Interview
It is ten minutes by bus from the main station in Rotterdam to the Van Nelle Factory northwest of downtown. Built in 1931 according to plans drawn up by Jan Brinkman and Leen van der Vlugt, it is regarded as the icon of Dutch Modernism. In days gone by tea was transferred here from large into small packets, coffee was roasted and tobacco processed. Following its renovation three years ago graphic artists, film producers, musicians, architects, and lawyers moved in. In a hall opposite the impressive factory, where previously technicians serviced the machinery, there are today three long desks. One with PCs and telephones, one with blocks of Styrodur and cutting mats, and one with a tray full of marmalade, cocoa and Hagelslag, the famous Dutch sugar sprinkles. For the interview we have sat down with André Kempe and Oliver Thill in a small compartment separated from the hall by a glass wall – as if made just for the office management.
It doesn’t really look as if we are sitting in the boss’s office here. It would be perfectly suitable though.
André Kempe:
The employees and ourselves all sit at one desk. This way everyone is aware of what
is going on. The non-stop talking can be a bit annoying, but the employees are also
always well informed, for example, if someone has to step in to help with another
project. That doesn’t mean there is no form of hierarchy. It doesn’t have to manifest
itself in separate rooms though.
Oliver Thill:
The boss sitting in his own office is a very German concept.
But you are both originally from Germany. In many cases you are referred to as an “ethnic German studio”, in others as the “studio of the architects from former East Germany”. Others again regard you as “the Saxons enjoying success in Holland”. How do you see yourselves?
André Kempe:
We’re a Dutch studio that is an integral part of the Dutch architecture scene. It has
two German directors, we have German passports.
Do you work like a German company?
Prolonged loud laughter
Why do you find the question so amusing?
André Kempe:
We have never actually worked in German companies. As such we don’t know how
they function. But we are very German in our roots, perhaps even more German than
the Germans. We are like those Turkish women who don’t wear a headscarf in Istanbul
but of course do here. We have become more German here than we ever would
have been back home.
To what extent does that influence your architecture?
André Kempe:
Like artists, in order to be authentic as an architect you really need to get right down
to your inner being. In the European competition we suddenly realized that our
approach to work was extremely structural and classicist. We discovered the Mies van
der Rohe in us.
Why did you go to the Netherlands when you had completed your studies?
Oliver Thill:
Back then anyone who had studied in eastern Germany normally went to the west
to work. I didn’t want to be pressed into the east-west scheme of things. The Netherlands
and Switzerland seemed more neutral.
André Kempe:
The Netherlands are a country that is enriched by other cultures. As a German architect
you are welcome here. The Dutch know exactly what we Germans can contribute
here: Mercedes quality, punctuality, orderliness. And they are favorably disposed to
eastern Germany.
Oliver Thill:
The Netherlands has just as many inhabitants as the former East Germany. A smallcountry
culture is dominant here. In East Germany it was Communism, which flattened
hierarchies, in the Netherlands it is Calvinism.
