Liesbeth van der Pol designs buildings with strong characters; buildings 'that are not ashamed of themselves'. Her buildings are intended to add something of themselves, something unique even, in their relationship with the human environment. This is borne out by the striking 'Red Rascals' on the southern rim of Almere, the storage building of the Netherlands Maritime Museum, and Aquartis at Entrepotdok in Amsterdam.
In this monograph twelve of Van der Pol's most noteworthy projects are singled out and illustrated with photographs, plans and drawings. It also features a considerable number of watercolours by the architect. Two essays describe and analyse Van der Pol's work. Cultural historian Eelco Beukers plumbs the deeper layers in her architecture, and architectural critic Geert Bekaert places Van der Pol's buildings in an architecture-historical context.
Although Van der Pol's buildings are extremely diversified and would seem to bear little relation to one another, the two authors discover surprising constants in her oeuvre. These are less related to the buildings' outward appearance as to her manner of seeing, her design approach and her deep-rooted ideals regarding the relationship between people and the built environment.
One such constant is that during the design process Van der Pol invariably proceeds from how the users will perceive her building. She considers even residential districts not primarily as ground plans but from eye-level, the perspective from which their users will actively see, hear and feel them. Another constant is that Van der Pol, rather than regarding the housing projects as merely bringing together large numbers of dwellings, expressly configures each project as an unambiguous, high-powered building. This is a response that allies her housing to the larger utilitarian buildings she has designed.
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