Adriaan Geuze

co-founder of West 8

Adriaan Geuze is one of the founders of West 8, a leading urban design practice in Europe. Geuze attended the Agricultural University of Wageningen where he received a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture. After winning the prestigious Prix-de-Rome award in 1990, Geuze, with his office West 8 founded in 1987, established an enormous reputation on an international level with his unique approach to planning and design of the public environment. By founding the SLA Foundation (Surrealistic Landscape Architecture) in 1992, Geuze increased public awareness of his profession.

Adriaan Geuze and Edzo Bindels brought West 8 to the frontline of international urban design and landscape architecture. West 8 developed a technique of relating contemporary culture, urban identity, architecture, public space and engineering within one design, while always taking the context into account. Adriaan Geuze has extensive experience in directing Dutch and international teams on projects all over the world. Internationally respected as a professor in Architecture and Urban Design, Geuze frequently lectures and teaches at universities worldwide.

Amongst the numerous design awards that West 8 has won, such as the Dutch Maaskant Award in 1995 and the Rosa Barba First European Landscape prize in 2002, Adriaan Geuze was presented with the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for Urban Design from the Harvard Design School in 2002. In 2005 Geuze was recognized as a leader in his profession by being given the prestigious position of curator for the 2nd International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam. Recently Geuze and West 8 received the prestigious American Society of Landscape Architecture Honor Award 2009, AIA Institute Honor Award 2012 and the Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 from the BKVB, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. “The jury praised Geuze not only for the impressive projects he realized, but definitely also for the broad approach in which he applies his talents and the important role he plays in initiating discussion about spatial and environmental design”.

With West 8, Adriaan Geuze has been honoured with the success of winning various international design competitions such as Governor’s Island in New York, Playa de Palma in Mallorca and Toronto’s New Central Waterfront design in Canada.