Pierce can make you a house from a napkin, if you ask him to. He’ll make sure it’s culturally relevant and makes a striking theoretical argument as a bonus. Pierce can take charge of anything ranging from that napkin to a space station, which comes in handy every so often.

Pierce’s all-round skills as an architect on various scales helps Except prepare for any spatial challenge, including project development in various parts of the world.

Pierce has a masters degree from Yale University and a bachelor of Architecture from Ohio State University, and won the 2008 AIA Henry Adams medal. He has worked for Pelli Clarke Pelli architects, NBBJ and ROTO studio, and has worked in the United States and Turkey on Institutional, Cultural and Residential architecture, as well as Urban Design.

Marcella, in her role as assistant office manager, takes care of the office and makes sure everything goes as it’s supposed to.

She wants to create a work environment where everyone can be themselves and perform to their maximum ability. In that way, she  indirectly contributes to a sustainable future. Her goal in this facilitating role is to prevent problems from occuring or to solve them as quickly as possible, so that all energy can be put into creating sustainable solutions for the world.

Carmen is an Industrial Ecologist with a big heart and a scienctific mind. With her care and insight she aims to create opportunities for a flourishing world, and inspires others to join her.

Carmen facilitates teams by adding analytical, critical, and systems thinking, and her enthusiasm and diplomatic posture encourages people to work together. Carmen has a strong affinity and knowledge base in food and urban agriculture. This supports her personal mission to bring change in food consumption, and dreams of a future in which everyone has access to sustainable and healthy food.

From a young age on Carmen is fascinated with nature and ecology. This inspiration by nature has led her to a deep passion for working towards sustainability. Exploring and discovering are two aspects central in Carmen’s life; only by getting to the bottom of things she can satisfy her curiosity.

Carmen has a Master of Science in Industrial Ecology from Leiden University and Delft University of Technology, and a Bachelor in Industrial Design from Antwerp University. Next to her work at Except she participates in local initiatives such as Den Haag in Transition and Youth Food Movement Den Haag.

Making the cityscape more sustainable has become Bart’s major challenge. Bart believes our urban environment could be a more human- and nature friendly place, in so many different ways. That often requires downscaling big masterplans and strategies to proportions where citizens and entrepreneurs recognize their own added value and opportunities. As a result they will feel invited to co-create and get the support needed to fulfil their dreams. Bart supports, initiates and designs these processes.

Within the fields of urban planning and design, he has specialized himself in public infrastructure, constantly seeking ways to improve the main ‘urban streams’ such as transportation, water, nature, energy and food. Bart has a heart for transformation processes. Improving areas or systems within the urban context. Working on different layers and scales, with different stakeholders, having different interests. These are a jobs of tremendous complexity. They challenge not only Bart personally, it brings the best out of Except too!

After graduating at Delft University of Technology, Bart worked for Movares, the Almere municipality and Urhahn Urban Design in Amsterdam. In 2014 he founded his own company ‘Stadsstromen’, which is Dutch for ‘urban streams’. In 2015 Bart joined Except, enabling him to put even more effectiveness, expertise and inspiration in making cities more sustainable.

Luca is an expert in  Environmental Building Engineering, who, after years of study and research brings his expertise and knowledge to Except.

 As a child it was Lego that inspired Luca to build. After some years of studying, research and work, it was nature that became his biggest source of inspiration. Luca strives to  achieve energy optimization and reduction of environmental impact, while maximizing human living comfort. With that ambition in mind, he directed his education and the first years of his professional career towards green buildings. After a Bachelor in Environmental Engineering in Italy, he worked for a consultancy company that supplied building energy modeling software. Passionate about the achievements of the Danish government, he decided to leave his country to study a Master in Building Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, where he undertook the Energy Saving study line. This allowed him to work for the Solar Decathlon 2014 and for the International Center for Indoor Environment and Energy.

 After one year of working as a researcher in Denmark, Luca felt the need to move forwards, he wanted to work on more tangible projects, together with others, on making the construction system more sustainable. The combination of smart building components and efficient services offers a promising way forwards. At Except, he has the possibility to understand the connections between  those factors, as well as the opportunity to  analyze buildings as a living organism, and the urban fabric as its ecosystem.  He is now part of the 2nd Except Academy and works as a freelance consultant.

Born and raised in Italy, he has developed a sensitivity towards cultural and natural heritage which he combines with engineering knowledge. He believes that innovation is just the state of the art of tradition; one does not preclude the other, they are rather complementary. 

Chantal wants to make a difference; she is passionate about facilitating Change processes and integrating social media.

During her career in healthcare as a HR Manager she was offered the opportunitie to develop the HR department. It was fun and challenging to make it happen. Due to the changing healthcare legislation in the Netherlands in 2006, the company she worked for asked her to facilitate the integration of this legislation into the organisations of current and prospective clients. Having a lot of fun doing this and supported by the feedback, she decided to start as a independent Business Administration Consultant.

From her experience as a Business Administration Consultant, she noticed a rise, both in the number of Free Agents as well as in the demand for new business models. This led to questions on how to integrate social entrepreneurship, community building and social media within existing organisations. She created the Holland Academy for New Qualities to meet these questions.

I'm looking forward to collaborate with my Except colleagues to work on your vision, workshops & events.

James’ insight in spatial problems on various scales helps Except to solve complex problems concerning the built environment. He brings to the Except team landscape design experience gained in large-scale projects in South-east asia and throughout Europe.

As a teacher and researcher at the ETH in Zurich he spreads and develops his knowledge, and as Project Landscape Architect he is in charge of landscape and urban design challenges.

James also waters the Except office plants, and talks to them in Dutch and Swiss German.

James has a bachelors of architecture with honours from the University of Western Australia, and a master in landscape architecture from the ETH in Zurich. James has worked on landscape design and architecture projectecs in Australia, Asia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Great Brittain.