Since the beginning of 2018, Emiel Lamers has guided 25 groups in Amsterdam, Almere, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Lille, Basel, Ljubljana, Budapest and even Japan. This year, his groups have varied from 2 to 44 people and have lasted anywhere from one hour to three weeks. Since Lamers started guiding tours in 2005, he has led 175 groups and a total of more than 3,000 people!
At the end of 2017, ELA was asked to redesign an apartment designed by Theo Bosch in 1992. In the original floor plan, one entered a long narrow L-shaped corridor before entering the living room. In the new design, this corridor was added to the bathroom, almost doubling it in size. Two smaller rooms have been combined into one large master bedroom. In the new floorplan, there is a small entrance hall, and then one enters into the new kitchen and spacious living room. Construction has been carefully carried out by the Arie Ligtvoet construction company.
From Mai 11 to 14, Emiel Lamers organized a study trip for 15 French architects, mainly from the department of the Drôme. After visiting Rotterdam during two days, were we got the possibility to see two exclusive apartments in the Markthal (MVRDV) and in Rem Koolhaas' Timmerhuis (OMA), we visited the city of Antwerpen. There we've met two Belgium architects, Johan Bosschem from SAR architecten and Niklaas Deboutte from Meta architectuurbureau. On the last day, we've got an extensive tour in the MAS museum (Neutelings-Riedijk Architects) and entered the glass atrium of Zaha Hadid's amazing Harbour house.
Despite the cold and windy days of February and March, many international visitors still come to Amsterdam and Rotterdam to admire contemporary architecture. On Valentine’s Day, Lamers guided 15 French students from Clermont-Ferrand through Amsterdam. One week later, during an impressive storm, he showed Rotterdam’s new architecture to two doctors from Germany and Switzerland. On Saturday, March 18th, a Belgian family (with their baby!) toured contemporary Amsterdam. And finally, on Thursday, March 23rd, ten colleagues from HIQ consulting from France booked a boat trip to see the new parts of Amsterdam along the IJ River with Lamers as guide.
Last Friday, my first-year students from the Delft University of Technology presented their projects (BK1ON1). Their assignment was to design a house with a Bed & Breakfast in the Dutch polder.
From January 24th to 28th, a group of Dutch art lovers travelled to cold Budapest. For three days, Emiel Lamers guided the 14 participants through Buda, Pest and the village of Szentendre. Lamers organized guided tours at the Hungarian National Gallery and the Ludwig Museum of Modern Art and also reserved six unique restaurants.
Emiel Lamers has written an article for the latest issue of the Slovenian architectural magazine Piranesi about a linear brick house in Hungary. The style of the house, designed by Földes architects, is a balance between traditional and contemporary architecture.
On Monday November 7th, Emiel Lamers had the opportunity to visit the building site of the Wei-Wu Ying Center for the Arts, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The 141.000 m2 building, designed by Mecanoo Architecten, offers a unique covered area and outdoor roof-top amphitheater with views to the park.
On October 17 and 18, Emiel Lamers visited the capital of Germany once again, four years after his last trip to Berlin in 2012. On Monday he got a private tour by director Nadja Bartels through the Tchoban Foundation, a Museum for Architectural Drawing in Prenzlaurer Berg. His article about the building was published in A10 #53. Lamers also revisited the beautiful Natur-Park Sündgelände and Tempelhofer Park, both of which appeared in A10 magazine # 52 in a follow-up article that he wrote about three original parks in Berlin.
From Thursday September 29th to Sunday October 2nd, the Dutch architecture society "Architectura et Amicitia" (AetA) travelled to Budapest on an intensive study trip. For two and a half days, Emiel Lamers guided the 30 participants through Buda & Pest. As a special thank you, AetA offered Lamers a one-year membership. Among the group were two architects who had already participated in a similar study trip to Budapest organised by the AetA in the 1980s.
During the warm month of September, Emiel Lamers guided three different groups in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The month of touring started with two boat trips on September 9th with a total of 120 students from HAN (Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen). One week later, Lamers showed 14 representatives of the Pensioenfonds Architectenbureaus some new architecture in the centre of Rotterdam. And on Friday, September 23rd, Lamers showed a group of 24 employees of Norconsult, Norway's largest consultancy firm, the Amsterdam University College and some new buildings along the IJ riverbanks.
The IJburg tour of Architecture Tours has been featured in the Guardian Newspaper as one of the 10 best alternative city tours in Europe.
In a historic apartment located on the busy Overtoom Avenue, overlooking the green Vondelpark, ELA has designed a contemporary bathroom & kitchen. The construction work was carefully carried out by John Braas Bouwbedrijf BV. The circular glass wall was installed by D&O Bouwglas.
From July 6th to 9th, l'École du Renouvellement Urbain came to the Netherlands with 88 participants. On Thursday morning, ELA organised three lectures at the Municipality of Amsterdam: Sabine Lebesque (Amsterdam city historian), Marien de Langen (board chairman of Stadgenoot) and André Krouwel (Professor of Political Science at VU). For the afternoon programme, Lamers organised several work visits to destinations such as the Eastern Docklands and the former NDSM ship wharf. On Friday morning, the group met with the Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, who discussed his thoughts and actions on integration in an hour-long lecture. In the afternoon, architect and professor Wessel de Jonge presented the renovated Van Nelle Factory.
From June 23rd to 26th, ELA organised, together with archi:travel, an architecture & wine trip to Budapest. After touring contemporary architecture in Pest and Buda (Gödör, ING building, Várkert Bazár, Kopszi gát), the group visited several wineries in the Hungarian countryside (Pannonhalma & the village of Etyek).
From June 9th to 12th, Emiel Lamers organised an architecture trip for archi:travel to Slovenia for 30 French architects, planners, clients and building engineers from AMO (Architecture & Maîtres d'ouvrage, Bretagne / Pays de la Loire). We started the programme with a presentation about Slovenian architecture at the Faculty of Architecture. Over the next two days, we met Bostian Vuga (Sadar+Vuga), Tomaž Krušec (Arhitektura Krušec) & Milan Tomac (Enota) and also visited the new buildings of Ofis, Bevk & Perovic, Marusa Zorec and Dekleva & Gregoric.
On May 24th, three architectural practices were invited to present their final plans for the refurbishment of the high school building of Tabor College Oscar Romero. We re-organised the interior of the school by introducing a new circular corridor and adding two new high entrances plus a separate sports hall.
On April 19th, ELA (together with Joost Barendregt Architectuur) presented three different options for extending an existing high school building in Hoorn. These options are part of a larger proposal for reorganising and extending the Oscar Romero School (Tabor College). At the moment, we are working on option A (a large separate sports hall), which we will present to the school and our client (Stichting Mevrouw Meijer) at the end of May.
