Founded in 1993 by Jan and Ingrid van Dijk, VDA has since grown into one of Ireland's leading architectural firms, with a diverse range of clients and projects, both nationally and internationally.
We listen to our clients to enable them to exceed their strategic project design, profit and marketing objectives, by providing a world class service in terms of vision, delivery, long term value and sustainability. We achieve this through our commitment, enthusiasm, integrity, creativity, knowledge, experience, research and interpersonal skills.
As leaders in sustainability, van Dijk Architects is working towards being the first carbon neutral practice in Ireland. We are supplied with electricity from renewable sources only, including our own solar panel array, and have modified our headquarters to implement a new natural ventilation strategy. We have also purchased land, and are developing a new urban bio-diversity park by planting native species of plants and trees, accommodating bee hives and ponds to offset carbon costs which we cannot mitigate.
We are the kind of practice that listens intently to our client’s needs to achieve their particular goals, while creating long lasting working relationships.
Our projects are led with an emphasis on good communication because we believe that is the key to successful outcomes. We invest in our colleagues’ training and development to build on their talents and equip them with the most up to date technology and software to deliver on their commitments to their clients.
We are solution finders and quality-centric. Our approach to service delivery generates high levels of satisfaction and retention of both clients and colleagues.
We have distilled our approach into four core values that demonstrate our focus as a practice.
Client Focus
Through our culture of honesty, integrity, understanding, friendliness, listening, communicating, and solving problems, we aim to build and sustain strong long-term relationships with our clients.
Professional Pride
We take pride in the design, quality and professional standards achieved in all our work. We are relentless in our efforts to make each and every project the best it can be.
Working Environment
We have a happy atmosphere in our office, with an ethos of collaborative teamwork centre stage. Each team member is valued and nurtured with many opportunities for personal growth.
Process Orientated
We are constantly improving the efficient service we provide through commitment, expertise and a smart process oriented working approach.
The quality of our award-winning services is evidenced in the buildings we make and the places we shape.
We believe in clients having access to the highest levels of management at all times and know this is key to ensuring quality outcomes and programme efficiency.
We are accredited in the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System and are Irish Green Building Council members. Our practice has won several awards from bodies such as the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Irish Construction Excellence and Irish Construction Industry Awards.
Our expertise lie within the fields of architecture, development consultancy, design and build, and urban design.
We believe great buildings and spaces are created through collaboration with all stakeholders at all stages of a project. All of our work and efforts are directed at producing buildings and environments that client, user and society as a whole can enjoy and be proud of. We believe in architecture which encourages people to appreciate the experience of being in and using buildings. Concentrating on the physical and emotional ways people inhabit spaces, we produce architecture of lasting quality and true meaning.
Sustainability and cost-efficiency are key elements in the pursuit of meaningful architecture.
As a practice we are aware of our responsibility to ensure buildings and their surroundings are designed and constructed in the most sustainable manner possible.
We value the achievement of optimum expenditure on a project based on the agreed brief and budget drawn up between a client and ourselves. We do this by ensuring the efficient allocation of a budget so that so that a project can be as community focused, sustainable, durable, attractive and cost efficient in use as it possibly can be. We are rigorous in our pursuit of large scale design and life-cycle efficiencies.
van Dijk Architects provides a development advisory service to clients which includes financial appraisals. Such appraisals include both traditional Nett Present Value / Residual Value assessments and full cash flow analysis should it be required. All our financial appraisals include full sensitivity analysis to show the effect of potential upside and downside risks.
Our integrated service allows us to test potentially different uses or approaches to the development of a site against their financial return in a seamless way. The ability to carry out financial appraisals also assists the practice in our public private partnership bids with main contractors.
Contractors we work with often end up becoming clients of ours on future design and build projects because in the day to day operation of their sites they value that our buildings have a Design for Construction approach. We have extensive design and build experience working with a number of leading construction firms to realise projects.
We add value to our solutions by implementing a best practice approach to urban design that prioritises human beings over cars in the design of public space and urban environments. We are promoters of socially inclusive designs that are low maintenance and durable.
Meet Our
People
Mill House, Mill Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth, A91 XTF7
Scottish Provident Building, 7 Donegall Square West, Belfast, BT1 6JH
VDI KSA, Unit J Auto Moto Business Park King Faisal Road, Ar Rakah Al Khobar
VDI Poland Sp. z o.o. No. 41A/6 Swieradowska Street, 50-559 Wroclaw
VDI Project Management Ltd. HDS Business Centre 3204 (Cluster M) Jumeirah Lakes Towers Duba