ArtEZ alumnus Robin van Vemde wins first prize at Archiprix 2026

ArtEZ Architecture alumnus Robin van Vemde has won first prize at Archiprix 2026 with his graduation project Rariteitenkabinet. The award was presented on Saturday 13 June to graduation projects selected by Dutch design schools: the Academies of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, and the master's programmes in Interior Architecture.

Robin graduated from the master’s programme Architecture at ArtEZ Academy of Architecture. In Rariteitenkabinet, he explores how architecture can offer a counterbalance to a world that is becoming increasingly rational, efficient and controlled. Where space is often approached mainly in functional terms, Robin looks for architecture that opens up imagination, meaning and mental richness. His project combines philosophical and psychological reflection with narrative architecture, poetic drawings and fictional interventions.

The design becomes an architectural experience in which reality and fiction flow into one another. The European Parliament and its immediate surroundings serve as the case study: a place that symbolises bureaucratic order and cognitive logic, but which Robin’s project opens up through magical-realist interventions. This gives rise to spaces such as Pluxor, based on Freud’s iceberg theory, and the Ministry of Timelessness, where time becomes fluid and space emerges for dreams and creativity.

'My inspiration comes from philosophy, magical realism and parafiction, but also from personal experiences in which imagination played an important role.'

Robin on his sources of inspiration

The jury admires Robin’s design approach, in which unexpected design patterns continue to surprise. They praise the high quality of the project’s visualisation, as well as the sense of optimism and lightness with which this politically charged site is approached. In the jury’s words, the research is “both subtle and megalomaniacal”. The jury considers Robin’s explicit emphasis on imagination and mental space in architecture to be a valuable and courageous contribution to the current architectural debate.