GRONINGEN is - in addition to being a popular shopping city - also the architectural centrepoint in the north of the Netherlands. Regularly the city concentrates on architectural themes in general and its own urban spaces in particular. The heterogenious collage of the City Museum could be seen as one of the turning points in the local debate. In 2001, as a part of the 'Blue-Moon-Exhibition', small pavilions and different street furniture were realised all over the city. Toyo Ito designed the concept for these urban interventions, architects such as Foreign Architects, Space Group, Tony Fretton and Xaveer de Geyter conceived the different projects.

Unique is the Wall House 2 of John Hejduk, an architect of the New York Five. The original design for the Wall House was already made in 1973, though only after his death in 2000 and after long financial discussions the city of Groningen realised this project. Currently the 'Europapark' is planned under the supervision of Wiel Arets, being a sport complex with its own city quarter on the site of a former power-station. Another important project is the 'Groninger Forum', a grand multifunctional building designed by NL Architects, to be built in the historic city centre. The local architecture school building could be seen as another example for Groningens' art of building. It is the realized project of two architecture students who won the competition in 1994.

Architecture by Wiel Arets, Piet Bloom, S.J. Bouma, Pi de Bruijn, Claus en Kaan, Coop Himmelblau, Kees Christiaanse, Foreign Architects, Tony Fretton, Xaveer de Geyter, Giorgio Grassi, John Hejduk, Jeroen Huijsinga en Joost Koek, Toyo Ito, Karelse van der Meer, Rem Koolhaas, Mecanoo, NL Architects, Alessandro Mendini, Space Group and many others