Edge Technologies' Florijn Vriend offers her perspective on adaptability, demonstrating how an agile building approach can cater for diverse needs and produce robust communities.

Adaptability is vital to generating sustainable buildings that support occupants by facilitating their diverse needs and lifestyles. Bringing together the opinions and insights of 21 professionals across multiple interrelated industries, FRAME's latest white paper, co-created with Fragile, Knauf and Levi Hayes Studio, emphasizes why homes need to become more responsive to the increasingly volatile world, both on an individual and global scale, and presents the steps that need to be taken to achieve this. 

As part of an interview series exploring the adaptability of domestic spaces, FRAME founder and director Robert Thiemann and Fragile founder Lukas Kauer spoke with Florijn Vriend, head of wellbeing and social impact at Edge Technologies. Vriend sheds light on inclusivity as a driving force for building development and discusses the power of the developer and investor in stimulating positive change in the industry.

<span class="fr-marker" data-id="0" data-type="true" style="display: none; line-height: 0;"></span><span class="fr-marker" data-id="0" data-type="false" style="display: none; line-height: 0;"></span>Florijn Vriend.

LUKAS KAUER: Could you tell us a bit about Edge Technologies and the organization's purpose?

FLORIJN VRIEND: If I were to explain what Edge does to someone who doesn't know us, then I would say that we spot major challenges in the world. One is the need for answers to climate change because there are lots of problems, and we want to contribute to the solution. Emissions within the built environment make up 39 per cent of global CO2 output, so there's a lot of work to be done there. Buildings are not always built for people to flourish in, so it really comes down to whether we can build structures that are better for both people and the planet.

LK: What part does adaptability play in making these ambitions a reality? 

FV: For decades, we have seen buildings built as static entities in rectangular boxes. It's cheap and efficient to build in this way, but it's not always adaptable. No one could have known that we would face a housing crisis in the Netherlands and enter a phase where we would need to change buildings' functions. They are not often designed to do that. You need to think in the long-term, look at what the most impactful change needed would be and whether you can already design to reduce the impact there. The design phase is one of the most crucial points in which to think about adaptability and the future.

There is such a big societal shift happening right now around climate but also structural inequality, diversity and inclusion. Perhaps adaptability is also about bringing people together and creating communities around the theme of inclusivity while addressing their needs. This can be related to demographic shifts like ageing populations but also different topics around sexual orientation, religion and so on.

Photo: Ossip van Duivenbode

Valley, designed by Mvrdv for developer Edge, is a multi-use building in Amsterdam’s Zuidas district in the Netherlands. Offering a blend of living, working and recreation spaces, the building is continuously animated by the diverse community it houses.

LK: Real estate is quite often valuated by market price, and if that's just increasing, then people will still invest. Can flexibility add an additional layer that increases a building's valuation?

FV: The real estate market is going through a challenging phase. The Netherlands is in a severe housing crisis, so we're stuck with a lot of projects that are hard to transform, and the municipality is very reluctant to provide permits only for offices, so they promote projects that are mixed-use and have a residential component. This provides an opportunity to create vibrant communities within these buildings, where lots of facilities are embedded. Then again, you have investors who might still think a little more straightforwardly, with mixed-use development not fitting their traditional Excel sheets. There's a lot of change needed, and adaptability could save investors from moments like these.

 Photo: Ossip van Duivenbode

Developed for Edge by architect Rem Koolhaas, De Rotterdam boasts a gross floor area of 160,000 sq-m, creating a massive vertical city in which a plethora of functions can be found, from offices to apartments.

LK: Real estate is quite often valuated by market price, and if that's just increasing, then people will still invest. Can flexibility add an additional layer that increases a building's valuation?

FV: The real estate market is going through a challenging phase. The Netherlands is in a severe housing crisis, so we're stuck with a lot of projects that are hard to transform, and the municipality is very reluctant to provide permits only for offices, so they promote projects that are mixed-use and have a residential component. This provides an opportunity to create vibrant communities within these buildings, where lots of facilities are embedded. Then again, you have investors who might still think a little more straightforwardly, with mixed-use development not fitting their traditional Excel sheets. There's a lot of change needed, and adaptability could save investors from moments like these.

 Photo: Ronald Tilleman

Despite being an office, the Edge in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, designed by PLP Architects for EDGE, demonstrates how agile interiors can foster healthy conditions for occupants, an aspect important for buildings regardless of their typology.

LK: Do you think that health and wellbeing will become central criteria when designing homes and offices in the near future?

FV: I hope so, as they've been neglected for a long time. The Edge office in Amsterdam has been designed with biophilic, natural materials and different kinds of spaces on offer. There are open areas but also smaller places to tuck away and do individual work. Variety is crucial here.

Designing for what we call diversity, equity and inclusion are also becoming part of tenants' agendas. Slowly, we're seeing a sensitive approach emerge that considers different personalities and needs from physical, mental, ageing, religious and sexual orientation perspectives. You have introverts and extroverts who might need different things, but you also have people with ADHD, depression or anxiety. Can we offer those people the spaces they need? This is a crucial point, and I'm happy to say that given that this topic is now becoming so important, it has also increasingly translated into the design of fit outs. 

LK: What will be important to focus on in the coming years as a developer?

FV: We need to deliver quality to people living around buildings so that they feel welcomed and aren't looking into enclosed silos like those found in any financial district, where you don't feel like you can enter a building that's useful to you – that's really important. I think there are a lot of minorities and niche groups that have been ignored for a long time because the decision-makers in the room were white men, and they might not have always looked at the needs of different types of people. Focusing on the societal impact of our buildings in the future will be essential.

Download the white paper here.