Last week, Guillem Colomer (COFO architects) took part in The Berlage's design master class as guest critic. The focus of the class was material culture and the students were asked to develop prototypes for a new industrial vernacular. The tutors were London-based collective Assemble.

Through an intensive and hands-on week of collaborative practice, the students designed and built 1:1 test panels that explored the potential of utile and familiar materials to be elevated and enriched. The intention of the workshop was to consider forms of expression that utilise, celebrate, and make visible the industrial and creative processes that are usually hidden from sight. Guillem's fascination with consolidating collective identity through participatory processes was greatly stimulated with the excellent proposals developed by the students and with the knowledge shared by Assemble.

Read more about the master class and the results.

At the request of cultural foundation Field of Dreams, COFO architects has designed an architecture strategy for a new arts festival in Hull (UK). The event would take place in the Princes Quay shopping centre, located in a central, but inactive semi-industrial area. The festival aims to revitalise the area and to give voice to the young designers of Hull.

A set of eye-catching temporary constructions developed by different local collectives would be placed on the roof of the centre’s multi-storey car park. The initiative will be visible from the ring road, one of the main arteries of Hull, attracting more visitors. The strategic design enables the local designers to have a say not only in the content they wish to show, but also in the container, making them participants of the festival’s spatial creation. The festival will take place during the two summer months, after which the constructions can be reused and relocated around the city.

The foundation Field of Dreams is currently in talks with the Princes Quay shopping centre to develop the project further.

The Tibetan Buddhist centre 'Workshop for the Mind', designed by COFO architects, officially opened its doors yesterday. Lama Jigme, the community's teacher, gave a special meditation session and a great thank you to all the volunteers, professionals and community members involved in the process. The pride felt by everyone was tangible during the festive event.

During the design and execution of this Buddhist community centre in Rotterdam, a genuine collective identity was consolidated through participation. The highly diverse community itself transformed a former industrial-printing house into their centre. COFO architects developed a clear architecture solution in an open and creative process. The main challenge was defining the strategy to successfully realise the design within the limited budget and within the available capacities of the community. The design workshops continued during the execution phase as intense building sessions. Extra attention was paid to the nature of the tasks and to the individual skills to guarantee that everyone was involved. Guided by the architectural vision, we worked together, we learnt from each other, and besides physically building a centre, we built a community.

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Happy House proposes a standardised, yet fully customisable home. The efficient ‘catalogue’ system, designed by COFO architects, can be combined in different ways to develop a unique home tailored to specific needs and desires. The standardisation ensures an affordable, adaptable and energy neutral building.

COFO architects has just finished developing its first tailored model: a home for a young Dutch couple and their future children.

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The building process continues satisfactorily at the 'Workshop for the Mind' site. The volunteers are currently working on the colourful wall of the Multifunctional Foyer. Its intricate materiality is achieved by applying circular economy.

The wood planks from the previous users are being reused and recombined. Each of the niches has its own distinctive expression as they are being made out of different rescued materials: the old doors of a cigarette factory, the exhibition walls of a museum… The library, which occupies a central position in the room, has been made from the construction fence of Rotterdam's Central Station. The Foyer is a collection of Rotterdam fragments, making the centre an active part of the city while contributing to the local identity and expressing the diversity of the community.

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COFO architects has been working for the past month on the design for an art space in the centre of Rotterdam. The project, commissioned by the Field of Dreams Foundation, provides an exhibition space that fully interacts with the city, challenging artists and audience to develop and enjoy a unique art experience.

The design transforms a semi-abandoned factory into a centre for artists with studios for rent, temporary housing for residencies and an exhibition space. The current plans to build a skyscraper on the location in the coming years means that the project has a provisional status. This provides a perfect setting for an affordable and innovative proposal that can experiment more with alternative processes and business models.

The former factory is representative of the reconstruction period of Rotterdam. Its functional grid structure is maintained in the transformative design, which uses the original logistics and vertical circulation route to organise the programme. An active plinth is created by placing the commercial function (a bike-repair shop and a café) on the ground floor, maximising the relationship with the street. The project aims to inject life during the next five years into this backstreet in Rotterdam’s centre.

A pink translucent cube, dubbed Pink Rhino, is the project’s main feature. This eye-catching element is placed on the roof, transforming the building and the street itself. The pink colour acts as a powerful visual attractor, while the translucency allows passers-by to see the interior activity from the street. Its sensitivity to light variations makes it an ever-changing, ever-interesting object.

The Pink Rhino is a simple 10 x 10 x 10 metres structure that can be appropriated by any artist or context. Its integration in the circulation system of the building ensures its correct functioning, while the cube’s size plays with the height variations in the roof, creating a stage with multiple possibilities both for the building and for the street below.

The Field of Dreams Foundation and the other involved stakeholders are currently looking for funding and support for the project.

For more information on Pink Rhino, please contact Guillem Colomer at info@cofoarchitects.com

Work on the Meditation Room at the 'Workshop for the Mind' Buddhist centre has just started. The room will be the treasure of the community, a place where the articulated dimensions, daylight and extraordinary materials come together to enhance spirituality. The use of an exposed hemp wall goes beyond the thermal, health and acoustic properties of the material. Its natural roughness will evoke the perfect mystical ambience. The wall has been built entirely by volunteers under supervision from Guillem Colomer (COFO architects) and hemp experts EcobouwSalland. The building process took 10 days and 20 m3 of hemp were used. The material provides a continuous joint-free wall, an amazing achievement and source of pride for the community.

The wall will now be left untouched for the coming 3 months in order to allow the hemp to compress and dry. During these months, the construction will continue in the other spaces of the centre.

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We are looking for volunteers to build a hemp wall in a Tibetan Buddhist centre in Rotterdam the coming month.

The hemp wall will enclose the centre’s meditation room, a place where the articulated dimensions, daylight and extraordinary materials come together to enhance spirituality. The use of an exposed hemp wall goes beyond the thermal, health and acoustic properties of the material. Its natural roughness will evoke the perfect mystical ambience. More information about the project can be found here.

The wall will be built entirely by volunteers under supervision from Guillem Colomer (COFO architects) and hemp experts EcobouwSalland. The construction workshop will last 10 days and volunteers will be organised in 4-hour shifts.

Join and enjoy a unique building process where you will learn more about hemp, an innovative, yet traditional material.

Dates: 4 -13 December
Shift times: morning, afternoon, evening
Location: Oostkousdijk 17B, 3024 CL Rotterdam

If you are interested, contact us at info@cofoarchitects.com. Please include your personal information and shift availability in your email.

The first phase of the Buddhist centre's construction has just started. The community and volunteers will transform a former industrial-printing house into their centre. This initial phase consists of a highly conscious demolition where the existing walls are stripped off the wood planks that cover them and where any useful material is salvaged. The planks have been carefully sorted out by length and colour in order to be later reused. This conscious demolition, done by volunteers, is essential both to avoid the waste of material and to remain within a very tight budget.

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Yesterday took place the first of many workshops to design and build a new Buddhist centre in Rotterdam. The plan is that the Buddhist community and volunteers will transform a former industrial-printing house into their centre. COFO architects is in charge of the design and will continue to work on the coming months in an open and creative process, whereby the community will develop their own centre following a clear architecture solution.

The evening’s programme started with a meditation session led by Lama Jigme and was followed by an intense design workshop, whereby the community's wishes and ideas were fully explored. A complete inventory of the skills and capacities available within the community was also made. This information will be used to adapt the design and to organise the building tasks later on in the process.

Three more design workshops will take place in the coming months. The participatory process will be continued during the execution phase as intense building sessions.