UNStudio's Caroline Bos on Architecture as Cultural Endeavor and Innovation

In a video interview for the series Past, Present, Future curated by Itinerant Office, Caroline Bos, co-founder of UNStudio with Ben van Berkel in 1988, discusses the firm's origins and evolution. Both studied at the Architectural Association in London in the 1980s, which Bos calls 'the Mecca of architectural education.' They began writing reviews of art and architecture exhibitions for Dutch magazines, promoting architects like Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Coop Himmelb(l)au. Returning to the Netherlands, they faced a paradox: known from their publications but lacking a professional network, especially in social housing. This led them to specialize in innovative territories rather than predefined typologies. Today UNStudio has over 200 professionals in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Frankfurt, including architects, industrial designers, interior designers, and urbanists. Bos advocates for a relational approach over economic parameters. The firm's 2016 publication 'Knowledge Matters' addresses the dematerialization of the profession, focusing on time management from project inception to completion. Bos emphasizes the importance of asking 'why' and considering health and planetary impacts in the age of technology.