We strive for meaningful architecture with an eye for detail and context. Good architecture is created in collaboration, in dialogue with clients, close consultation with consultants and implementing parties and in a positive dialogue with the authorities involved.
We believe good architecture is a self-evident result of a complex puzzle that balances the ambitions, regulations, budget and context in an economic and sustainable way, to realise something distinct and meaningful.
Unknown Architects was founded in 2012 by Daan Vulkers and Keimpke Zigterman. Through small-scale projects for private, creative and commercial clients, the agency completed their first complete building in 2021: House in the Dunes. This project was included in the Yearbook of Architecture in the Netherlands 2021-2022 and was nominated for the Jong Abe Bonnemaprijs 2022.
We are currently mainly concerned with the themes of transformation and timber construction. Three larger projects are now in progress: the transformation and expansion of a canal house in Amsterdam, the transformation and expansion of a monument in Wassenaar and the construction of a new wooden villa in Zunderdorp. On Terschelling we are again working on the design of a new holiday home.
Our work has been widely published and has been exhibited, among others, in the exhibition “Maatwerk / Massarbeit” in the Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Unknown Architects was nominated for the ARC18 Young Talent Award by De Architect in 2018 and won the Unfair Architect Award in 2019 with the accompanying design commission for Unfair Temporary Museum.
In addition to our architectural practice, we are active in education. In 2017 and 2018 we led a design studio at the Technical University in Delft, we teach at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture (2023-2024) and are a guest lecturer at the Academy of Architecture Arnhem (2020-2024).
Profiles
Daan Vulkers MSc ARB graduated with honours in architecture at Delft University of Technology in 2015 and completed the Royal Institute of British Architects Part 3 at Kingston University with merit. His graduation project was nominated for the RIBA President’s Medal 2015 and Archiprix Netherlands 2016.
Together with Keimpke Zigterman, he has founded Unknown Architects in 2012 and previously gained experience working for Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), on the prize winning competition for cultural centre The Factory in Manchester, and at Van Dongen-Koschuch on the winning competition entry for the Musis Sacrum in Arnhem. At David Chipperfield Architects in London he worked on the Royal Academy of Arts Masterplan. In the autumn semester of 2017-2018 he taught a MSc1 design studio at Delft University of Technology and is currently teaching a design studio at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.
Keimpke Zigterman MSc, originally a trained professional cellist at The Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Conservatory of Amsterdam graduated cum laude in architecture at the Technical University Delft in 2016.
He has founded Unknown Architects together with Daan Vulkers in 2012. Keimpke gained valuable experience working on private houses for BaksvanWengerden Architecten in Amsterdam (now Space Encounters), collaborating on large public and infrastructural projects for Sanal Architecture and Urbanism in Istanbul and working on restorations and refurbishments of listed monuments for Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten in Rotterdam. In the autumn semester of 2017-2018 he taught a MSc1 design studio at Delft University of Technology.
Since 2024 Keimpke is part of the central committee of Hûs en Hiem, that advises on the architectural and spatial integration of new buildings within their context in the province of Friesland.
Collaborators
Matteo Andrenelli, Sherif Azmi, Sven Berg, Paula Bloma, Ryan Cook, Yeh Yen Kang, Orsi Kroneraff, Yiming Yang
Clients
Academie van Bouwkunst Arnhem, Canja Ensemble, The Fragrance Store, Gemeente Leeuwarden, Hurks, TU Delft, Just Haasnoot, Unfair Amsterdam, Vlaams Architectuurinstituut, Atelier Munro
Colophon
Photography by Max Hart Nibbrig, Mounir Raji, Raoul Kramer and Jeroen Verrecht
Website designed and built by SU–F Studio.
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