Erick van Egeraat

Early career

Erick van Egeraat graduated from the Delft University of Technology, Department of Architecture. During his last year in the university, after winning the competition to design flexible youth housing at Kruisplein, Rotterdam he co-founded Mecanoo with Henk Döll, Francine Houben, Roelf Steenhuis and Chris de Weijer. The early years of Mecanoo were characterized by projects which challenged the norms of urban renewal and social housing. Notable projects include Housing Kruisplein, Rotterdam (1980-1985), Bilderberg Parkhotel, Rotterdam (1990-1992), House 13 at the IGA Stuttgart 1993 (1990-1993), Faculty of Economics and Management, Utrecht (1991-1995) and the Library at Delft University of Technology (1992-1998).

Later career

In 1995 Erick van Egeraat left Mecanoo and established his own company Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects (EEA) with offices in Rotterdam, London, Budapest, Prague and Moscow. A milestone project which expressed his new architectural approach was the Headquarters of ING Bank and NNH Insurance company in Budapest (1992-1994). In his own words, “It may be considered one of the first buildings to juxtapose an uncompromising modernism with intuitive organic shapes to achieve what might be called Modern Baroque”. The new vision found its articulation in a variety of projects, such as Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland (1996–2000), Pop-stage Mezz in Breda, the Netherlands (1996–2002), Mauritskade building in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1996–2002), City Hall in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands (1997–2002) and Visual Art Center in Middlesbrough, England (2007) for which the architect received the RIBA award.

This period was marked by a greater diversity of work, from product design (door handle Erick, 2008) to master-planning (Oosterdokseiland in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, (1998–2001) and increasing focus on Central and Eastern Europe where he built the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Warsaw, Poland (1999–2004), ING Group Headquarters in Budapest, Hungary (1999–2004), Hotel Kempinski in Bratislava, Slovakia (2004–2008) and other projects. Erick van Egeraat was particularly interested to work in historical context, as shown in his projects of Liget Center (2000–2002) and Deak Palace (2003–2004) in Budapest, Hungary as well as master-plan of New Holland Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia (competition 2006). Working with historical buildings or in historical ambience, he aimed for “continuity and memory rather than rupture and rejection”.

In 2000s Erick van Egeraat started to work actively in Russia. The thrill of work in a new architectural environment made him design his "most spectacular, pure architecture project" Russian Avant-Garde in Moscow (2001) which made him "one of the most flamboyant architects in the Netherlands", according to the critics. Russian Avant-Garde and Federation Island in Sochi (2007) caused a stir and started a public discourse, but did not reach the stage of realization. The others were successfully built, among them: Capital City in Moscow (2002–2010) and Trade and Entertainment Center Vershina in Surgut (2005–2010).

In 2009 Erick van Egeraat restructured his company into (designed by) Erick van Egeraat with offices in Rotterdam, Moscow, Budapest and Prague. Despite the Great Recession, his focus on complexity and quality steadily grew. In Europe he completed the projects of Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands (2008–2011), Incineration Line in Roskilde, Denmark (2008–2013), Main building and Auditorium in Leipzig University, Germany (2004–2015) and Erasmus University College in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2012–2014). In Russia he built Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk (2008–2010), Corporate University of Sberbank in Moscow region (2010–2013) and completed Mercury City Tower in Moscow (2011–2013). His interest in working in historical context is manifest in his high-profile design of the new Dynamo stadium (winner of the competition, 2010) and master-planning, design and consultancy works for development of the territory of the former Red October chocolate factory (since 2007).

Portfolio of Erick van Egeraat includes over 100 projects in more than 10 countries, including the Saudi Arabia where he created the master-plan for the city center of Unaizah (2014).