Articles by Tracy Metz

Cruz y Ortiz and Jean-Michel Wilmotte complete a 10-year overhaul of the stern neo-Gothic structure. The Rijksmuseum shares a prime public square with its neighbor, the Stede­lijk, also recently reopened following a renovation and expansion. In recent months the museum hogging the cultural spotlight in Amsterdam has been the Stedelijk, which opened in December after a nine-year renovation and expansion. (Read Justin Davidson's review.) Many critics have panned its extension, designed by Benthem Crouwel and dubbed the “bathtub.” But this spring, attention will turn to the $500 million expansion of the Rijksmuseum, which shares a public square with the Stede­lijk.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Dutch experts assert that New York needs hybrid solutions for our changing natural surroundings. Delta Twin Town, a design concept for the UNESCO-IHE Delta City of the Future competition, restores the connection between Rotterdam and the sea by creating a new artificial delta. Hurricane Sandy and the devastation it left in its wake were a disaster waiting to happen. That is not only the conclusion of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which warned in 2009 that a storm surge was all but inevitable, but also of Dutch experts who have advised New York

The Atjehstraat was just an ordinary street in Ka'ten'drecht, a hardscrabble neighborhood in Rotterdam’s old harbor area, where immigrants and young people have taken the place of sailors and prostitutes. Now it is a special street, thanks to the Broken Light project of artist and lighting designer Rudolf Teunissen and his firm Daglicht & Vorm (Daylight & Form). The project covers sidewalks in a wavy, underwater-like pattern of soft light, while adorning the facades of rental apartments in strips of light that look like pilasters. The overall effect is to create an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. Broken Light originated

Doepel Strijkers Architects is revving up to conquer the world, starting with the first-ever sustainable, socially minded, zero-waste tequila factory.

On a bright Sunday morning, the Dutch designer Trude Hooykaas rode her bike to the ferry to the northern part of Amsterdam, across the sea arm called the IJ.

The K20 Art Collection in Düsseldorf is home of one of Germany’s most important contemporary art collections. When the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia decided to update and expand its original 1986 home two years ago, the administrators tapped the architects of the existing museum, the late Arne Jacobsen’s Copenhagen-based Dissing+Weitling. As they had to shutter the facility to execute the renovation and 21,528-square-foot addition, they also called upon the Bonn-based lighting design firm Licht Kunst Licht to overhaul the dated lighting system. With numerous museums in their portfolio, Licht Kunst Licht principal Andreas Schulz and lighting designer Alexander Rotsch

Astudy in contrasts, French architect Marc Rolinet’s Chapel of the Deaconesses of Reuilly brings together all the classical functions of a church in two pure forms: a stark triangle of glass and, inside it, a rounded, egglike structure made of wood.

Project Specs The Chapel of the Deaconesses of Reuilly Versailles, France Marc Rolinet & Associes << Return to article the People Architect Rolinet et Associes 9 rue Pierre Villey 75007 Paris, France tel: +33 (0) 1 44 42 01 10 fax +33 (0) 1 44 42 01 20 Sylvain Vogt, architect Interior designer: Marc Rolinet Engineer Polkop General contractor: Polkop SARL France Photographer Daniel Moulinet tel: +33 6 13 21 67 68 Renderer Rolinet et associes CAD system, project management, or other software used: Autodesk The calculations necessary to achieve the coutours of the wood chappel were made with Robobat,