Alexandra Sonnemans
Architect
Reflections and Actions
Schiekade 189 [unit 403], 3013 BR Rotterdam
+31(0)619411178 | hello@alexesoleil.com
About
News
Work
Selection of Work
SPATIAL
Time Tower | A combined sculpture, viewing tower and exhibition space in the garden of Sonneveld House, on the occasion of 100 years Museumpark Rotterdam (NL), bringing together the layers of past, present and future.
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Three Pavilions | A series of three colorful pavilions as the first gesture and stimulus to change the perspective and use of the central square in Aigle (CH), as a real place for encounters, a place for the residents.
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House PS1 (ongoing) | Finding space within the existing. Working on creating (splitting) and designing a separate apartment within a larger house in Maastricht (NL), to make room for more residents. The house, in the center of the city, is a combination of buildings from different time periods.
Strito Studio (ongoing) | Four multifunctional modular small-scale studios that can be used independently and that can be assembled into one full-fledged home. The studios act as a platform for (new) natural, biobased and experimental building materials.
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House Gashouderstraat | Transformation of a 1900 house with four floors and a small footprint in Rotterdam (NL).
Pavilion Encounter Iced Sound | Architecture & Sound. Highlighting the climate crisis through spatial and sonic experience. Bringing the story of melting Alpine glaciers – fragile landscapes that are gradually, but also ever faster, changing – to the public, urban space.
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Groen van Prinstererstraat | A collective corridor connects five work spaces and a communal kitchen. Transformation of a 1900 building in Amsterdam (NL).
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House Werengouw | Transforming a 1960s house in Amsterdam (NL) into a more sustainable, lighter and more spacious family home, including a new extension (with full timber-frame construction) that adds more space and light.
Pavilion La Dérivée | Activating and appropriating the waterfront area in Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) with a modular pavilion, built with and by the community, and a cultural and educational program.
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Sant Pere Mitjà | Transformation of a 19th century building within the old city fabric of La Ribera, Barcelona (ES), into a workshop and studio space. A combination of new and restored/uncovered elements.
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Marseille Kitchen and Bar | Transforming an existing building in Rotterdam (NL) and activating a street corner by introducing a new function. An opportunity to create a place for encounters, full of warmth and color.
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L’eau à la rencontre de la ville | An urban installation consisting of a series of fragments forming a new scenographic path along the former original shoreline of Lake Neuchâtel (CH), combined with a cultural program, to activate the area and foster ideas for the future of the city.
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RESEARCH - CURATORIAL
Evidence of the Absent | One-year experimental research project and architecture residency with a curated public program and invited guests at Kulturfolger Zürich (CH). On urban transformation and the real-scale architectural representations/simulations that are used to publicly communicate future plans directly on-site, within the context of the city.
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Urban Transformation as Event - rr-dialogues | One-year experimental interactive, international collective research project in various European cities, with 30 invited contributors, on both content and method; a continuous expansion of perspectives on the same topic, as well as an experimental publishing project.
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Along the Line | To mark 150 years of water correction in the Jura, we focused on the transformation process of the Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) waterfront, reflecting with residents on the changed relationship between city and water and on the potential of this ‘gained’ piece of land.
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Conditions for Growth - Ministerie van Maak | A proposal focussing on preserving, regenerating and diversifying the existing landscape and on (re)valorising the existing built environment – with an incremental densification strategy and six ‘conditions for growth’ for the city of Margraten (NL) and the surrounding area.
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EDUCATION - WORKSHOPS
Intercultural Bench IDW2020 University of Antwerp | With a 35-meter long bench, we occupied a piece of public space in Antwerpen Luchtbal and claimed for more dynamic and interactive common spaces outside.
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Learning from Venice – anticipating a constantly changing landscape Rotterdam Academy of Architecture | Making the future flooding of inner-city rivers visible in the present, to architecturally and culturally revisit public space and the value and meaning of urban elements by which it is formed.
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Path of Play IDW2022, University of Antwerp | A sequence of interactive elementary structures allowed students and residents to generate new places – suggesting space through minimal means – infusing them with personal and cultural values, creating new common meaning.
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Architectural Positions TU Delft | Imagining an entirely different development for a currently ‘vacant’ plot within the area of M4H in Rotterdam – one that is not market-driven, but that answers to local, national and even global questions, and that carefully considers all the site-specific conditions.
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WRITING - PUBLICATIONS
Een onvolledig verhaal | Essay for De Witte Raaf on the occasion of the publication Women in Architecture (nai010 publishers)
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To Interact, to Play, to Appropriate | Article for the publication ‘On Public Space’, edited by Marianna Ascolese, Thymos Books Glifi (coming soon)
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Designing for the Endgame IABR–DOWN TO EARTH (IABR & nai010 publishers) | Publication on designing in times of climate crisis, focussed a.o. on how the energy transition and water task can be used as leverage to find concrete solutions to urgent societal issues.
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Space in-between | Research and Exhibition Publication for London Festival of Architecture. What role can architecture play mediating between present and future, and what is the potential of this ‘space in-between’?
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Website under construction. More coming soon.
Get in touch for more information, a full portfolio and/or ideas for a collaboration!
© Alexandra Sonnemans 2025