FARMAX

Third impression of the bestseller by the architects of Villa VPRO and the Dutch Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover.

Vast areas of the Netherlands and other states seem to be filling up with a suburban ‘matter’ of low cost housing, low rent offices, warehouses and other low density elements.
How are we to cope with this matter that is turning our environments into one ‘sea of mediocrity’, one vast ‘greyness’, an equation of difference and individualism? Is it possible to reconsider this situation by carrying density to extremes and ruffling the texture with inserts or polarities?
This book examines the possibilities of these extremes. It sets out to discover the prospects and limitations, the world of the extreme Floor Area Ratio, FARMAX. Conceived and edited by Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs with Richard Koek and produced by MVRDV, FARMAX reads as an architectural narrative composed of studies and designs made by MVRDV and students from Delft University of Technology, the Berlage Institute and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Planning, along with contributions by other authors.