MVRDV has been named a recipient of the Gazellen 2017 prize, an award that recognises the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands over the last three years. The prize is issued by Het Financieele Dagblad (FD), a Dutch business newspaper, and is supported by ING Business Boost.
Over the last three years MVRDV has grown from a staff of 65 to 205, and has more than 600,000m2 on site worldwide.
“It’s a great honour yet it feels remarkably grown up to receive a business award. Especially as our main focus is not necessarily on high-end commercial projects,” says Jacob van Rijs, MVRDV founding partner and managing director. “We have grown enormously without compromising or specialising. We design in any scale and typology between, say, a table and a metropolitan area. We remain true to our clients and ideas by offering highly-specific designs that are perceived as innovative, sometimes raw, democratic and great spaces to stay.”
MVRDV maintains an ethos of being diverse, as it sees synergy in working on different scales, typologies, and budgets. The practice continues to work on social housing alongside high-end developments, offices, mix-use, shopping centres, public spaces, urbanism and urban infrastructure. The professionalization efforts which began in 2008 almost as a by-product of the global financial crisis, gave MVRDV a head start in sustainability and building technology. During this crisis, MVRDV maintained its size but stopped growing yet in 2014 everything changed. At present, MVRDV still works in The Netherlands on more than 2500 dwellings are in the process of planning. Worldwide, MVRDV has more than 600,000m2 of projects under construction.
In 2014, Markthal Rotterdam opened and the building is better known than the intricate acronym MVRDV carries as its name. “We call it the Markthal effect,” says Jan Knikker, MVRDV Partner for Strategy and Communication. “Markthal made it clear that we can deliver our bold visions within time and budget, ever since we are growing because we have been prepared. The award is a fantastic recognition that we are a dynamic, solid and serious business.” Today MVRDV is in a consolidation phase to get used to the new company size. Most of the 205 staff are located in Rotterdam where all the designs are made, offices in Paris and Shanghai represent MVRDV’s main activities outside the Netherlands. The practice is currently active in 36 countries on six continents and is therefore truly global.
The FD Gazellen award highlights companies that have achieved revenue growth of at least 20% over the last three years. This milestone achievement will be recognised at a ceremony on the 14th November.
To read more about the FD Gazellen award, click here.