For Ricky Rijkenberg, architecture is more than just a building or a landscape. It is a way to narrate a place, bring people together, or influence social behaviour. She explores locations and speaks with inhabitants and users. Her aim is to uncover deeper layers within a design. This quest is almost romantic—a search for an architecture that is no longer visible.
Born in Austria, Ricky Rijkenberg now lives in Amsterdam. She studied in both Austria and the Netherlands. In 2011, she graduated in architecture from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. During her time at Bureau B+B Landscape and Urban Design, she worked on various landscape and public-space projects. She focused in particular on the redesign of Mariahilfer Straße in Vienna. She received an honourable mention at the Archiprix for her project “Zutritt Verboten.”
Today, Ricky runs her own studio. She creates works that intersect landscape, design, and public art. A common thread throughout her work is the historical context, the paradox within it, and the questions each space and story poses. She avoids confining herself to a single medium. Instead, she selects the form of expression best suited to each project—installation, book, or exhibition space. The involvement of visitors remains central. Her work fosters a subjective experience and offers a fresh perspective on space and history.
Her focus lies in the experiences and memories that certain locations evoke, and in how the built environment can trigger recollection. She uses photography, sketches, and models to study how these subjective experiences become new spatial narratives. For example, her research project, Forgotten Spaces, Hidden Places, funded by the Creative Industries Fund NL, investigates how places with layered histories influence memory and perception.
Since 2018, she has collaborated with the publisher Architectura and Natura on several book projects about architecture and landscape, and she designed an exhibition space for Aldo van Eyck’s Orphanage in Amsterdam. She was commissioned by BPD Cultuurfonds to create the Schatkamer in the Burgerweeshuis in Amsterdam. In addition, Ricky teaches at the Academy of Architecture and, in 2019, completed a masterclass in book design at the Plantin Institute of Typography in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2021, her design for the book The Landscape of Affordances by the artists RAAAF was chosen as one of the best Dutch book designs of the year.
Completed in November 2024, her artwork, ‘De Illusie van Regelmaat’ was gifted by the Province of Drenthe. It marks the 200th anniversary of the Society of Benevolence (Maatschappij van Weldadigheid). The Colonies of Benevolence, including Frederiksoord, were recognised by UNESCO in 2021 as a World Heritage Site for their unique historical and social significance. This artwork brings together these commemorations in a single piece.
Clients: AM Wonen, Architectura & Natura Press, Atelier Fischbach, BPD Cultuurfonds, Creative Industries Fund NL, Edith Kolkman, Frans Boots Consultancy, House of Architects, Karres en Brands, Marlies Boterman, Municipality of Vienna, Province of Drenthe, RAAAF, Wouter Kroeze Architect.