Source: Maniera In 2014, architect Anne Holtrop begins tracing the ruins of the Barbar Temple in Bahrain, thought to honor Enki, Sumerian god of water and craft. The temple, first built in 3000 BCE and reconstructed several times since, sits in what was Dilmun, a sacred port, the original garden of Eden. Long before Adam made Eve, Enki met Ninhursag, Mother of the Rock, and together they created the world. Enki and N

Source: Studio Anne Holtrop Photography: Anne Holtrop The Qaysariyah Suq and Amarat Fahkro played an important role in the pearling economy as it hosted coffee shops where some of the pearl purchasing deals took place, as well as the place where wood for building the pearling fleets would be received and stored. For both parts, the renovation of the Amarat Fahkro and the new stores for the Qaysariy suq, we continue t

Source: Studio Anne Holtrop Photography: Anne Holtrop The buildings floor plan consists of two identical sized rooms and a core in between. The plan is very shallow in depth and has one long main facade with two short end facades. With the shallow depth of the plan, the facade itself is the main spatial element. The facade is made out of sand casted structural wall elements with a strong relief. The elements are cast

Font: Anne Holtrop Photography: Bas Princen Text Maaike Lauwaert – 10 December 2015 As with many works of Anne Holtrop, the starting point is not a mapping of square meters, number of rooms and technical requirements. But rather drawings, objects found on site or natural shapes. For Museum Fort Vechten, Holtrop looked for shapes in the surroundings where the museum would be built, that he then used as a startin