1. Home
  2. Architects
  3. Biography
  4. Maurice Nio - NIO architecten

Maurice Nio - NIO architecten


Biography

Dutch architect and artist Maurice Nio (1959) graduated in 1988 from the Faculty of Architecture in Delft.
His graduation project, a villa for pop star Michael Jackson, is an example of his “hybrid approach” to the discipline: a mixture of mythology and pragmatism, and the simultaneous presence of cryptic aspects and clear design strategies.

In the early 1990s, he founded the NOX Architects group, “an unconventional design agency, which used to produce not only architecture and graphic design, but also video, installations and text/theory (NOX Magazine)” (Lima catalogue) which, in its overall view, makes no distinction between architecture and art forms.

The blend of utopian vision and architectural expression has been evident since his earliest works. From 1991 to 1996, Nio worked on several projects at BDG Architekten Ingenieurs, such as the huge AviTwente waste incinerator in Hengelo in the shape of a beetle, followed by the extension of the office building in 2003.

At VHP stedebouwkundigen + architekten + landschapsarchitekten (1997-1999), he designed the Zuidtangent, the longest high-quality public transport line in Europe.
In January 2000, he founded the NIO Architects design firm together with Joan Almekinders. Among other things, in 2001 the firm was commissioned to design The Cyclops, 12 houses with sound barriers and acoustic screens in Diependaal, built next to a highway barrier, and the imposing bus terminal at Hoofddorp, The Amazing Whale Jaw, 2003, completely made of polystyrene.

In this work, the structure of the station “folds back onto itself, creating interplays of shadows, and follows in the footsteps of Oscar Niemeyer’s tradition, shifting from Modernism to Baroque. The unique perspectives and glimpses that characterize the structure of the station create a body folded onto itself, yet open to the context, thanks to its strong ability to communicate. In all this, the study of materials, colors and shapes plays an essential role” (L. Dalla Badia).

In the firm’s vision, special attention is given to degraded spaces, places of transit or “forbidden access” (overpasses, tunnels, viaducts, anonymous pedestrian bridges, etc.), which are so widespread in the urban fabric that they are often “invisible”.
Nio’s work offers a reinterpretation of these urban spaces, with the aim “of conveying a soul to a reality that lacks it” and “bringing unexpressed potential to the outside and creating new scenarios, with a strong contemporary influence”.
The very name given to many of his projects highlights the search for a hidden meaning, a transfiguration of the project: the Wasco goods depot in Rotterdam “Black Mothafucka”, 1998; the tunnels in Pijnacker “Touch of Evil”, 2004 and in Amstelveen “Moon Knight”, 2004; the 22 metal and concrete “drop-shaped” bridges in Den Bosch “The Aquarians”, 2006; and the new dark bridge over the Amstel-Drecht canal in Vrouwenakker, 2008, winner of the Dutch Design Award 2010.

He has a recurring connection with Tuscany: in Florence, he created the exhibition “Snakes Spaces” in San Verdiana (2005) and exhibited the sculpture Dark Horse (2014).
In 2016, he completed the expansion of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato, a decade after starting the project.

By leaving the existing building intact and combining it with a new volume in the shape of a ring, Maurice Nio’s project “intends to favor the permeability between the center and its territory (...) The Dutch project is based on a systematic rethinking of expositive features, which are manifested externally through the creation of an ambiguous, unexpected, unusual object, which is open to multiple interpretations. It has a subtle and rational style, which seems to go beyond the usual creation, in an international sphere, of art centers as large urban icons” (I. D'Alì, Domus).

As an integration to this work from an infrastructural point of view, in 2019 Nio also presented the project for a futuristic 200-meter long bridge-overpass in the shape of a DNA filament that will connect the museum to the eastern part of the city, improving the city’s cycle path.

In addition to writing many architectural articles, Nio makes video productions and writes articles on film, video, television, photography and dance. He wrote the volumes You Have The Right To Remain Silent (1998) and Unseen I Slipped Away (2004) and the collection of 120 works of art and architecture SupraSensitivity in Architecture (2016), the latter published at the same time as the exhibition of the same name, as part of the reopening program of the Pecci Center.
 
Maurice Nio - NIO architecten selected works and projects
 
- "The Fifth Element" - ponte ciclopedonale (progetto), Prato (Italia), 2019
- "Sensing the Waves" - Progetto di ampliamento del Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato (Italia), 2016
- Scultura Dark Horse, 2013
- “Into the shadow” - light artwork sul tunnel Tugelaweg, Amsterdam (Paesi Bassi), 2013
- Cavalcavia N201-Zuidtangent in Hoofddorp (Paesi Bassi), 2012
- ZEP Leisure Park, Middelburg, 2009
- Retail Park, Roermond (Paesi Bassi), 2008
- "Prayer of Shadow Protection" - nuovo ponte, Vrouwenakker (Paesi Bassi), 2010
- “Paradise for two” - padiglione e residenza, Botshol (Paesi Bassi), 2005 (padiglione) e 2007 (residenza)
- “The Aquarians” - 22 ponti a Watertuinen, Den Bosch (Paesi Bassi), 2006
- "Angelic Drive", Amersfoort (Paesi Bassi), 2005
- Mostra Snakes Spaces, Spazio espositivo di San Verdiana, Firenze (Italia), 2005
- “TwoFace” - 198 appartamenti in Tussen de Vaarten, Almere-Stad (Paesi Bassi), 2004
- “Touch of Evil” - tunnel intermodale, Pijnacker (Paesi Bassi), 2004
- “Moon Knight” - tunnel bidimensionale Noordammerweg, Amstelveen (Paesi Bassi), 2004
- “Heaven and Hell” - interior per ‘The Village’, life-style department store, Voorburg (Paesi Bassi), 2004
- “The Amazing Whale Jaw” - stazione capolinea degli autobus, Hoofddorp (Paesi Bassi) 2003
- “The Cyclops” - 12 abitazioni con barriere sonore e schermo acustico, Diependaal, Hilversum (Paesi Bassi), 2001
- "Flower Power" - Haarlem (Paesi Bassi), 2002
- Schaffenburg Showroom Zwijndrecht (Paesi Bassi), 2001
- "Black Mothafucka" - magazzino Wasco, Rotterdam (Paesi Bassi), 1998
- “The Hulk” - inceneritore, Hengelo (Paesi Bassi), 1997 e successivo ampliamento uffici "David and The Hulk", 2003
 
Official website
 
www.nio.nl

Related Articles: Maurice Nio - NIO architecten


Related Articles

13-02-2024

THE ARCHITECTURE DRAWING PRIZE AT THE SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM IN LONDON

From the 31st of January to the 3rd of March, the works of the finalists and winners of the 7th...

More...

22-12-2023

Westway Architects: From the "Reti 15" Recovery, to Iconic Projects in Italy and Ethiopia

Westway Architects has transformed a former industrial space in Rome's San Lorenzo district into...

More...

18-12-2023

Huizhen High School: a campus that celebrates free thought

Huizhen High School, designed by the Approach Design Studio in collaboration with the Zhejiang...

More...



×
×

Stay in touch with the protagonists of architecture, Subscribe to the Floornature Newsletter