Lecture of Rients Dijkstra, director of Maxwan Architects and Urbanists, Rotterdam, in the context of the lecture series "We built this city" at the Institute for Art and Architecture Summerterm 2009.

Rients studied architecture and urban design at Delft University, Faculty of Architecture, where he graduated with honors. He worked with architects Frits van Dongen (de ArchitectenCie) and Rem Koolhaas (OMA). In '93 Rients was invited to the role of urban design supervisor for Leidsche Rijn, a new town of 30'000 dwellings. This assignment kick-started Maxwan architects + urbanists.

Maxwan Architects and Urbanists
are based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. They are an international practice dedicated to contemporary architectural and urban design. Working on a broad variety of subjects, Maxwan have designed widely recognized projects such as the "Saw Tooth Tower (Nuilding)" in Rotterdam, the "Office Building F&I" (Maastricht Aachen Airport) and "50 Bridges" for the City of Utrecht. Maxwan have made a name for themselves internationally with innovative proposals for the new town of Leidsche Rijn (75'000 residents and a hidden highway), the 10'800 houses Master Plan for Barking Riverside, and most recently, the Master Plan A101 for a new city on the fringes of Moscow, and the building commission for 2000 houses in the Dnepr River Delta, Kiev Ukraine.