Our yearly Kromhout Lecture is named after architect Willem Kromhout, one of the founders of the Academy in 1908. Every year the lecture is delivered to our alumni, by one of our alumni. This year Dutch landscape architect Mirte van Laarhoven will be the keynote speaker.

Mirte explores the subtle interactions between man and nature through creations that blend poetry and eco-responsibility. Her artistic approach is based on meticulous observation of ecosystems and a quest for a more harmonious dialogue with natural elements.

Working mainly with renewable materials and organic forms, she strives to reveal the intrinsic beauty of landscapes while questioning their fragility and destruction. Her works invite viewers to slow down, listen and reconnect with different forms of life. Tapping into natural forces and the metamorphosis of the landscape, Mirte Van Laarhoven creates installations that celebrate biodiversity while raising awareness of the need to preserve it. Her approach demonstrates how landscape and art combined can play a pivotal role in the ecological discourse.

Through design commissions and art exhibitions she brings attention to the importance of sustainable and biodiverse environments, for organizations like the board of governmental advisors, Creative Industries fund, the province of South Holland, RADIUS Center for Contemporary Art and Ecology, Brutus Artist driven playground and the Ijssel Biennial.

Mirte studied at the Amsterdam Academy or Architecture, Pratt Institute’s school of Architecture and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. She was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academy and took part in EKWC ceramic residency twice. She worked for different landscape firms in the Netherlands, and founded her practice, Living Landscapes in 2019.

Vistitors information
Thursday 23 October
19.30 uur
Hoge Zaal, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture
The lecture will be held in English. Registration is not required.