Simplicity is the hallmark of the real thing

Studio M10's maxim is the very Dutch 'Simplicity is the hallmark of the real thing'. The pursuit of minimal forms with maximum precision, of self-evident solutions for architectural and urban issues, is implicit in that.
The intention behind each design is to create a transparent link between context and spatial order, between materialisation and construction. Coherence and precision create room for appropriation, development through the years and inclusion of the unforeseen.
Studio M10 is a compact organisation, as such guaranteeing close cooperation between the commissioning party and the architect. Depending on the project requirements, the team is assisted by consultancies for constructional engineering, design and installation. Martien Jansen is responsible for artistic and business management.

More than 25 years of architectural developments

Prior to the establishment of Studio M10 in 1996, Martien Jansen spent 10 years as an architect at OD 205*, where he was responsible for a large number of projects, such as the University Library and Lecture Halls Building in Tilburg, the tax offices in Helmond and Heerlen, the Department of Chemistry Sciences in Eindhoven and the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.

As such, Studio M10 has the cumulative experience of more than 25 years of architectural developments, plus an order portfolio that incorporates urban construction and structure plans, interior jobs and exhibitions. The width of this portfolio characterises the design approach, which does not focus on the reproduction of an existing solution, but on the balanced development of the general and specific. Urban design, residential building, offices, buildings for education, science and healthcare, for cultural and special purposes and interior assignments: Studio M10 has realised designs and projects in all of those fields.
As demonstrated by the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, extremely precise details and materialisation of exhibition furniture can become the focus of the assignment to give the museum coherence and character, and to really do the magnificent collection of scientific instruments justice. For a number of offices that needed to be developed to market standards, the urban adaptation to and architectural transparency in the finish represent the quality which the agency has added to these neutral assignments.
In the building for the University Library of the KUB (Catholic University of Brabant) in Tilburg, the library in its capacity of machine, study area and identity provider is brought together in a design that has been developed on the basis of its intended use. The technical and constructive logic form integral elements of the design approach.

Strong character and a certain degree of austerity

The experience of the agency is characterised by a great degree of dynamics in architectural fashions and successive ideas. In the early eighties, postmodernism dominated, followed by deconstructivism and aesthetic modernism, while these days a populist traditionalism predominates in the Netherlands. As demonstrated by the documented projects, these changes in setting have little effect on the work. Each expression is a product of its time, but this is not necessarily the intention behind the design. Studio M10 designs buildings that have a strong character and a certain degree of austerity. That results in buildings that offer the perfect environment for the requested use today, and will form a meaningful framework for an adapted or changed used later.

* since 1996: OD 205 architectuur bv of Delft