ainb.be / nieuws / industrial architecture

Architectuur

INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE

29 augustus 2025

1. The West Betuwe town hall was designed with one clear principle: maximum reuse. Cepezed upgraded the existing building for greater sustainability and added two timber

NOOK 
With your kit-of-parts system, you were ahead of the curve in how we think about sustainable construction today. How did the idea originally emerge?

Ronald Schleurholts 
It started with the desire to build better. The idea was that buildings should be demountable and prefabricated – designed to be taken apart and reused. In hindsight, that turned out to be the first step towards what we now consider essential: circularity, designing adaptable, flexible buildings that allow for material reuse and accommodate changing functions over time. We see buildings as products for use. They should be pleasant to inhabit and capable of adapting to new purposes. That requires an open mindset. How do you create the best possible building with the resources available at the time? It also means making room for unconventional materials, unexpected perspectives, and shifting uses. Not closed systems, but open, future-proof solutions.

NOOK 
With your kit-of-parts system, have you as architects also become engineers, moving beyond traditional architectural methods?

RS 
Definitely. One of cepezed’s founders once said we should be called ‘industrial architects’. Our kit-of-parts system isn’t about making buildings look like boxes, but about assembling high-quality architecture from prefabricated components. It was a major shift from traditional Dutch construction. This mindset requires thinking from the outset about how elements are made and assembled. We design components to be as intelligent as possible. A facade panel might also include ventilation, technical systems, and daylight openings. We call it ‘high IQ per kilo’. As architects, we constantly think like engineers – about feasibility, efficiency, and aesthetics. Nowadays however, we can apply this method of designing also for integrating harvested, second life and bio-based materials.

NOOK 
Det, what’s it like for you as an interior architect to work with the kit-of-parts model?

Det van Oers 
It’s really interesting. Instead of placing a wall and then adding a cabinet in front of it, we design the wall itself to serve multiple purposes – integrating storage, technical systems, and spatial function into one element. If the wall’s there anyway, why not make it smarter? The interior team focuses on integrated elements – like stepped platforms that combine functions such as seating, bookshelves, or places to linger. We’re not directly involved in major structural or facade decisions, but we do respond closely to how ceilings are designed, how they meet facades, and how interior partitions function. We approach the design as one large architectural gesture – where interior and architecture meet within the kit-of- parts philosophy. It’s a way of working where the input from different disciplines enhances and complements one another. That’s exactly why I wanted to join cepezed: to build up the interior architecture department from this way of thinking, and to explore new ideas and possibilities within my field. As an interiors team, we often think from the inside out, while our colleagues tend to think from the outside in. But the facade, in that sense, is never a hard boundary.

2. The Amsterdam Temporary Courthouse, designed by cepezed and cepezedinterieur, is a 5,400-squaremetre building conceived with reuse at its core. First put into use in 2016, it was fully dismantled and relocated to Enschede five years later – just as planned. There, it found a second life as a shared workspace and educational facility. structures using a kit-of-parts system, allowing for future disassembly and reuse. Subtly designed, the additions respect the original architecture and open views to the outside.
 

NOOK 
So interior and exterior meet in the middle, where they complement and strengthen each other?

RS

Absolutely. We don’t design buildings from the outside in – we approach them as spatial frameworks. That framework eventually gets a facade, but the facade often changes the most and is typically designed last. Some architects start with the exterior and work inward, but for us the priority is creating a comfortable, flexible building that adapts over time and supports its users. The interior is an essential layer within the overall framework. From the early design phase, we collaborate closely, with Det offering valuable insights into spatial potential. This layer brings identity, texture, and tactility – qualities that were sometimes lacking in our earlier, more industrial buildings. Since founding cepezed interior 14 years ago, we’ve placed greater emphasis on materials, tones, and textures to enrich the spatial experience.

3. The renovated interior of the Van Maerlantlyceum reflects the green character of its surroundings. Biobased materials in natural tones were used throughout the building, and an abundance of plants were added. The interior colour palette is inspired by the school’s original murals, which date back to 1953, and is complemented by bold, contrasting accents.

4. Formed in 2004 through the merger of several towns, the Municipality of Westland commissioned cepezed to design its new town hall. The complex consists of two buildings, a public and administrative centre and a municipal office, both inspired by the greenhouse, a symbol of the region and the design’s central metaphor.

NOOK 
Det, how does cepezed’s approach to interior design differ from your previous workplaces?

DvO 
What I find both beautiful and authentic at cepezed is that, from the design stage onward, there’s a clear intention for the construction materials to also serve as the final finishes. If we design a concrete structure, it remains visible – executed in a way that is both technically sound and aesthetically refined. The same goes for steel or wood: we build it properly from the start and leave it exposed, rather than covering it up later with finishing layers. That mindset was new to me. In earlier projects, I was more inclined to work with wet finishes like plaster to conceal materials. Here, that’s far less common. The result is a more honest and sustainable approach to building.

NOOK 
What are the technical considerations when designing fully demountable and relocatable buildings?

RS 
The key is that everything must be assembled using dry construction methods – no on-site welding, casting, or sealing. Every component must be fully prefabricated and capable of being disassembled. That requires a very consistent and disciplined approach. When thinking further in terms of circularity and reuse, labour also becomes a factor: how much time and effort does it take to assemble and disassemble components? We once designed a staircase that could be taken apart down to each individual tread, but it turned out to be too labour-intensive. In the end, it was more practical to remove the staircase as a whole. This is why we’re now thinking more and more about scale and component size – how to divide a building into large, efficient units.

NOOK 
Cepezed has long been a pioneer in principles like buildability, reuse, and prefabrication. How has your approach to circularity evolved over time?

DvO 
What I find remarkable about cepezed is that the firm has always stayed true to its founding principles. Circularity, sustainability, and reuse may now be buzzwords, but cepezed was already working with these ideas 50 years ago.

RS 
At the same time, we continue to evolve. Today, there’s strong government encouragement to use bio-based and circular materials, and we fully embrace that in our current projects. We constantly adapt our DNA to today’s materials and demands. Sustainability has become a necessity. Reusing materials and incorporating bio-based alternatives that store CO2 fits naturally with how we work. It does require new tolerances and ways of thinking, but that’s exactly what keeps us agile and forward-thinking.

5. Modular furniture kit-of-parts system by cepezed

6. The interior of Accelerator at Utrecht Science Park, a sustainable multi-tenant building for both emerging and established companies in the life sciences sector. Photos: Lucas van der Wee

NOOK
Can adjustments still be made during on-site assembly? Is there room for improvisation?

RS
Ideally, no. We aim to have everything thoroughly planned in advance so that no major decisions need to be made on-site.

DvO 
At the same time, we design our buildings to accommodate change. If a client decides late in the process where interior walls should go, that flexibility is already built into the system. So yes, there’s room for adaptation – but mainly in the fit-out layer, not in the structural core.

RS 
Every building is, in a way, a prediction of how it will be used. You base it on the brief, the site, available technology, and the social context at that moment. But the future is always unpredictable – users change, technology evolves, and needs shift. That’s why we design in layers – from interior kits to facade systems – so the building can evolve over time. It’s not a fixed endpoint, but a flexible framework that adapts to changing circumstances. [TS]

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