities has always been diverse: streets had mixed uses and people moved around […]