'How can architecture be liberated from the "imprisonment" in which it finds itself at the moment? Increasingly a victim of more fashionable and artistically superficial design, it loses a lot of its potential and power. Is the answer to climb further up the ivory tower or to change the focus of an intelligent, analytical approach? While other disciplines appear too rushed to establish long-term, pragmatic solutions for the ever-accelerating complexity of human society, architecture seems too slow to compete with fashion and design. This is where our challenge is embedded.' Bjarne Mastenbroek graduated with an honourable mention from TU Delft in 1989, where he studied with Max Risselada. He worked for Enric Miralles (EMBT) in Barcelona in 1990-91. He later took part in 'de architectengroep', a firm with over 100 collaborators. In 2002 he established SeARCH. His best known designs are a double house in Utrecht (with MVRDV), houses on Borneo island, Amsterdam, a tea pavilion in the east of Holland and the Nertherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa.