Mick Hiskemuller

Mick graduated in Advanced Housing Design at Delft University of Technology. For his graduation project "Feeling at home," he focused on individuals of different ages, lifestyles, and incomes. After conducting various case studies, interviews, literature research and an actual stay at a nursing home, he arrived at four main themes: feeling comfortable, feeling safe, social interaction, and identity. He translated these themes into a one-person, flexible, and adaptive building, in which residents had the opportunity to take initiative to express their own identity in and around their homes to feel at home. "The architect makes the house, the resident makes the home." Mick currently works as a junior architect in training at Paul de Ruiter Architects as of December 2022.

"In the designs of Paul de Ruiter Architects, in addition to sustainability around ecology, energy, and materials, there is a certain degree of social sustainability. For example, in the form of flexibility, which not only future-proofs the building, but it also contains a certain degree of functionality in which the user also has their own input to shape the building," Mick says.

Since childhood, Mick has been drawing and painting. In addition, science subjects in high school stood out to him. The mix of creativity and technology involved in architecture is something that really appeals to him and eventually made him decide to become an architect.

Currently, Mick is working on a housing project, amongst other things. He explains that at Paul de Ruiter Architects a lot of attention is paid to social sustainability: "At Paul de Ruiter Architects there is a perfect combination between people, nature, and architecture. I have yet to find a company that has struck such a fine balance between these aspects. I particularly value the social environment. Designing from within. Knowing who the users are and how they want to use the building is very important to me."