Edge Insider: Concept-Driven Development at Edge with Frank Maas
Frank Maas is the Director Concepts & Acquisitions at Edge, where his work begins long before a building exists, starting with an idea and guiding it through the early decisions that determine whether it can grow into a place people will eventually use to work, meet, live, and experience everyday life.
Deciding in Real Time
Every project starts with an opportunity triggered by movement, a tenant, an investor, an existing building, or zoning conditions.
I don’t only think about how a building looks, but also whether it can be built in way that fits our strategy. When a new project comes in, I open a 3D model and an Excel sheet at the same time. One shows what works spatially, the other what works financially. If they don’t align, we stop. Sometimes we know within fifteen minutes.
This early phase is about analysis, exploration and validation. An idea only becomes a project once it holds up under pressure testing.
I always felt the ideas come faster than I can explain them. With AI I feel super powered now, because I can test and formalise concepts immediately.
The Edge Product, Made Brick by Brick
When Frank joined Edge, he and the team weren’t stepping into an existing blueprint. They helped define one. Early on, their collaboration formalised what became the Edge Design DNA, a framework that brought consistency across projects while allowing local expression.
The starting point was simple: move away from the typical office interior.
Less sterile. More human.
The atrium, now synonymous with Edge, is one manifestation.
EDGE London Bridge shows how the approach travels. In London, where full atriums weren’t feasible, the concept evolved into the sky lobby, a vertical social heart connecting people through light, height, and material warmth.
The goal was never to create a signature look, but a recognisable logic.
Over time, the framework evolved, with Frank involved, Edge moved toward a brown-to-green strategy, beyond the new build to the full lifecycle of buildings, including acquisition, repositioning, and long-term asset management long-term asset management.
What is a Future-First Building?
When we talk about the future of buildings, the instinct is to think about technology. Frank thinks about use.
Not in the conventional mixed-use sense, where functions are stacked neatly on top of one another. I think buildings should not fall asleep at seven in the evening. The same square metre should shift purpose throughout the day. Workspace in the morning. Shared living room in the evening. Cinema at night. Too much space in buildings sits unused. We should unlock it.
Ideas like this require a shift in mindset across the entire system, from municipalities to investors, to make new ways of using buildings actually feasible.
How It Started
Long before working in real estate development, Frank was a kid in Westland with a pencil and a strong imagination. He liked to draw, to design, and to think in images.
I have a very associative mind. Choosing architecture felt natural. For a long time it was either architect or fighter pilot.
He studied Building Engineering in The Hague and Architecture in Delft. Looking back, he describes that period as the time when he learned the art of critical thinking. Over the years, his work has covered a wide range of projects, from railway stations to cinemas, and took him from Japan and Madrid to New York.
That international exposure still informs the way he works at Edge today, always returning to the same question: how does an idea turn into reality?
