Astrid has been working at Stevens Van Dijck for almost five years. High time, then, to ask her about her coolest projects with us!
“My most memorable project at Stevens Van Dijck? Pooh, there are a lot of them. But if I have to choose, I would go for NN Workspace 2020. What I like most about my job is the diversity. One minute I’m inspecting a facade with an ecologist, looking for bat droppings. Yes, a bat is protected. So its presence has consequences for a project. Other times, I dive full steam into new material, to come up with a good plan of action.
That was the case with NN Workspace 2020. The offices of Nationale Nederlanden in The Hague and Rotterdam were renovated in a circular way. A big job, and a great ambition. This included a total inventory of the building plans. We reused most of the materials. Did we need something new? Then we chose bio-based materials. We were way ahead of the game. I came across materials that we were already using at that time at the Dutch Design Week last year. Stevens Van Dijck advised and guided us from A to Z: from thinking along with us about the plans, thinking about the logistics (because where do you store materials that you don’t use for a while?), connecting the right partners and parties plus keeping all those involved informed and happy, ensuring the right tendering strategy, a sharp turnaround time and proper completion.
It wasn’t until after the project that I actually realized how special it was. Together with my colleagues, I wrote a white paper and developed a workshop on defining ambitions in the field of circularity. It is always good to share this newly acquired knowledge and expertise on a subject like circularity with more people. And Stevens Van Dijck also encourages this: as colleagues we share a lot among ourselves. There is a clear interest in what is on everyone’s mind.
What am I most proud of? The development I have made in recent years. On projects and within the company. It is incredibly cool that at Stevens Van Dijck I get all the space I need for that.”
