Founder and Director,
Karres+Brands, Netherlands

NZILA are delighted to have Bart Brands from the Netherlands who will open the Friday afternoon discussion on Theme Four | Places and Spaces. 

Bart Brands (1962) studied landscape architecture at the Rijks Hogere School voor Tuin- en Landschapsinrichting (State College of Gardening and Landscaping) in Boskoop and, thereafter, a few years of urbanism at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. After an inspiring start working for the municipality of The Hague, he worked at Bureau Bakker and Bleeker (now B+B) from 1991 to 1996 and then, in 1997, founded the office of karres+brands landscape architects together with Sylvia Karres. Bart is director and co-owner of karres+brands.

Bart is the creative force behind many of the plans of karres+brands, and is unmatched in his ability to generate ideas and instil enthusiasm in clients and colleagues alike. He played a major role, for instance, in the design of Federation Square in Melbourne (AU), Købmagergade in Copenhagen (DK), Nærheden in Hedehusene (DK), De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery in Amsterdam, the feasibility study for Cross River Park in London (UK) and the Masterplan Christiansholm in Copenhagen (DK).

Bart has also made significant contributions to the development of the design for the Arena Boulevard in Amsterdam-South-east. In recent years, he has worked primarily in the field of university sites and campuses, including the transformation of the VU campus in Amsterdam, the Delft University of Technology and Science Park Amsterdam. For the latter, he devised the urban plan together with KCAP, and acted as supervisor of the project for several years. At present, Bart is supervisor of the TU Delft campus. He also plays an important role in the larger PPP projects of karres+brands, such as the winning plans for the Kromhout Barracks in Utrecht, the Breda Courthouse in Breda, and Hart van Zuid in Rotterdam.

Besides his work for karres+brands, Bart has been a jury member for various design competitions, both at home and abroad, including “Berlin TXL - The Urban Tech Republic” and “Zwei Parks am Potsdamer Platz” (both in Berlin). Bart continues to be a visiting lecturer at the TU Berlin, ETH Zurich, the Academy of Architecture (Amsterdam/ Rotterdam), the Utrecht School of the Arts, Fachhochschule (Berlin), Gesamthochschule (Kassel), Orange Landscape (Vienna), the University of New South Wales (Sydney) and the University of California, Berkeley (US). He was also a member of the Beirat Tempelhof, an advisory committee for the development of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and and adjunct professor at the RMIT University in Melbourne (AU). Bart is currently visiting lecturer at the University of Applied Science (Detmold).

Bart Brands is proudly sponsored by LandLAB