Studio
Except Systemic Design emerged from 25 years of integrated sustainability practice. The studio applies the SiD (Symbiosis in Development) framework to architecture, urban planning, landscape, and product design: every commission is stress-tested across ecological, physical, economic, governance, and social dimensions before a single line is drawn.
Emma Westerduin
Head of Except Design, Lead Architect
Emma Westerduin leads Except Design's architectural practice. Her built work includes the Orchid City blueprint, the award-winning Climate Adaptive Roosendaal, and ReGen Villages Oosterwold. She holds a master's in architecture and has been with Except since 2012.
Tom Bosschaert
Founder, Systems Design Director
Tom Bosschaert founded Except in 1999. He developed the SiD framework over 25 years of practice and teaches systemic design at multiple European universities. He leads strategic framing and systemic analysis for all major commissions.
The SiD Framework
SiD stress-tests every design decision across five dimensions: ecology (material flows and living systems), physics (energy, water, structure), economics (lifecycle cost, market viability), governance (regulation, ownership, policy), and social (community, equity, lived experience). A design that performs well on four dimensions but fails on one does not pass. This is not an audit layer applied at the end. It is how the brief is read from the first conversation.
Example: in the Roosendaal climate adaptation project, physics analysis of historical rainfall data (340 soil core samples) revealed that municipal drainage averages masked three annual flood events. The SiD ecology dimension then flagged that conventional drainage would accelerate soil compaction. The resulting bioswale design resolved both dimensions simultaneously: 40-minute drainage in the March 2025 test event, zero soil compaction increase after three years.
How We Work
We take commissions where systemic complexity is the central design challenge. Regulatory risk, ecological constraints, multi-stakeholder coordination: these are not obstacles to design quality; they are its specification. We expect clients to share data, tolerate structured uncertainty, and value outcomes over aesthetic preference.
If this sounds like the right fit, let's talk.