David Veldhoen is a Dutch visual artist and architectural designer or artchitect, based in Amsterdam. Since the 1980s, he has developed an interdisciplinary practice that operates across the fields of art, architecture, ecology and the public realm.
Educated as a painter and sculptor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Veldhoen shifted his focus from the studio to the public domain, where landscape, infrastructure and environmental systems became both subject and site. His projects take the form of sculptural interventions, pavilions, spatial installations and speculative architectural proposals that investigate the relationship between people, place and ecological processes. Central to his practice is the translation of invisible natural and environmental phenomena into spatial experience. Tides, water dynamics, gravity, pollination networks and ecological interdependencies become tangible through works that invite both physical engagement and critical reflection. His projects are developed through interdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists, engineers, architects, scientists and public institutions.This approach led to the development of Artchitecture - a term coined by Veldhoen to describe a hybrid practice in which artistic inquiry and architectural thinking converge. Rather than separating autonomous art from the built environment, Artchitecture uses spatial imagination as a means to explore and communicate complex ecological and societal questions.
His recent work, developed during his Artist in Residence programme with Rijkswaterstaat (2023–2026), investigates water as both a physical force and a cultural construct, exploring the intersections of landscape, climate adaptation, public space and collective imagination.
Artist Statement
Artchitectuur is the construction of ideas.
'It is a practice in which artistic imagination initiates a spatial proposition and architecture becomes its material language. My work begins with phenomena that are fundamental to life yet largely escape our perception: tides, gravity, water systems, pollination networks and the complex ecological relationships that connect landscapes, species and human activity. These invisible forces shape the world we inhabit. By giving them physical form, I seek to create works that can be experienced sensorially while opening space for reflection and dialogue.Unlike conventional architecture, which is generally driven by programme and function, Artchitecture begins with an artistic question. A pavilion, installation or architectural structure becomes the embodiment of an idea—a spatial thought experiment in which function may emerge, but never dictates the work. My practice moves fluidly between art, architecture, ecology and scientific research. Collaborating with ecologists, biologists, engineers, architects and policymakers, I explore how artistic imagination can contribute to new ways of understanding climate change, biodiversity, water systems and the evolving relationship between humans and the more-than-human world.
For me, Artchitecture is not simply the meeting point of art and architecture; it is a methodology. It is a way of thinking through space, of making invisible systems perceptible, and of creating places where imagination becomes a catalyst for new perspectives on our shared future.'
28 March 1957, Amsterdam
Gerrit Rietveld Academy: painting and sculpture
Visual artist and designer since 1979
Lives and works in Amsterdam
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a selection of projects:
2026 - 2023 ‘Tipping points’, Artist in residence, Rijkswaterstaat (strategische verkenningen). Three concepts concerning climate adaptation: ‘Amfibium’ (Sea), ‘Fluctoforum’ (water) and ‘Habiversum’ (Land). These concepts -not designs!- seek to make the abstract facts of the rising sealevel, climate change and the loss of biodiversity tangible by confrontation; The magazine FORUM (architectura et amiciticae) focuses on spaces within the home, such as the living room or bedroom and this time turns its attention to the attic
2022 - 2019 'Laboratidal II, Exhibition Cityscapes Gallery: ', Amsterdam. Gravity forces a roof positioned inside a tidal machine, through specially developed mechanics to rise to three times the height of the tidal difference above the water; 'Laboratidal I' for exhibition ‘Octopus’s Garden in the Vishal, objects placed at scale inside a tidal machine referring to gravity, the force that because of Newtons- and Einsteins is mathematically explicable but as an invisible emerging henomenon yet on a metaphysical level a mystery
2019 - 2017 ’Syzygy’, light object; Lectures for Academy of Architecture, Amsterdam on Ratio/ Proportions; 'I Amsterdam’, visual comment on extreme tourism in Amsterdam; Since 2017 Veldhoen works on ’Sub~tide’, a transdisciplinary project and follow up of the Melarium that blends art, architecture and science and is set in a (post)European context, proposing alterative proportions between man and nature, specifically the sea
2016 - 2012 'Melarium' (honey house); Green capital; think-model for the Zuidas; Guest-teacher Gerrit Rietveld Academy architectural design; Jagtlust, design for the castle-garden of Jan Six; ‘Pangean Pulses', design for a bean garden, castle of Chaumont, France; ‘Table plan’, a social sculpture; ‘Diogenes’ idea-contest for Who Cares; Sabbatical (2015-2016)
2011 - 2006 ‘Wishful Thinking’ a floating sculture; ‘A Venue’, a temporary site specific project for a fly-over, close to the Coentunnel, Amsterdam; solo-exhibition Sue Biederberg Gallery; ‘Weight of Thoughts’ sculpture; 'Origin’, a proposal for the visitors centre at Oostvaarders Plassen, Flevopolder
2005 - 2001 Advisor for the Amsterdam Fund of the Arts (AFK), IJ-oevers (harbour area) and adviser for the council (stadsdeel) of Amsterdam North; 'Vortex', sculpture for the Province House of Drenthe
2000 - 1997 'Tertulia’, site specific art for Kattenbroek; ‘Rare Citizens’, site specific art for the city council of Pijnacker; guest teaching for the Sydney College of the Arts, Australia; adviser site specific arts, council of Hoorn; Final design for the ‘Hygiëaplein’, a square in Amsterdam, exposed in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam
1994 - 1991 Proposal for the (polluted) Griftpark, OVT Municipal Museum of Utrecht; Final design for an open air theatre close to the Dom-tower, Municipial School for Music, Utrecht
1990 - 1985 Music projects Eidophone, Windharp for the Holland Festival, IJsbreker, Amsterdam and the Municipial museum of Arnhem; ‘Orion’, utopian design for a floating island; Sculptures purchased by ABNAMRO collection and others; Painting 'Schutterstuk’ purchased by the Amsterdam Museum
1981 - 1984 Paintings and sculptures; Docu-drama ‘Pompeii Now’; movie for Dutch TV (Italy, VPRO); Government grant/ visiting Western Samoa and New York; Final design for a Bijlmermeer Drive Inn theatre, commission Praktijkbureau Visual Arts; sculpture ‘Mankind’, purchased by the Municipial museum of Arnhem; sculptures exposed at artcentre Aorta, Amsterdam
1979 - 1981 Starts Art Gallery AMOK with Peter Giele; exhibition of sculptures at former Gallery Sothmann, Amsterdam
