Frits van Dongen began studying architecture at Delft University of Technology in 1964. However, in 1971, just before completing his studies, he dropped out to pursue a career as a semi-professional basketball player. This he eventually kept up for nine years. Whereas he started his graduate studies with Hertzberger in the early 1970s, he still completed his studies with Weeber and Koolhaas in 1980. The many works Van Dongen creates in the following years fit more with the Koolhaas and Weeber generation, than with the Hertzberger generation. In an interview with Hans Ibelings in 2002, he said the following about this: "The severity, punishment and clarity of Weeber and seduction of Koolhaas. Sometimes in my work one prevails over the other sometimes vice versa." After graduating, he worked for several years with both Kas Oosterhuis and Van Mourik Architects. In 1985 he founded his own architectural firm: Van Dongen Architekten in Delft. In 1988 he founded the Architekten Cie. together with three other Delft alumni, Carel Weeber, Jan Dirk Peereboom Voller and Pi de Bruijn. The firm is characterized by an individual way of working in the form of project-based "production teams. He will remain a partner in this firm until 2012. On August 1, 2011, Van Dongen succeeded Liesbeth van der Pol as Chief Government Architect, a position he held until 2014. In 2012, Frits van Dongen and Patrick Koschuch, until then both partners at de Architekten Cie., started a new architecture firm together, Dongen-Koschuch Architects and Planners. The new firm's mission is "to provide high-quality solutions to upcoming urban, economic and sustainability issues. In ours, architecture is more than ever about creating values for people, by people with a passion for the craft." Due to a difference of visions, Van Dongen will continue in his own name as Frits van Dongen Architects and Planners in early 2019 with a mission to "provide high-quality solutions for future urban, economic and sustainability issues." A mission not much different from his collaboration with Koschuch. In the early 1980s, the use of brick was out of the question and Van Dongen (along with Kas Oosterhuis) experimented with new materials, form and design. His first completed building, Natal in Rotterdam (1985-1990) is an example of this. In this housing project, with retail units on the ground floor, Van Dongen wanted to put everything he knew and had learned. The building had to become something special. Therefore, the building was given an autonomous and powerful appearance; the building is set on stilts and does not blend into the city. Only through the store units on the first floor level did he allow the old block structure to return. During the 1980s, Van Dongen's mindset changed. He felt that new and old should have the same character, so that a building would more quickly become part of the (urban) fabric. The use of material was important in this: brick is part of the Dutch building culture. The large-scale housing project De Landtong in Rotterdam, and many buildings thereafter, therefore chose to use brick. "From opponent to advocate of brick," Van Dongen said. The apartment complex The Whale in Amsterdam differs from this because of the desired contrast between the low-rise and high-rise buildings. Van Dongen's architecture is characterized by a strong urban identity, and his portfolio consists largely of two genres: housing and buildings for culture. Van Dongen gained notoriety primarily for a number of large residential buildings that he realized within De Architekten Cie. Examples include the previously mentioned De Landtong and the Admiral in Rotterdam and, in Amsterdam, the projects The Whale, Botania and Batavia. Buildings for culture include the Pathé ArenA mega cinema (together with Ton Schaap) and the Heineken Music Hall on ArenA Boulevard in Amsterdam Zuidoost, in Leeuwarden the city theater De Harmonie and in Haarlem the Philharmonie. Furthermore, his work includes the Cap Gemini headquarters in Utrecht and Spazio in Zoetermeer and the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music. Van Dongen has also been active as an urban planner and supervisor, such as with the IJburg housing estate and Het Funen in Amsterdam and with an urban extension of Bolzano in Italy. Projects realized by Van Dongen under Van Dongen-Koschuch include pop venue Grenswerk in Venlo, theater De Kampanje in Den Helder, the Spinoza Hotel in Amsterdam and concert hall Musis Sacrum in Arnhem. Van Dongen has won several awards in his career, with the theater De Harmonie in Leeuwarden being particularly notable: for this, Van Dongen received Bouwhuis Noord Architectuurprijs in 1999 and an I.A.L.D. (International Association of Lighting Designers) in 1997. For both the project De Landtong and De Admiraal, he won the Bouwkwaliteitsprijs of the city of Rotterdam. His work has been exhibited at the Venice, Chicago and São Paulo biennales. In 2006, he won the NA Cube from the Association of Dutch Architects (BNA) for his cultural buildings. Van Dongen lectures regularly, both in the Netherlands and abroad, and was a visiting professor at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Universidad Politécnica in Madrid, the Unversität Konstanz in Germany, the Technische Universiteit Delft and the Academies of Architecture in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen and Tilburg. Sources: Bonas essay Frits van Dongen : building for culture = designing for culture (2006). Frits van Dongen : 25 años/ /years, 25 obras/works (2017). DONF1702: Introductory text bureau De Architekten Cie. (s.jr.). DONF1705: Documents concerning monograph Frits van Dongen (2002), interview Hans Ibelings (?) with Frits van Dongen on April 4, 2002. DONFav2: Lecture; Sound recording lecture 'Een kans om te bouwen', De Brakke Grond (June 2002)