How can Indonesian researchers, artists and architects enjoy better access to the ex-colonial archives stored in Rotterdam as part of the Dutch National Collection? Het Nieuwe Instituut joins forces with Indonesian platforms Gudskul and arsitekturindonesia.org for a series of workshops and a public exhibition exploring ways to improve accessibility and future collaboration.

Heritage innovates. It does this partly through technological progress, but mainly by questioning current practice. A collection is not a neutral representation of the past, but acquires meaning through interactions with, and interpretations of, new generations of users. This means that heritage must, by definition, be future-oriented. At the conference Disclosing Futures – Rethinking Heritage, on 2 and 3 November in Het Nieuwe Instituut, we discussed the reorientation of the role of heritage, and innovation as a condition for sustainable collection management.

Based on the short film of the same name by artists Mandy El-Sayegh and Helena Hunter and curator Renan Laru-an, Sourcebook is an exhibition that expands on methods of artistic research, notably within archival collections, exploring and showcasing research impulses through their “conceptual, material and structural coincidences”. The exhibition can be seen until the end of 2022 in Het Nieuwe Instituut’s Research Centre and is shown together with archival material from the National Collection of Het Nieuwe Instituut.

The exhibition Just In #1 presents ten archival items that have been added to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning in recent years. They are the first fruits of a collection policy that is increasingly focusing on current social themes, feminist practice and the decolonisation of the collection.

Architectural archives, like those kept by Het Nieuwe Instituut, document the creative process and are a source of critical reflection on architecture. During this public meeting, we shall discuss the meaning of ‘the copy’ in the archive and ‘copying’ by architects and designers.

Honouring the prominent architecture critic Hans van Dijk (1948-2021), this programme will reflect on his life and times while exporing the role, relevance, and future of architectural criticism. Speakers include Rem Koolhaas, Arjen Oosterman, Tom Avermaete, James Taylor Foster, Jessica den Outer, WAI Think Tank (Nathalie Frankowski & Cruz Garcia), Anne Kockelkorn, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Anh-Linh Ngo, Jennifer Sigler, Afke Laarakker, Eeva Liukku, Veronique Patteeuw en Stephan Petermann. Moderated by Saskia van Stein en Christine de Baan.

In the third event in the Social Talks series, several guests, including artist Uta Eisenreich, artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh and architect Piet Vollaard will conduct a 'conversation of the social' concerning a controversial experiment in social design from the 1970s: the multifunctional, user-driven community centre 't Karregat (1974) by architect Frank van Klingeren.

The Jaap Bakema Study Centre conference explores ethnography’s influence on architecture. Since the 19th century, architects have used ethnography – a form of research in which immersion in a community allows observers to closely study behaviours and interactions – to develop the discipline and reshape the architect’s social role. 

It’s Open Monument Day (Open Monumentendag) on 11 and 12 September in Rotterdam! Discover the story behind Sonneveld House, a national monument from 1933 and one of the best-preserved houses in the modernist Nieuwe Bouwen style.

What is the difference between an artistic and an academic interpretation of archival materials? What is the relationship between artistic freedom and creative reuse? How ‘open’ should a collection be? What role does research play in making art? And does art influence the working methods of institutional archives? We will discuss these and other questions about the creative reuse of heritage materials during the Open Archive symposium.

From 5 June, a unique asset to the National Collection goes on public display: an interior model by architect and artist Theo van Doesburg. The design, from 1926, is for Café Aubette, one of De Stijl's most important architectural projects. 

The Makers’ Programme is a partnership between Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch Digital Heritage Network, and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. This consortium is investigating how institutions and makers can capitalise on the creative reuse potential of digital heritage.The Makers’ Programme launches on 4 May.

On Monday 26 April, Open Archive and ARIAS collaboratively organise Re:Use Clinic #2: Uncertain Archives, Ethical Dilemmas, a public event for heritage professionals, artists and other interested parties, in the creative reuse of heritage collections.

Het Nieuwe Instituut invites designers, researchers, archive managers and policy-makers to exchange ideas about Dutch designed-landscape heritage. Valuable archival pieces are currently being lost because the Netherlands lacks a national policy and an obvious home for these materials. So what is a workable solution that fits the present time and the available resources? And how can we work towards a National Collection of Garden and Landscape Architecture?

ZoekresultatenSamenvatting van intern

During the weekend of 12 and 13 September this year, an adapted Open Monumentendag programme will take place, with special routes, openings and online programming. Discover the story behind Sonneveld House, a national monument from 1933 and one of the best-preserved houses in the modernist Nieuwe Bouwen style.

A combined workshop by goldsmith Nastasia Gendreau and poet Dean Bowen. During the workshop, you’ll dive into the stories behind the materials. What are the materials saying? Where do their stories meet your own? And how to translate all of this into a poem or a piece of jewellery?

In the institute’s entrance hall, a diptych, composed of photographs from the National Collection for  Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, is on show at the invitation of Unlocked/Reconnected, inspired by the concept of home in the time of the pandemic.

Social geographer Leo van den Berg and architect Madeleine Steigenga discuss the 'everyday heritage of reconstruction' with the audience, moderated by Dirk van den Heuvel. They reflect on the multifaceted architecture of the first two decades after World War II, the current conditions of dwellings from that period, and their future resilience in a changing streetscape. Finally, they ask what possible lessons contemporary housing projects can learn from the example of the many Irenestraten in the Netherlands. 

The collection of artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) at Het Nieuwe Instituut consists mainly of colour designs, architectural drawings and photo-mechanical reproductions on tracing paper. This important collection is being examined, conserved and, if necessary, restored to preserve it for the future. During Art Rotterdam, project leader Elza van den Berg and curator Eline de Graaf of Het Nieuwe Instituut discuss the ongoing research and restoration project. 

Guy Königstein, Donna Verheijden and Oana Clitan present their installations for Open Archive. For the opening of the exhibition, the makers are interviewed about their work processes and the reuse of archival materials. Three makers spent six months researching the open, digital collections of Het Nieuwe Instituut and Beeld en Geluid (Sound and Vision) to develop a concept for their work. 

Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision have invited three makers to create new works based on their digital collections. Artist Guy Königstein, filmmaker Donna Verheijden and artist/designer Oana Clitan have each developed a media work that will be exhibited at Het Nieuwe Instituut from 14 November.

Reuse of digital collections in museums and archives produces new stories in potentially surprising, innovative forms. For Open Archive, Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision have invited makers to create new work using archive items from their digital collections. Artist Guy Königstein, filmmaker Donna Verheijden and artist/designer Oana Clitan will develop new media works based on both institutions’ online digital collections as part of the Open Archive project. They will present their work at Dutch Design Week 2019.

Are there places designed for or by queer communities? Or is it mainly a history of communities appropriating spaces? Together with archivist Alfred Marks, the State Archive for Architecture and Urban Planning will be viewed from a queer perspective. Dirk van den Heuvel discusses the results of his ongoing research into queerness in architecture, and Aad Koster takes you into Rotterdam's queer history.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a group of Dutch architects, artists and landscape architects organised meetings about architecture, nature and art in search of a new organic and ecological approach to architecture. They were inspired by, among others, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of anthroposophy, and by ideas about the unity of the arts as a design tool.

Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen (EFL) foundation present Archive Explorations, an evening about architect and urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren. The event celebrates the occasion of the official transfer of the Van Eesteren archive to Het Nieuwe Instituut. Floor Milikowski, Linda Vlassenrood and Suzanna Jansen discuss their research, and Hetty Berens (Conservator, Het Nieuwe Instituut) shows highlights from the Van Eesteren archive. 

How do you design a living space for someone who cannot indicate their specific housing needs or wishes? How can a safe and stable living environment be created for people with intellectual disabilities? This edition of Archive Explorations looks at various types of housing designed for this group in the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. 

To celebrate the centenary of the opening of the Bauhaus in 1919, Hetty Berens, curator of Sonneveld House, will give a lecture about the relationship between the Bauhaus and Sonneveld House during the 2019 Art Rotterdam Week.

In February, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre organises archive conversations with and about the authors of the archive material that is on show at Habitat: Expanding Architecture. Sunday 3 February, the members of the Tanthof Working Group that were responsible for the Delft expansion Tanthof in the 1970s. Frans Hooykaas, Peter Lüthi, Joost Váhl, Hiwe Groenewolt and Anneloes Groenewolt-van den Berg will share their memories of this process using material from the exhibition.

The 2018 edition of the annual conference of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre is dedicated to Aldo and Hannie van Eyck. In honour of their achievements and as a celebration of their work, the conference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners to explore the rich legacy of their ideas and aspirations for a humanist architecture.

Habitat: Expanding Architecture is a research installation which captures a key moment in the history of architecture and urban planning: the tenth CIAM conference at Dubrovnik in 1956. Here the concept 'habitat' was a central theme: a broader understanding of architecture through a new ecological approach viewing architecture less as an autonomous discipline than as part of larger, dynamic whole.

From September to March 2019, the blue upholstered strap chair designed by Marcel Breuer in 1924 will be on show at Sonneveld House, Het Nieuwe Instituut’s museum house. For Het Nieuwe Instituut this forms the prelude to the institute’s own programme of Bauhaus-related activities beginning in the spring of 2019. 

During Architecture Day, the Urban Guides will lead you through Het Nieuwe Instituut’s building. The tour includes special highlights and will visit the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning.

During Architecture Day, the Urban Guides will lead you through Sonneveld House. During the tour, your guide will talk about the history of the house and will point out interesting details.

Join our quest for a more varied perspective of the shared heritage from Indonesia, Suriname and the Netherlands, combining material from the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning and research into the Surinamese landscape. With Sara Frikech, Daphne Bakker, Paul Bijl, Thiëmo Heilbron, Simone Zeefuik and Hetty Berens.

Accompanied by film footage and photographs from the 1920s, actors Stijn Westenend and Gonny Gaakeer read out passages from the correspondence of architect Han van Loghem and his wife Berthe Neumeijer about their time in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in 1926/1927. A film by Pim Zwier and the International Institute of Social History.

A duo lecture in Sonneveld House with designer Sabine Marcelis and architecture historian Hetty Berens. Marcelis and Berens each reflected upon De Stijl as a design movement by looking at a specific interior design project. The two stories make clear that De Stijl was far from being an isolated avant-garde project but was and remains highly influential.

Digital sustainability needs heritage professionals to have the right knowledge and skills, now, and in the future. Have we already reached that point? Does the available knowledge already sufficiently meet the demand? And what is that demand, exactly?

To mark the De Stijl centenary, which is being celebrated under the theme 100 years of De Stijl. From Mondriaan to Dutch Design, PostNL has joined forces with Het Nieuwe Instituut and The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague to produce a set of ten postage stamps. The De Stijl stamps bear images of masterpieces from both museums’ collections. This summer’s ‘pop-in expo’ at Het Nieuwe Instituut will show the context in which this stamp collection, designed by PutGootink designers, was made. The exhibition contains a film about the process of making the stamps, a masterpiece from the Theo van Doesburg collection, and a contemporary wallpaper design inspired by De Stijl.

Sonneveld House is a prime example of the Nieuwe Bouwen style. The design drawings show that while the functionalistic form of the house came easily, deciding on a functional layout proved to be more difficult. Starting from various archive materials, architecture historian and curator Hetty Berens explores the design history of the house. What choices were made and who was involved in the project?

On June 16 2017 the Jaap Bakema Study Centre convened a symposium on the pressing issue of affordable housing, its architecture and planning. The symposium was part of the International Social Housing Festival 2017 and brought together a range of international scholars and designers: Kenny Cupers, Anne Kockelkorn, Jörg Stollmann, René Boer, Mirjana Milanovic, and Dick van Gameren. 

A writing afternoon in association with Dutch Wikimedia to add (Dutch and international) female architects to Wikipedia.

On 6 April 2017 Thursday Night Live! was about feminisms in architecture and a manifestation of work by women that is included in the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. With the TU Delft Feminists, architect Afaina de Jong and urban planner Riek Bakker.

This evening the State Archive for Architecture and Urban Planning was squatted in order to explore traces of the Netherlands’ history of squatting and its significance for contemporary architecture. With contributions from curator Hetty Berens, architect Ton Venhoeven, researcher and artist Reinier Kranendonk and researcher and activist René Boer.

The past 25 years of architecture and urban planning policy have yielded a bountiful and colourful harvest. Compiled by the Office of the Government Architect, the exhibition brings together numerous projects that came about through the incentive policies and the patronage of the State. Moreover, the exhibition devotes ample attention to young talent, internationalisation, and developments in architectural education. 

Dutch and Flemish architects discuss the precision with which they design the exterior and interior of a building, paying special attention to detailing, composition and materials. With BureauvanEig (NL), ONO (BE), Jan Vermeulen (BE) and Daniel Rosbottom (UK).

Dutch and Flemish architects discuss how their apparently radical architecture can produce a nuanced, poetic quality. With Goes & Berry (BE), Olivier Goethals (BE), Freek Persyn (51N4E) (BE), Lara Schrijver (Universiteit van Antwerpen) (NL) and Studio Donna van Milligen Bielke (NL).

In cities like London, New York and even in less privatised Amsterdam, housing is becoming more and more limited and expensive. In this Reading Room architect Jack Self will read ‘domestic time’ to uncover unexpected strategies to renegotiate the home into a place for living instead of an object for speculation.

The tatami is a Japanese floor mat with dimensions based on the human body. It is one of the four ‘platforms’ featured in the series of installations Platform. Body/Space. During this evening, art historian Dr. Sophie Berrebi presented the research behind Platform. Body/Space and professor Carola Hein gave a lecture on the history and cultural significance of the tatami. 

By ‘queering’ the discipline of architecture, we sought to discuss new ways to arrive at an inclusive approach to architecture and urban planning from the LGBT perspective. Speakers included Jasmine Rault, who wrote a book on Eileen Gray and Sapphic modernity; Henry Urbach, who organized the exhibition Queer Space in New York in 1994; Wolfgang Voigt, who is preparing a book publication on gay architects together with Uwe Bresan; and Riëtte van der Werff who is building a project for LGBT-seniors in Amsterdam.

An ode to the maids of the Sonneveld family: that is how you can sum up Natalie Konopelski’s graduation project for her master’s degree in interior architecture at the Piet Zwart Institute. In the archive of Het Nieuwe Instituut she went in search of missing information about their lives in Sonneveld House. In general terms her work is a critique of how house museums such as Sonneveld House present a reconstruction as reality.

How do you tell stories with data? In times of abundant flows of Open and Big Data, processing, interpretation and visualisation has become more urgant than ever. This Lecture Night is a collaboration with the Master of Design course at the Willem de Kooning Academy and is part of its series of 'Open Lectures’.