The Plant Cell.
BSc3 Architectural Design Studio
Location: Groningen, The Netherlands
Typology: Educational
Size: 1400 sqm
The Plant Cell marked my first real exploration into biomimetic architecture. Inspired by how plant cells organize, nourish, and communicate, I designed a school where educational spaces reflect the intelligence of cellular structures. It was here that my love for story-driven architecture began, and where I first discovered architecture’s power to make learning both tangible and poetic.
I thought back to my love for biology and psychology, and began researching how architecture could stimulate creativity in pupils. I discovered how spatial qualities – ceiling height, routing, color, form – influence the mind: compact rooms foster focus, while open and irregular volumes can spark inspiration.
This led me to the plant cell. Its microscopic structure – logical yet intricate – felt like a natural fit. I mapped educational functions onto cell components: chloroplasts became classrooms, the nucleus a central assembly space. Sculpting with clay helped me translate this cellular logic into architecture, letting spaces flow and fold like living matter. Through sketching and shaping, I visualized not just form, but feeling: how a space might breathe, sound, even smell.
I always felt drawn to organic architecture, but for a long time I lacked a guiding theme – something more than just curves and gestures. That changed when my professor simply told me:
“Follow your fascinations”
This was a turning point in how I design:
Intuitive yet research-driven, emotional yet grounded in structure. It’s where I first realized architecture could be both a science of systems and a language of the senses.
Sports Hall
The Plant Cell envisions a learning environment shaped by nature’s intelligence – where spaces don’t just contain, but inspire. From the playroom to the study squares every element invites students to move, feel, and discover. This project proposes a blueprint for schools rooted in well-being ecology, and architectural wonder.
Classroom
A final space where architecture gently reminds us:
to learn is to grow, and to grow is to connect
Curiosity
Enlightens
The Architecture
Of Thought.