When Dutch architect and urban planner Nathalie de Vries was appointed in 2021 as city architect of Groningen, the largest city in the north of the Netherlands, her first order of business was not to hold press conferences or grant television interviews to major media networks.

Instead, she hopped on her bicycle for a city tour.

Armed with a notebook in her backpack, she explored the city’s neighbourhoods on bike and foot, stopping to talk to Groningers to get a feel of the pulse of the city.

A trading city since the 13th century, Groningen is today a bustling university town with about half of its more than 200,000 citizens aged under 35, according to the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

“As city architect, I like to keep an eye on the broad outlines of Groningen’s development and to help realise the ambitious plans that the city has to improve its quality of life,” says Professor de Vries, 57, who is a founding partner at Dutch architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV as well as professor of architectural design at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology.

She is recognised as a master builder in the Netherlands, with a deep understanding of both architecture and urban development.

As city architect, she guides Groningen’s major housing projects in the right direction and at the same time provides insights into city planning such as neighbourhood renewal and reimagining the city centre.

At the crux of her design, construction and research into public buildings and community spaces is the notion of “Multiplicity in Design”.

The concept allows her team at MVRDV to create urban systems that rely on sustainable materials, are sensitive to the changing needs of the community, and which can be easily reconfigured to reduce the carbon footprint of the building industry.

Prof de Vries will be speaking here at the third Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Design Innovation Forum in partnership with The Straits Times on May 26.

This year’s forum trains the spotlight on sustainably innovative design from local as well as global perspectives. It will feature a panel of experts from various fields such as architecture, consumer goods and education.

The work of institutes of higher learning such as SUTD is another pillar in efforts towards net-zero carbon emissions in the building sector.

Prof de Vries says that by intensively connecting students through commissions and internships to companies, SUTD integrates them into society, so they can gain valuable experiences as well as contribute to real-world problem-solving.

“Singapore is a powerful example of smart urbanisation,” she observes.

“The Singaporean practice of creating affordable housing is of interest to the whole world, such as Kampung Admiralty, which mixes functions, greenery, and provides comprehensive healthcare for the elderly in a high-density, mixed-use housing complex.”

Building and construction accounts for 39 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, the leading environmental authority in the world.

It is a sobering statistic that every country on the planet is trying to address through green initiatives such as reducing carbon-intensive construction and moving away from fossil fuels to power buildings with cleaner sources such as solar and wind energy.

In Singapore, the Government aims to make green 80 per cent of buildings by gross floor area by 2030. As at end-2022, close to 55 per cent of buildings here have been greened, according to the Building and Construction Authority.

Prof de Vries says that she coined the term Multiplicity in Design to address the growing need around the world for buildings to be more productive than ever in human history.

The old approach to architecture for a building to have form, function and a firm foundation as identified by Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius in first century BC is no longer sufficient, she says.

“We work together with our clients to make buildings as inclusive as possible,” says Prof de Vries. Using the Multiplicity in Design approach, MVRDV is developing new typologies and construction methods based on investigative design.

“We want to create a new approach to architecture and urbanism in order to create buildings that support an unknown, yet limitless, future,” she says.

Prof de Vries points to a recent example in 2021, when the company’s in-house digital technologies division, MVRDV Next, developed CarbonScape, a design tool that forecasts embodied carbon emissions from the earliest design stages of a project.

Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions arising from the manufacture, transportation, installation, maintenance and disposal of building materials.

It is often mentioned together with operational carbon, the carbon emissions that arise from a building’s energy consumption.

Existing assessment tools calculate the carbon footprint at the end of the design process, says Prof de Vries, when it is often too late to make changes or steer the design away from a carbon-intensive end product.

MVRDV’s CarbonScape makes designing with embodied carbon easy, accessible and understandable in three simple steps.

First, an inventory of the building is made, showing walls, floors and windows so that an accurate picture can be drawn up. Then the most sustainable materials are matched to the project.

Finally, the results are visualised on a dashboard. To discover potential reduction areas, the model is further broken down into various levels. The data is displayed in a bar graph that shows designers the range of expected carbon emissions. Using this information, designers explore sustainable alternatives.

“By using CarbonScape, MVRDV designers can make more informed design decisions so that they can reduce emissions from day one of the design process,” says Prof De Vries.

“Innovations like these will help bring about the many-splendoured city of tomorrow, where architects and urban planners create liveable as well as lovable, future-proof cities.”

For cities to be future-proof, there has to be a range of experiences not just for apartment dwellers and office workers but also for pedestrians.

Prof de Vries cites a 2014 project MVRDV worked on that focuses on celebrating public spaces in a novel way.

The Markthal in Rotterdam, a 95,000 sq m sustainably designed mixed-use complex, features privately developed apartments in a massive arched structure, under which a sort of covered town square is created for public use.

During the day, the square hosts a bustling central market hall, with more than 90 fresh food stalls and shop units that house Rotterdam-based businesses and market vendors.

In the evenings, a lively series of restaurants in its lower levels spring up, allowing visitors to park their cars and enjoy shopping, eating and pubbing.

“We reimagined the concept of the market square as a covered piazza within a private development that also attracts non-residents,” says Prof de Vries, adding that the Markthal is also designed to be energy-efficient.

“The top priority for 2023 and beyond is to be in control of the amount of carbon emissions in all projects,” she adds.

“The building industry must transform from being a major pollutant to contributing solutions for the mitigation of climate change and the creation of more healthy living spaces throughout the city.”

About Professor Nathalie de Vries

Dutch architect and urban planner Nathalie de Vries, 57, co-founded multi-award winning Dutch architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV in 1993 together with fellow architects Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs.

MVRDV, which is an acronym of the initials of the founders’ surnames, is based in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Paris, Berlin and New York. It has a global scope, providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues in all regions of the world.

In January 2023, Professor de Vries was inducted into the Forbes 50 Over 50 list of leading women in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for her award-winning designs that focus on sustainability and innovation.

Prof de Vries is also an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects and an international fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Together with MVRDV, Prof de Vries has won various awards for both individual buildings and her entire oeuvre, such as the Amsterdam Prize in 2017, the Architizer A+ Award (2018, Firm of the Year) and Best Commercial Building Award for Baltyk Building in Poznan, Poland, by Architektura-murator magazine (2020).

Some of her ground-breaking architecture projects include the Concordia Design Wrocław (2020), a co-working office in Poland featuring lively public functions on the first floor and a reimagined roof terrace with easy access for the community.

She also designed the Spijkenisse Book Mountain in 2012, a public library in Rotterdam designed to look like a “mountain of books”.

In 2003, she completed the Silodam, a mixed-use housing complex located in Oude Houthaven in the Netherlands built on a former breakwater.

SUTD Design Innovation Forum 2023

Register to attend the Design Innovation Forum by the Singapore University of Technology and Design, in partnership with The Straits Times.

Registration is free and closes on May 21, 2023. Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

When: Fri, May 26, 3pm to 5.30pm
Where: SUTD Auditorium, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372
Keynote Speakers/Panellists:

• Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies
• Professor Chong Tow Chong, president of SUTD
• Professor Nathalie de Vries, founding partner of MVRDV
• Ms Roxanne Ong, global head of strategy, innovations and education, Digital Transformation Office, Shiseido
• Moderator: Professor Tai Lee Siang, head of Pillar (Architecture and Sustainable Design), centre director (DesignZ) and programme director (Design and Artificial Intelligence), SUTD

To register and find out more, go to str.sg/SUTDforum23.