Michiel Riedijk is co–founder of the Rotterdam–based architecture practice, Neutelings Riedijk Architects, established in 1992 in collaboration with Willem Jan Neutelings.

Over the past twenty-three years Neutelings Riedijk Architects has established itself internationally as a leading practice, specializing in the design and realization of complex projects for public, commercial and cultural buildings. They have designed and built theatres, concert halls, city halls, museums, libraries, hotels, university and office buildings.

The work of Neutelings Riedijk Architects is often characterised as having a sculptural quality and a playfulness of form and ornament while following a clear rationality in programming and context. Because of the public nature of most of the firm’s work, Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk see this sculptural quality as a way to communicate the building’s role within its urban or social context. Projects like the Museum Aan de Stroom in Antwerp, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum, the Shipping and Transport College in Rotterdam, and the Libraries and Cultural Centres of Arnhem and Amersfoort, have been published in numerous international architectural magazines and have won a variety of awards and nominations.

The lecture Identity, Ornament and Public Space will be dedicated to the latest public building projects of Neutelings Riedijk Architects. «Public buildings are the perfect objects to create a local identity to which the city dweller can relate. The secret of successful public buildings is that they create new public spaces where large groups of people can come together in a completely new setting. Since the new object is not directly related to a previous history, religion or ethnic group, everyone can join this new common history from the beginning» writes Michiel Riedijk in his notes for the lecture.