Martens Willems Architecten is based in Maastricht and works nationwide on complex urban situations, housing projects, adaptive reuse, restoration of post-war heritage, and healthcare projects. Designing always goes hand in hand with architectural research and a visual way of communicating with users. The office is a team of around 13 people.
Martens Willems has built up extensive experience in assignments at the sharp interface between architecture and urban planning, where context takes centre stage. In these assignments, Martens Willems draws on its broad typological knowledge combined with a spatial research methodology. The scale of its projects ranges from urban planning to individual private homes, spanning housing, healthcare, and adaptive reuse and renovation.
In its design approach, context is central, and Martens Willems searches for the given conditions of place and time. In analysis and research, the design may take on an academic stance, and Martens Willems delves into architectural history with great enthusiasm. The practice talks, thinks, writes, and teaches architecture. But its designs must also be imaginable and recognisable. Martens Willems loves beautiful details.
The office is based in Maastricht, and although its commissions are spread throughout the Netherlands, its cultural world lies between Eindhoven, Liège, Brussels, Düsseldorf and Cologne.
Martens Willems is also actively engaged in the development of the profession. Maikel Willems is involved with the Academie van Bouwkunst Maastricht, and Rik Martens serves as a board member of the BNA (Royal Institute of Dutch Architects).
