Killing Architects

Killing Architects is a studio for design and research in architecture and urbanism, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded by Alison Killing in 2010. We work mostly at a bigger scale – architectural design work on larger, mixed-use buildings or developing strategies for neighbourhoods and cities. You can see some of our design work here: a new building for the Rietveld Academy, an art school in Amsterdam; an urban development strategy for the harbour neighbourhood in Assen, the Netherlands; and a small recent project at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. We also do research, events, films and exhibitions that explore issues within the built environment. Everything happens somewhere and while the built environment is shaped by its social, economic and political context, the reverse is also to an extent true – the way we shape our cities and buildings influences what happens in them. We're good at working across disciplines, with groups who don't have a built environment background, bringing an architectural and urbanist perspective to projects where the built environment is important. One example of this is the (re)constructing the city project, which looks at how relevant urban design tools can be integrated into the work of humanitarian agencies post-disaster. We're also busy looking at financial models for projects which use temporarily vacant buildings and sites, since funding is the main reason these projects fail. We recently won a competition on the future of architectural practice with a short film looking at some of these ideas – you can see it here: