Mecanoo is an architecture practice based in Delft, in the Netherlands, founded in 1984 by Francine Houben, Henk Döll, Roelf Steenhuis, Erick van Egeraat and Chris de Weijer. Houben, Döll and Steenhuis had won, while still students at Delft University of Technology, a competition for youth housing at Kruisplein in Rotterdam that marked a turning point in Dutch social housing. Between 1988 and 2003 four of the five founders left; Houben remains creative director. Its many libraries range from Delft University of Technology's (1997) to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington (2020).
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Montevideo in Rotterdam (2005), designed by Houben, is a 152-metre tower of flats, offices and shops, one of the tallest buildings in the world designed by a woman. The Library of Birmingham (2013) has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom. The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan (2018), whose design Houben drew from the area's banyan grove, links four halls and an outdoor theatre through an open Banyan Plaza and is described as the world's largest performing arts centre under one roof.
Montevideo2005 · Rotterdam
National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts2018 · Kaohsiung
Library of Birmingham2013 · Birmingham
Tainan Main Public Library2021 · Tainan