As the new year roars its ambitions, it is time to see what 2023 has brought us and what we learned from it. We met so many people and had inspiring conversations, we visited many places and projects that appealed to our imagination. To pick a few highlights of the year is difficult, but let’s give it a try.

FEBRUARY > The BIG 5 Saudi showed a great variety of companies on the floor, and boasted an optimistic atmosphere: the shared ambition of the people present in Riyadh was tangible. Gensler hosted good talks about sustainable architecture. Visiting Dammam to see the Raqtan HQ with a beautiful Metadecor façade (completed in 2019) was another highlight: the people in the building are happy and the architecture of the building is ‘out of this world’: as if a space ship has landed in this industrial area in the desert.

JULY > Copenhagen hosted the AIU Congress and both the city and the congress gave a lot of food for thought. Saving this planet by architecture is a joint effort and is not only to be done by architects. The building industry needs to unite, share knowledge and move forward towards circularity, energy efficiency and inclusivity.

Saving this planet by architecture is a joint effort and the building industry needs to unite

AUGUST > The summer brought us to Abu Dhabi, where we built a prototype for sun shading in the desert. What kind of prototype? Our NDA will be lifted early 2024, so that is the moment we will tell you all about it. What we can tell you, is that our partners are Masdar City, Arup and Airshade Technologies. The prototype is going through a testing period and shows promising results. More news to come soon.

OCTOBER > In October we ‘conquered’ Chicago and New York. And learned a lot. In Chicago we were told about (thousands of dead) birds with glossy facades being the serial killers. We learned about ‘Metal Guys’: specialists that are called by architects if they want to make a metal facade. In New York we heard about Green Zones around buildings to give space for retrofitting facades. We now want to be your Metal Guy and use that Green Zone to make beautiful, sun shading facades on existing buildings. Like we did on Madison Avenue, for the Christian Louboutin shop – the architects of which we visited (thank you Eric and Eun Sun of 212box architects ).

We want to be your Metal Guy and use that Green Zone to make beautiful, sun shading facades on existing buildings

DECEMBER > Another BIG 5 was on our agenda, this time Dubai: a rollercoaster trade show. During the sub-event Everything Architecture (which we sponsored) we presented the lecture SUN:KISS – low tech façade solutions for healthier cities. Afterwards we had interesting discussions with local designers about creating functional architecture while enhancing the aesthetics of a building. We’d like to thank our audience in Dubai, for the great feedback and conversations.

2024 > With projects in Ireland, Germany, France, Croatia and Belgium, our international focus seems to be on Europe, but that is not the full picture. We are collaborating with international teams on projects in the Middle East, Asia, the US and the Caribbean. But as you all know, processes in the building industry take their time (with short episodes in a pressure cooker). We’ll keep you posted!