Photo of BOARD’s office in Rotterdam by Sonia Arrepia, ©Sonia Arrepia

BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design) was founded in Rotterdam in 2005 and is active in many fields: as an architecture, urban design, and design practice, as a research board and as a platform for comparative analysis on urban issues through its annual journal MONU – Magazine on Urbanism. BOARD won several prizes recently in prestigious international architecture and urban design competitions. Among others: The House of Arts and Culture in Beirut, Lebanon; The Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia; and The New Headquarter for Wexford County Council in Ireland. In 2006 BOARD collaborated with STAR – strategies + architecture and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) to update the study “The Image of Europe” that was exhibited in April 2006 in the centre of Vienna, Austria during Austria’s presidency of the European Union. In 2008 BOARD was listed as one of the “Top Ten emerging offices under 40” in the Netherlands by NIB (New Italian Blood) in collaboration with Hans Ibelings and the A10 Magazine. From 2012 until 2016 BOARD was part of the group, led by STAR, that had been chosen as one of the new six teams of architects and urban planners appointed by the Atelier International Grand Paris (AIGP) to be part of the Scientific Committee for the mission: Grand Paris: pour une métropole durable. In 2019 BOARD won the first prize in an urban design competition for a 3ha large site in the city of Quakenbrück, Germany. The project has been described by the media as the most significant urban development project in the recent history of the city. The work of BOARD has been exhibited all around the world and in places such as Moscow, Berlin, Aachen, New York, Tokyo or Paris. Currently 3 of BOARD’s projects are under construction, namely the “Roof Garden” and the “Ivry Square” in Paris and the “Binnenrotte” project in Rotterdam.

Bernd Upmeyer is the founder of BOARD and editor-in-chief of MONU – Magazine on Urbanism. He studied architecture and urban design at the University of Kassel (Germany) and the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands). In 1999 he was awarded with the prestigious biannual research award “Deutscher Studienpreis” donated by the Koerber Stiftung for a study project on new urban design methods and in 2000 he was awarded with an Architecture Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Before opening his own practice, he worked in several Dutch architecture offices, including NL Architects and Bosch Architects. From 2004 until 2007 he taught and did research as Assistant Professor at the department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel. In 2010 he taught as Adjunct Professor at the department of Urban Design at the HafenCity University Hamburg. In 2012 he was a guest critic at the Berlage Institute’s first-year postgraduate research studio “Anarcity”. In 2013 he lectured and participated in a discussion about architecture, urbanism and media at Strelka’s Urban Studies Session in Moscow. Upmeyer frequently writes for international publications and magazines. He holds a PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Urban Studies from the University of Kassel (Germany). Upmeyer is the author of the book Binational Urbanism – On the Road to Paradise. The book examines the way of life of people who start a second life in a second city in a second nation-state, without saying goodbye to their first city. Upmeyer coined the term “binational urbanism”. Since 2021 Upmeyer teaches architectural theory as Adjunct Professor at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf.

BOARD employs an international team of architects and planners and collaborates with national and international external consultants and specialists. BOARD collaborates regularly with Beatriz Ramo (STAR – strategies + architecture).

Members (chronologically in reverse order):
Maleen Rüthers, Bastian Bentrup, Arielle Steere, Anna Halek, Selin Gökçe Kaya, Zeynep Pınar Nas, Aysenur Ok, Martina Ciceri, Beatrice Armano, Emilie Stecher, Maria Heinrich, Yuri Choi, Denise Biondi, Jawaad Issoop, Chiara De Mattia, Mengying Li, Virginia Lazarou, Lorenzo Gambara, Claudia Consonni, Danae Zachariaki, Aina Coll Torrent, Valentina Raiz, Amy Tibbels, Filippo Foschi, Efrain Perez del Barrio, Caroline Klein, Albert Sánchez Perarnau, Katerina Petrocheilou, Apostolia L. Sofiadi, Gabriele Baleisyte, Sara Picazo Clarke, Karlis Ratnieks, Marcis Kalnins, Veronica Kuna, Mario Yáñez Aller, Matas Siupsinskas, Eleni Karagiannidou, Javier Bressel Mateo, Phil Wilson, Nieves Ruiz, Elena Barrigón García, Francesco Milano, Kobe Macco, Alice Grégoire, David Sebastian Martin, Fotini Gouveli, Christina Franken, Dirk Gießmann, Claudia Hess, Tanyi Huang, Fabian Rügemer, Frank Rödiger

Clients:
BOARD’s clients include private companies, municipalities, magazines, museums, cultural organizations, architecture offices and private individuals.