Space&matter is an Amsterdam based architecture and planning office with an ambition to add relevance to spatial design.

As architecture and planning touch on all social and cultural levels of society, we think our responsibility embodies more than the mere design of space. With an open mind we look beyond the conventional scope of our discipline to find and create cross-links between physical space and sociocultural processes. Not the design itself but its effect on these processes is our main objective.

With our backgrounds in urbanism, architecture, research, social media and Building Information Modeling (BIM), our team has a wide angled view on the world and a strong set of skills that backs up our creative thinking. The diversity of our experiences, results in a holistic approach that encompasses all relevant levels of scale. It leads up to a cross-medial output, that ranges from performances and thoughts in texts, to interiors, buildings and urban-strategies.

Our keen interest in contemporary culture is the common denominator in our office. It keeps us well connected to the ‘now’ and the ‘then’, and enables us to come up with adequate and effective solutions for present-day as well as future problems

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Presentation: Embedding end users in an open design process affects the perception of urban space physically as well as mentally.

Reconnect supply and demand since supply has alienated from its users. Re-establishing this valuable connection is essential for future developments. The end user needs to be at the beginning of the design/development chain and interact, participate and co-evolve with the design. The resulting customized product adds value and establishes a durable relation among owners (software) and between owner and building (hardware). This user-centred development is as logic as it is simple, but how to prevent the time consuming intense design dialogue to overrun budgets?

Social potential

Open up the development and design process and start to interact, co-create and optimise results. The internet exposes user profiles; knowing your customer has never been easier. The increase of mobility and internet usage has detached the social networks from it’s geographical location, but hasn’t made it less intense. On the contrary; social interaction is intensifying by means of new media and technology. The social interaction describes more than just individual behaviour, the internet exposes group behaviour. The social clusters on the internet are of great value when interpreting them as social communities. On the basis of a cluster of individuals a collective design process is initiated. New media enables us to interact effectively with a large number of individuals in translating a common goal.

Open process

The existing communication platforms are a good basis for information exchange. Opening up the design process is fundamental in the organisation/translation of the collective/individual demands. Aspects such as self-organization, collective intelligence and social coherence emerge within the cluster of individuals when interacting in the design process. The interrelational aspect of the design interaction is vital in comparison to a oneway extraction of information. The necessary dialogue shares insights in order to understand consequences of decisions. Apealing and accesible methods of interaction are being developed in order to maximise user input while maintaining efficiency in the progress of the design development.

Better cities

Believing that social cohesion will be stronger as an effect of neighbours exchanging and interacting before the physical construction has started. This reinforced mental state has a large effect on the experience of the urban conditions. In this approach it’s not merely the architects effort in defining the physical, moreover it’s the positive effects in defining the non-physical. The programm of an innnercity block exists of working, living, day care, cafe, small theatre or even a shared guest house. The hybrid programm is a city in itself with broad support and appreciation of its users.