Claus en Kaan, modern architecture from the Netherlands

Claus en Kaan Residential

We recently came across Claus en Kaan, a Dutch architectural firm that has been doing handsome, modern work for decades now. The following excerpt is from a book titled False Flat, Why Dutch Design Is so Good by Aaron Betsky and Adam Eeuwens:

Architect David Chipperfield says of Claus en Kaan that they have “worked their way toward architectural solutions by way of their ‘skill’, as opposed to starting with conceptual ideas and learning how to build them.” Since the founding of their firm in 1988, Kees Kaan and Felix Claus have made a name for themselves not be redefining the trade but rather by embracing a highly functional architecture with a severe, modernist, no-frills aesthetic. Although often seemingly banal and unabashedly catering to the immediate needs and visions of the reigning Dutch middle class, Claus en Kaan’s buildings are pure in form and immaculate in composition. As they put it, “Acceptance of the banal conditions of construction enables a good concept to become fit for building.” On their website they quote, fittingly, the master Mies van der Rohe: “Thinking up a new architectural style every morning is not for me. I don’t want to be interesting, I want to be good.”

We admire the nut-and-bolts, from the ground up approach to architecture and have enjoyed viewing a very thorough website from Claus en Kaan. Here are some of our favorite residential projects:

2001–2005 Blok 24 IJburg, Amsterdam

blok 24