Academie van Bouwkunst

Meet the graduates! This year, a new cohort of designers has completed their studies at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. They have worked on inspiring projects in Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Architecture, which will be showcased during our annual Graduation Week in October (more details about that soon!)

For now, we are excited to introduce you to the first 10 graduates of the Class of 2026:

1 - Mag het licht uit? by Anne van Hamburg, Landscape Architecture
2 - Tussen hemel en aarde by Babs Hofland, Architecture
3 - Event Bieb Haarlem by Dion Buijn, Architecture
4 - Swadeshi Exchange by Henry Holmes, Architecture
5 - Ambalema’s Art Haven by Henry Pulido Garzon, Architecture
6 - The Battle of Sea and Land by Isabel Huis in ‘t Veld, Landscape Architecture
7 - Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Jeffrey van der Sluijs, Landscape Architecture
8 - The encounter by Lesley Thoen, Landscape Architecture
9 - Het woonerf van de toekomst by Liselot Buurman, Urbanism
10 - BAZM O BAZAR by Nigora Atta, Architecture

Read more about the projects via our website.

A trip to Ilperveld with a group of second-year landscape architecture students for the O4b last month!

During the course, students investigate the natural systems, ecological qualities and biodiversity of landscapes in and around Amsterdam. Through field excursions into the city’s green wedges, they document plant and animal species, analyse ecological potential, and explore how landscape interventions can improve urban biodiversity.

The O4b is coordinated by Rob van Dijk, a landscape architect at Dijk&co and an alumnus of the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, and Koen Wonders, an ecologist working for the City of Amsterdam as a city ecologist.

.emmerik

Looking over the Fence: Void is Not Empty* is a traveling exhibition presenting nine speculative student projects from de Amsterdam Academy of Architecture investigating urban voids from Amsterdam to Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin and around the world, where collective urban futures are negotiated and reimagined. 

After the exhibition at Arcam last month, the work will be moved to AHK Culture CluB! Join us for the opening night on Thursday 21 May. More info and (free) tickets via the website/link in bio.

Our interdisciplinary research group Climate, Space and Politics is now complete and will start its research at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. In October 2025, Hans Teerds presented his inaugural lecture On Things and Beings. In February 2026, Soscha Monteiro and Elise van Herwaarden joined the research group. In the coming years, they will be delving into how spatial design can contribute to the necessary transition of the built and unbuilt environment.

Read more about the research group via our website.

For years, the reuse of materials has been rising steadily on the agenda of sustainable urban development, including in Brussels, where Rotor has been an influential pioneer. From high-quality natural stone to intact sanitary elements, salvaging materials from demolition sites is clearly valuable. Yet the urgency is increasing: more is needed than cherry-picking. After all, the majority of embodied carbon lies not in finishing materials, but in a building’s concrete structure.

If we want to achieve a systemic impact on reducing CO₂ emissions in the construction sector, we must look beyond the icing on the cake and address the cake itself. Scaling up the transition in how we build is therefore essential.

Join us for the 1.Lecture on Thursday 7 May with Kristiaan Borret. We start at 20.00 hrs, hope to see you there! More information and tickets via Arcam.

On Friday 10 July, we host our annual Midsummer Night to mark the end of our academic year. We are excited to announce that Alison Killing is the keynote speaker for our Midsummer Night Lecture. 

Alison Killing is an architect and senior reporter on the visual investigations team, an interdisciplinary group of journalists harnessing open source techniques, computational tools and traditional reporting to break stories in visual formats. Before joining the FT, Alison worked with BuzzFeed News, the BBC and Lighthouse Reports. In 2021 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting together with two colleagues for an investigation that uncovered a secret network of prison camps in Xinjiang, China for the mass detention of Muslims.

Would you like to enrol in our master’s programme next year? And do you have any last-minute questions about the application and admission procedure? Join us for the online Q&A session on Thursday 16 April at 16.00 hrs via Teams.

Email [email protected] to register and we will send you the link to participate.

On Thursday 7 May, we welcome Kristiaan Borret for a 1.Lecture at the Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam on the shift of reuse in construction: from pioneering practices to a mainstream approach. Drawing on experiences from Brussels, he will show how reuse—ranging from materials to entire structures—can be scaled up and make a significant contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions in the construction sector.

The 1.Lecture series is a collaboration between Arcam Architectuurcentrum Amsterdam and the Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam 

📅 Thursday 7 May 2026
🕗 19.50 doors | 20.00 start
📍 Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam
🎟️ €9 | Free for students & staff of the Academie van Bouwkunst (registration needed) 
🗣️ Lecture in English

More information and tickets via