Patrick van Vliet

When in 100 years time the dust has settled, how will we look back at our current social spatial interventions? Will our nostalgic desires have grown bigger or will they be replaced by an indomitable, technocratic belief in progress? Our desire to control the natural and a growing dependence on the artificial, changes the cultivated playground with it’s inhabitants step by step. In this social spatial discourse, interests conflict and correlate. We are in the middle of an obscure mix of short and long term considerations of which it’s hard to tell what the end results will be. Are we still in control of our urbanisation acts or will our desire for efficiency and control distort our definition of happiness and liveability?

Patrick van Vliet (1981, Zevenbergen) studied Urban Planning at Utrecht University. As a son of a dike builder, the water management seeds were planted early in his life. He now uses his interest for rural / urban design and social geography as a magnifying glass to give meaning to our existence. Patrick works in Utrecht, The Netherlands. 

For more information about work, please contact by email:  info@patrickvanvliet.com

‘ Reality often exceeds the imagination. Despite this knowledge, you compete with your imaginative powers. Like a wrestling game, you try to extract your ideas from the opponents. Gravity, that pulls your ideas down. Realism, that makes your ideas plausible. The obvious, that makes it tasteless. ’