Utility Houses: Towards a New Urban Standard

Utility houses. Image: Sabine van der Vooren

The energy transition requires a major overhaul of the Dutch electricity grid. This will involve the construction of large numbers of new utility houses in existing public spaces. This publication, a report and reflection on the IABR Workshop "Jeux des joules," explores how these inevitable structures can be made more attractive, smarter, smaller, and better integrated into their surroundings.

78 pages
Dutch paperback
full color

Credits

Organization:
INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL ROTTERDAM (IABR): Saskia van Stein (Managing Director), Lena de Rouw (Project Manager)
WORKSHOP MASTER: Peter Veenstra (LOLA Landscape Architects)

Commissioned by:
MUNICIPALITY OF ROTTERDAM: Annemieke Fontein, Melany van Twuijver, Rik de Nooijer, Zhenja Zheng MUNICIPALITY OF AMSTERDAM: Paco Bunnik, Frank Rietveld, Wim Poppinga
MUNICIPALITY OF UTRECHT: Paula Schultze
MUNICIPALITY OF DELFT: Tako Postma, Arjaan Hoogenboom, Judit Bax

Partners:
ALLIANDER: Aschwin Groep, André Bank, and the internal Urban Standard Development team
BATENBURG: Marc Seher, Stefan Honders
ENECO: Casper Burger, Daan Boersma
SIEMENS: Richard Berghuis SPIJKERMAN: Réne Blauwhof, Sjaak Spanjersberg
STEDIN: Gijs Lambooij, Martijn van de Steen, Jan Maijer, Trudy Onland
VATTENFALL: Merel van Eeden, John van Dreumel

Design agencies:
BRIGHT: Thijs van Spaandonk, Lotte de Koning, Ruby Schaap, Karim Jaspers, Giulia d’Addario
STUDIO CHRIS KABEL: Chris Kabel, Mikołaj Cichocki, Titouan Longatte
OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, supported by Bollinger+Grohmann

Editors: TEXT EDITORS Lotte Haagsma, Noortje Weenink

Translation: D’Laine Camp

Design: BUREAU SPORKEN

2025, IABR, Rotterdam

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