Today, the University of Cambridge and Rotterdam, Netherlands–based practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) announced that OMA partner Reinier de Graaf has been appointed the Cambridge department of architecture’s Sir Arthur Marshall Visiting Professor of Urban Design for 2018-19. He is succeeding British filmmaker Patrick Keiller and will begin his appointment on Oct. 1.
“Reinier is an eminent Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, and writer with an international reputation,” said François Penz, head of the department of architecture at Cambridge in a press release. “His recent built work includes the Timmerhuis, a mixed-use project in Rotterdam widely recognized for its innovation in ways of working and living, sustainability and cost efficiency; fashion brand G-Star Raw’s corporate and design headquarters in Amsterdam; and De Rotterdam, currently the largest building in the Netherlands.”
According to the same press release, de Graaf’s coursework The Asset Class “will focus on how buildings have become an indispensable vehicle for generating financial returns and the implications this has on architectural form and typology.” This theme is a continuation of the work de Graaf explored in his book Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession (Harvard University Press, 2017).
