(b Amsterdam, 27 Oct 1930). Dutch architect. On completing his studies at the Academie van Bouwkunst, Amsterdam, in 1960, he designed the well-known water purification plant Berenplaat (1959–65) in Oud Bijerland. The architectonic design of this project—the first in a series of commissions for large civil engineering and industrial complexes—and the design method on which it is based offer an excellent image of the architect and his oeuvre. His preference for geometric volumes, his choice of materials (concrete, glass and steel) and his fascination with structural techniques resulted in an austere architecture in which design was the product of function and construction. His position within the functional, rational tradition of the Modern Movement, however, is due more to his exceptional sense of social responsibility than to the visual image of his architecture, and there is a paradox in the frequent and erroneous characterization of Quist as a ‘no-nonsense’ rationalist. His work shows indifference to the Modern Movement’s unequivocal Functionalist dogmas, exploring instead the inherent contradictions. In so doing he focused on an undercurrent of Modernism in the manner of Le Corbusier, one of the few modern architects who did not attempt to suppress irrational impulses within the design process. Quist’s conscientious investigation of the expressive power of simple primary shapes and their construction and of the visual structure of elementary shapes and planes is particularly evident in the designs he created for various museums (e.g. extensions to the Kröller-Müller Stichting in Otterlo in 1977 and the Maritiem Museum Prins Hendrik (1986) in Rotterdam). It is the emotion in Quist’s architecture that enriches the concept of reduction.