About Us

architour was founded in 2004

Since then, our team has guided groups of 2 to 240 participants from all over the world – from architecture firms and municipalities to housing corporations and architectural associations. All our guides are architects with detailed knowledge of Dutch architecture and urban development. They provide the kind of context you won’t find in a guidebook.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Anneke Bokern has been living in Amsterdam since 2000. She studied History of Architecture in Berlin and works as a freelance journalist, writing about architecture and design in the Netherlands.

Her articles have been published in DETAIL, Bauwelt, Baumeister, db, Mark Magazine, uncube magazine, design report and Mare. She also published the Architectural Guide Rotterdam (DOM Publishers) in 2021 and Amsterdam: Urban Architecture and Living Environments (DETAIL Publishers) in 2025.

Anneke develops programmes, organises tours and guides in German, English and Dutch. In addition to her work for architour, she continues to be active as an architecture journalist.

anneke-bokern.com

Born in Utrecht (NL), Paul Vlok is an experienced architect and lecturer. He studied architecture at Delft University of Technology, spent an exchange year at ETH Zurich and graduated with honours in 1995.

He worked for fifteen years at various Dutch architectural offices and taught at Delft University of Technology and the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. His work mainly focussed on urbanism and housing.

Paul started guiding tours for architour in 2011 and became partner in 2014. He develops programmes, organises tours and guides in English, Dutch and German, while still teaching at the Academy of Architecture.

architour team

Gebhard Friedl

Gebhard was born in Vienna, Austria, where he studied architecture at TU Vienna and worked as a freelance architect. After moving to the Netherlands in 1998, he took a postgraduate degree in design process management from TU Eindhoven and worked as an independent management consultant. He lives in Amsterdam and runs his own consulting company.

Allard van der Hoek

Allard was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, to Dutch parents. He studied architecture at TU Berlin and worked as an architect in Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam from 1989 until 2004. Since 2004 he is a freelance architecture photographer, living in Amsterdam and Berlin.

André Günther

André was born in Detmold, Germany and studied architecture at the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH). He worked as an architect in Amsterdam and Berlin. Since 2010 he runs his own office andARCHITECTURE in Amsterdam.

Jelte van Koperen

Jelte was born in the Netherlands and grew up in France. He took the long road with his studies: starting with carpenter trade school, studying his way up to Msc of arts in History of Architecture. Jelte is a freelance tour guide in historic cities and more recent projects, and gives lectures about architecture.

Jeroen de Vries

Jeroen was born and raised in Amsterdam. He studied architecture at TU Delft and graduated in 2003, and has been working as an architect ever since. From 2009 he’s been working as architecture guide, alongside running his own architecture office.

Jack Hoogeboom

Jack is a Dutch architect and urban planner. He studied and lived in Utrecht, Maastricht, Aachen and Amsterdam, and is based in Rotterdam since 2006. He works as a lecturer in the Urban Planning department at the University of Applied Science in Rotterdam and owns an online art gallery with art that relates to cities and architecture.

Germaine Sanders

Germaine is a Dutch architect and urbanist. After her studies, she worked with various architecture and urbanism firms in Tokyo, London and the Netherlands. She has also worked as area developer in project development and in the building industry. Germaine currently is an interdisciplinary artist and teaches at TU Delft. She has been guiding tours for architour in English and German since 2022.

Sylke Gloystein

Sylke Gloystein is an architect and translator of German origin. She studied architecture at Leibniz University Hannover. In 2001 she moved to Rotterdam, where she worked for various Dutch architecture firms, before becoming a translator in 2015. She has been guiding architecture tours for architour since 2018.

René Bouman

René Bouman studied architecture at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam. He worked for various renowned architecture firms in Rotterdam and ran his own office Möhn + Bouman from 1997 until 2018. Currently he teaches, acts as jury member, freelances as an architect and occasionally guides groups.

Annelies Bloemendaal

Annelies is a Dutch landscape architect. She studied Landscape Architecture at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam and at École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage in Versailles. She also holds a Master of Fine Art from the Academy of Art in Utrecht. Annelies has worked for various landscape architecture firms in the Netherlands, in France and for the municipality of Amsterdam.

Yukiko Nezu

Yukiko was born in Tokyo, Japan. She gained master degrees in architecture at Tokyo City University and at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam. She has been living in Amsterdam since 1997 and has worked for various renowned architecture firms in the Netherlands. In 2002 she founded her own office Urbanberry Design.

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“It was so helpful for us to have a tour with architour in Amsterdam and Utrecht, as we did not know the area and would never have seen the things we did without your help.”

“The students thoroughly enjoyed the two days organised by architour. A very informative talk on Day 1 followed by an excellent couple of days at IJburg and Almere.”