More than 50 architects from our Rotterdam office joined the Climate Strike in The Hague last Friday, September 27. We arrived equipped with our placards and green MVRDV “Transform Construction” stickers and marched together with more than 30,000 people. The march was part of a series of global demonstrations, arranged to coincide with the UN Climate Change Summit in New York, demanding that world leaders take more action on climate change.

MVRDV’s participation is not only about the Climate Strike but about a new approach to architecture. Recently, MVRDV has started to adopt the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a method to think more holistically about sustainability in projects. We want to make buildings with low energy footprints, with low amounts of embedded carbon, and which are healthy for their occupants and surroundings. However, we want to go beyond even that. We also want to contribute to a better world.

Part of this process is our 3rd Planet Week, an initiative we organize internally every six months. For this edition of Planet week, we clustered some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals into 4 topics: Food & health, Infrastructure & Innovation, Social & Communities, Nature & Water. We will dedicate one day to each of the groups. There are also dedicated workshops and lectures for our staff. On Friday 4th October, dedicated to Nature & Water, we welcome Eric-Jan Pleijster from LolaLandscape. He will join us in our discussion and talk to us about "Waterlanders". How will the Dutch live in 2200?

Image by Andrea Manente