Within a newly created part of the city of Amsterdam, IJburg, the Water Sport Club IJburg (WVIJ) was granted rights to build facilities and meeting spaces on a small parcel of land adjacent to its yacht harbor and the Markermeer lake (former Zuider Zee).

The architects held extensive workshops with the end users throughout the design process. The most important finding was that members value social contact while doing small maintenance jobs on their boats. The principle of a simple wharf building with a maximum of multi-purpose space became the guiding principle for the design.

The building establishes a strong connection between the intimate water of the harbor and the greater Markermeer lake to the North. On each level of the building one experiences a specific spatial relationship with one or both of the two waters. The ground floor is strongly connected to the harbour, from the first floor there is a uninterrupted view to both waters, and from the second floor there is a fantastic view towards the Markermeer in the distance.

The choice of wood as the primary construction material differentiates the building from its surroundings. Nine meter larch columns refer back to the tall ships’ masts in the adjacent harbor.

The rhythm of the seasons largely dictates the programmatic requirements of the clubhouse. A water sport club is by definition less active in the cold, winter months and requires less space. In contrast, during the warmer months, a bigger building is needed to accommodate more activities. The “volume inside a volume" strategy differentiates fully insulated/climatized spaces with specific programmatic designations and larger more flexible half-climate spaces behind single glazing. This strategy has two important advantages. Firstly, it provides a buffer of air space which surrounds and thus insulates the fully climatized spaces. It is therefore extremely energy efficient. Even more significant, the “volume inside a volume” strategy allows the water sport club to realize a maximum of usable space within a limited budget, because half-climate spaces are substantially cheaper to build. The building was realized in spite of an extremely tight construction budget.

The outer single glazed volume is a simple wooden construction consisting of seven laminated Larch portal frames. All larch used in the building was locally sourced. Larch corner columns combined with steel roof beams are utilized at the end facades to create maximum openings. The nine-meter-high structural elements also serve as window frames for large single glazed panels, to achieve a minimum detail solution. The 2,5 meter roof span is achieved with 8cm. thick panels of cross laminated timber.

Within this enclosure is a contrasting volume also constructed entirely from wood. The relationship between this freestanding interior volume and the larger, transparent enclosure creates a series of interesting spaces, each with its specific atmosphere and character. The upper floor meeting room is literally hung from 70cm. high laminated wooden beams, by means of minimal steel hangers to achieve a completely freestanding interior volume.

The large ground floor half-climate spaces are flexible in terms of program and can be used to support a wide range of activities from boat-building to maintenance of racing boats for teenagers to large scale celebrations.

The design allows for a constant flow of activity between the building and the larger land parcel to the south by means of a series of sliding doors along the south façade and two oversize sliding doors at both ends of the building. The full-height (nine meter) sliding doors at the end facades are made from the same laminated larch as the outer enclosure. They provide large openings which facilitate repair and storage of the club's own sailboats. They also serve as emergency doors and open automatically in the case of a fire.

Arverne, on the Rockaway peninsula, close to J.F. Kennedy airport, is the last substantial open parcel of New York City owned property to be developed. Forty years of vacancy have returned it to an almost rural condition. The City of New York, Department of Housing Preservation and Development together with the Architecture Leaugue of New York City invited five teams to research alternative strategies for Arverne´s future re-development.

Over the past fifteen years virtually all of the vacant lots within New York City´s outer boroughs, abandoned during the fiscal crises of the nineteen eighties, have been re-developed as sites for low-cost private housing. Although the properties are City-owned, responsibility for their redevelopment is given over to private developers in exchange for nominal sums. Recognizing that such a strategy of piecemeal development, which thrives off an existing urban fabric cannot be considered viable for Arverne´s hundreds of barren acres, New York City asked four design teams to imagine a more comprehensive strategy for sustainable development in the future.

The project proposes a minimum series of interventions to allow Arverne to sustain the required density of housing without sacrificing its newly earned status as landscape. Derelict streets and pavement not directly serving housing or essential services are left to further decay. A new system of soft roads combined with swell ponds is established allow the development of an inhabited buffer zone with ultra low-density housing.

Alleviating the demands of the house upon its surroundings also substantially reduces the negative environmental impact so that distinctions between programmatic definitions such as housing, park, recreation and nature sanctuary become less obligatory and, indeed less obvious.

Once relieved of its classically urban obligations, one also becomes free to rethink Arverne's future as an economic entity. New loyalties, dependencies and opportunities can be explored. No longer a peripheral urban area of New York City, subject to neglect, Arverne can be envisioned as part of a ring of communities encircling Jamaica Bay. No longer a distant and forgotten quarter of a far away center, but, for instance a respectable adjunct of Kennedy Airport, Arverne's future growth prospects realistically and exponentially expand.

Two seemingly contradictory forces gear a renewed occupation: the rapid expansion of the city’s largest airport on the one hand, and the steady assertiveness of a re-surfacing oceanfront ecosystem on the other.

The inhabitants wanted to close off an outdoor corridor to achieve more privacy in their home.

A careful study of Islamic patterns provided the basis for the design. The chosen pattern was abstracted and scaled.

The doors begin solid at the bottom and gradually become open at the top where the full screen pattern is revealed. Corten steel plates are folded and laser cut according to computer drawings.

Five young debuting architects, including Floor Moormann, have been selected from the participants of Archiprix 1998. These young architects have each individually designed city houses for the Vaandelstraat in Delft in a workshop setting, led by Fons Verheijen, supervisor of the Doelen area.

The part of the Vaandelstraat that was designed by Floor Moormann concerns 6 "Delft urban villa’s". The houses are designed in such a way that the full depth of 12 m. can be experienced. The stairs are concentrated on one long wall, and separated from the living spaces by means of a large glass wall, which makes the full width of 4.7 m visible everywhere. This creates large, elongated living spaces, which offer a view in both directions, the park and the garden. In some places there is interaction between living space and stairs due to the folding of the glass wall. This glass wall is present over the entire height of the buildings. In addition to visual separation, this also ensures fire safety and sound insulation between the room. The glass wall consists of partly clear and partly frosted glass, where privacy is required. A fantastic light house is created in this way with surprising light from outside, but also the interior light in the house itself surprises. At night, the light falls into the stairwell through the frosted glass.

The urban villa consists of 5 floors (incl. parking garage) with a width of 4.7 m and a depth of 12 m. Each house has a garden of 4.7 m by 8 m. The houses contain living space over 2 floors with a vide, two or three bedrooms, a patio with outdoor shower, bathroom, parking space and storage space in the basement.

Two types of urban villa’s have been developed, namely one with and one without practice-/work space on the ground floor. A practice-/work space on the ground floor to guarantee the liveliness in the street. The final sale of the properties has determined the definitive implementation of the types.

Initially, only 3 urban villa’s would be built, but because the sale of these homes was so successful, it was decided to have the villa’s returned twice in the Vaandelstraat, which means that there are now 6 “Delft urban villa’s” in Vaandelstraat.