About

KettingHuls

Is a Dutch architecture firm full of ambition, working in a refurbished warehouse located on the Amsterdam harbour front.

KettingHuls was founded in 2012 by Daniëlle Huls and Monica Ketting. The practice works on projects that vary in scale, dimension and programme; ranging from architecture to urban design.

A distinct approach

To us, buildings never exist in isolation: we look beyond zoning boundaries and see the built environment, public space, the landscape and society as parts of a whole.

We aim to reveal human perceptions, memories and imagination. Our interest lies in studying how residents and other users behave, perceive and remember their environment.

Our objective is always to create everyday beauty. We like to draw attention to universal yet forgotten values ​​that are still valid and give them new meaning through the spaces we design.

We look at the city and the land from the perspective of those who move slowly: those who travel about on foot or by bike; active people who draw on all their senses to perceive and experience the built environment.

Cofounder Daniëlle Huls has been leading KettingHuls since 2022.

Daniëlle has worked as an architect in Amsterdam since 1997. At first as architect-director at the Architectengroep, later in her own office Daniëlle Huls Architect. She has worked on a wide range of commissions and has seen to a number of large housing projects built.

In 2007 she started work at Bureau B+B (Urban Development and Landscape Architecture) as an urban designer, and joined the board of directors two years later. At B+B, Daniëlle worked on urban plans and landscape designs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and China and was involved with the redevelopment of brownfield sites as well as with the design of new suburbs.

She is a guest lecturer at Delft University of Technology’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam.

She has been a member of the Advisory Committee of Arcam, Amsterdam’s architecture centre, since 2019.

Daniëlle graduated as an architect from Delft University of Technology. Her thesis project was awarded with an honourable mention. She then completed the Diploma School at the Architectural Association in London (with a scholarship from the Fonds voor Beeldende kunsten).

Photo by Judith Jockel

Current team

Daniëlle Huls
Marjon Mors
Luïsa Jacobse
Joost Körver
Steven Reijners
Fabia Sainz
Jean-Marc Saurer
Pelin Sökmen

Previous staff

Lars den Admirant
Prisca Arosio
Stefano Barile
Cristina Bestebreurtje
Gara Beukman
Robert Bijl
Mihai Ionut Blahuianu
Alain Fernandez del Rey
Alba Fiduccia
Alexandre Garcia Estelles
Ivo de Jeu
Minyoung Kwon
Laura Olieslagers
Enrique Orts Costa
Femke Peters
Basia van Rijt
Niccolò Rimoldi
Henri Schiffer
Annebel Schijf
Tjeerd Steenhuis
Caroline Urberger
Maartje Webbers
Cayn Wilmsen
Elisa Zampogna

Clients

Academy of Architecture Amsterdam
Beckstone
Connecting Concepts
COUP
Creative Industries Fund NL
De Werf Nobelhorst B.V.
Edwin Oostmeijer Projectontwikkeling
Emprise Projects
ERA Contour
Heren 2
Hempoint CV
Madefor Projects BV
Municipality of Almere
Municipality of Amsterdam
Municipality of Best
Municipality of Kerkrade
Municipality of Utrecht
OPEN Development
Opspoor
Rentmeester Hollandia Maatschappij NV
Slokker Vastgoed BV
Tour de Force
Vink Bouw BV
Zheng Management B.V.
Foundation Mevrouw Meijer
Foundation Woonzorg Nederland

Awards and nominations

Exhibitions

Lectures

Open-Minded

NEVER WASTE A GOOD CRISIS
A crisis is a moment of freedom and a reason to break new ground. Approaches to spatial change in urban areas that may have worked five years ago, fail today. Issues have grown more complex, frequently combining cultural, social and economic aspects. Fascinated by this development, we think that the narrow-minded approach of the ‘traditional’ architect no longer yields solutions. To us, buildings never exist in isolation: we look beyond zoning boundaries and see the built environment, public space, the landscape and society as parts of a whole.

The Lived Environment
We aim to reveal human perceptions, memories and imagination. Our interest lies in studying how residents and other users behave, perceive and remember their environment. We do not believe in destroying the old to make room for the new: we focus on what is there, its cultural history, its social context and on the qualities of a district or place. Incorporated into a new structure – an urban plan, a building development, a new square – these are made visible again, acquiring new meaning in the minds of their users. Trees, ditches, old walls, existing buildings or urban structures need not disappear under layers of construction sand: they can be integrated into a new system, adding value to the identity and quality of life in a neighbourhood or district.

Slow Living
We look at the city and the land from the perspective of those who move slowly: those who travel about on foot or by bike; active people who draw on all their senses to perceive and experience the built environment. Sound, wind, shadow or light largely determine the quality of a space or place. Too often, unfortunately, such factors are ignored in the design of urban spaces and buildings. We advocate a more poetic approach to the built environment and urban life, one that stimulates the senses. We do not ignore the ‘fast’ city, but focus on adopting a different perspective on the built world. In our daily lives we also live slowly.

Everyday Beauty
Obviously, the everyday beauty of a place, area or object creates feelings of satisfaction, pleasure and delight: a basket of apples, a chestnut tree in the courtyard, a large sliding door out onto the garden. Our objective is always to create everyday beauty. We like to draw attention to universal yet forgotten values ​​that are still valid and give them new meaning through the spaces we design. In addition, our projects are specific, because we pay attention to authenticity and local conditions. We love simplicity and clear-cut plans.

Imagination
The smell of green grass closely envelops the house. We are eating outside. Barefoot, I walk in and out with bowls of food, a jug of water and a bottle of good wine. There’s a fire burning to dispel the evening chill. (From: Het Weilandwonen en de Nesteljas by KettingHuls and Bureau B+B)

Stories play an important part in the lived environment and in reading a location. Our stories and images seduce. As experienced creative and spatial thinkers, we are able to translate plans and ideas into imaginative narratives at an early stage. During the design process, we illustrate thoughts expressed by clients and other involved parties. This is our strength: expressing atmospheres in poetic, lyrical or dramatic images and narratives without prior detailing or designing. This facilitates communication between all of the parties involved because together, words and images fully explain jointly decided purposes and visions.

Intuition
Our focus lies not only on the creation of human-centred products and services but also on a design process that is humane. We draw on our intuitive ability to develop ideas with emotional impact. We base our work on our own observations and personal experiences gained through hands, eyes, feet, stomach, behaviour, changing needs and desires, rather than on functional norms and standards. Nobody wants to run an organization on the basis of feelings, intuitions and inspiration alone, but relying too much on the rational and the analytical can be just as risky. Our working method provides an open and refreshing view of the landscape and the built environment, and we see this as a route to new strategies, to a world that is both varied, layered and human.

Collaboration
We believe in cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially during the initial phase of projects when starting points have to be redefined. We want to do things differently. We want to break habits and look beyond our own discipline. We want to work in teams involving our clients and people from other fields, among them sociologists, financial experts, landscape architects, users and administrators. We see this as a new approach to the current quest for new technologies, new value systems and new models that serve the interests of society.

Tight Budgets
Our designs, based on simplicity and attention to distinctive elements, succeed in creating everyday beauty even within tight budgets. Because we are able to give free reign to the experience of others as well as that of ourselves as designers of buildings and cities, we can create plans that take the running costs into consideration at the same time as the spatial plan, the identity of a place and its cultural history.

Need
Up for discussion in the future is the living environment: there ought to be more ways to deal with issues such as identity, degradation or building vacancy than either construction or demolition. We facilitate a design process that does not necessarily result in a building: we may design a product, a service or a process that offers new ways of determining the shifting demands and needs of people and markets. Besides construction plans, visual quality plans, strategies and research, the results of our designs may include activity calendars, the upgrading of public space or lighting plans.

Initiative
As designers in the field of architecture and urban development, we work in densely populated areas or in the countryside. We initiate projects that provide pragmatic solutions to problems that have social or economic dimensions. In high-density areas, we seek solutions that will transform the existing built environment into a sustainable one: one that reflects future changes in society. In rural areas, we seek to maximize the interconnectedness of buildings and landscape.