06.02.2023
Kay Oosterman has joined the board of architectural studio ZJA, where as architect and partner he's working on a wide range of projects.
‘Kay orchestrates his projects with the effortlessness and ease of a concertmaster. He brings structure to a field as subjective as architecture, while ensuring incredible creativity and excellence in the result,’ according to a close colleague. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Drawn to technology and aesthetics
Kay has worked at ZJA since 2007, having graduated in both building technology and architecture. That combination, along with an ability to combine a clear and meticulous mode of operation with a love of architecture, makes him entirely suited to a position at ZJA, a bureau that is always searching for the best combination of technology and aesthetics, and where innovative technologies such as parametric design are an integral part of the design process.
‘In architecture you have to use hard data to make targeted choices,’ says Kay Oosterman. ‘But at the same time it’s a creative search for something that doesn’t yet exist. I like reducing complex tasks, with the help of innovative technologies, to apparently simple solutions. And learning along with others and discovering new things, so that all the pieces of the puzzle ultimately fall perfectly into place, resulting in a great project like the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek.’
Sustainable connections
From climate proofing and the circular economy to health, wellbeing and social values – along with its well-known inventive mentality, sustainability is part of ZJA’s DNA. Building on the past, the bureau aims to create value for the future.
‘As a project architect I like to work on very different projects,’ says Kay. ‘But whether it’s a matter of the office lofts in Zwijndrecht, the renovation of the three-climate greenhouse at the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam, the new Gerrit Krol Bridge in Groningen or the light-rail system in South Korea, I’m always inquisitive about the past and curious about the future. What is the impact on the world? Wherever honesty and reasoning are the basis of a good design, including in the field of sustainability, buildings need to be beautiful as well as functional. People must feel comfortable in and good around a building. It’s fine to lose your heart to it: that too is sustainability.’
Strategy for the future
Along with Rein Jansma, Rob Torsing, Reinald Top, Ralph Kieft and Erik Smits Kay Oosterman will be responsible for day-to-day management. Throughout all those years of growing along with the ZJA philosophy, Kay has been looking to the future. ‘Strategic and out-of-the-box thinking, that’s very much my thing. So I’m extremely eager to focus, along with my enthusiastic colleagues, on the further strategy and future of the bureau.’