The Frans van der Werf Acquisition: Inspiration for today’s housing debate The Frans van der Werf Acquisition: Inspiration for today’s housing debate

Text Manuela Zammit

Ecological awareness, sustainability, quality of life: these terms are almost always present in every major political and social debate of our time, not least in discussions about housing and development. The Netherlands is currently facing a severe housing shortage, and the housing sector is largely dominated by a profit-driven open market, resulting in an architectural landscape whose impersonal practices and outcomes are far removed from their users and the desirable values mentioned above. Are more emancipatory alternatives for the future of housing and architectural practice possible? What might they be, and where should we start looking?

One of the Nieuwe Instituut’s latest acquisitions addresses precisely these questions. I talk to Behrang Mousavi (Head of Collection) and Eline de Graaf (Curator of Collection), about the addition to the institute’s National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning of a set of objects – including drawings, notes, and photographs – that previously belonged to Dutch architect Frans van der Werf (born 1937). As De Graaf, who was involved in acquiring the architect’s archive, tells me, Van der Werf’s architectural practice, based on his principle of Open Building (Open Bouwen) is highly inspiring and instructive in relation to the current state of affairs.

Van der Werf collaborated with many other architects, including Max van Huut, Ton Alberts, Pieter van der Ree and Peter van der Cammen, all of whom were associated with the ‘organic architecture’ movement. In the 1970s, society was already increasingly concerned about the climate and the human disconnection from nature. Convinced that design and architecture could provide solutions, these architects developed innovative approaches that focused on reducing architectural waste, paying attention to a building’s surroundings, and creating a positive individual experience of domestic space and the work environment. Their ideology was not only forward-thinking for its time, but also highly relevant today.

Van der Werf’s Open Building concept embodies these values. It is a multi-scalar concept based on the belief that the residents of a building should be able to determine the layout of their own home, while at the same time giving developers the opportunity to create architecture that fits in with the urban fabric. The Molenvliet social housing complex in Papendrecht, completed in 1977, was the first of three such projects developed by Van der Werf (the other two were in Zevenaar and Zwolle).

The project was characterised by a participatory, bottom-up process in which Van der Werf held consultation meetings with all stakeholders, including each prospective resident, to find out what they wanted and needed in a home. These conversations had a major impact on the final outcome, meaning that no two homes are exactly alike. De Graaf tells me that some of the drawings for the project have survived: “They are very colourful and lively, unlike the usual architectural drawings. The social element is clearly there. Van der Werf also managed to negotiate more money from the municipality for features such as a roof garden.”

Given his inclusive approach, it’s not hard to see why Van der Werf’s archive deserves a place in the collection. De Graaf tells me that when she joined the organisation in 2019, the institute organised a symposium from which it emerged that, while the Dutch organic architecture movement was already represented in the collection by the works of Alberts and Van Huut, others were still largely absent.

“Alberts and Van Huut did not work in isolation,” says De Graaf. “Their work should be seen in relation to their colleagues and the wider context in which they were active.” Earlier, in 2011, the Nieuwe Instituut initiated a new, still ongoing collection policy called Making Choices. Mousavi tells me that since then the institute has focused on acquiring works that address socially relevant issues. “Our collection, which contains over 4 million objects, is a collection of resources, not just a repository of static things,” he says. “We don’t just collect objects related to realised projects, such as Molenvliet, but also those that, although never built, represent a certain set of values and aspirations for the future that still speak to our contemporary condition.”

Looking back to the 1970s will not immediately change the housing sector today. As De Graaf points out: “Van der Werf’s democratic process would be very difficult to recreate today.” Nevertheless, it is important that cultural institutions like the Nieuwe Instituut continue to show that other ways of living together have been imagined and are possible.

In the Nieuwe collectie (New Collection) magazine, which appeared as an appendix to Metropolis M 6, 2023, the editors of Metropolis M, in collaboration with 25 museums, present 25 new acquisitions.

Manuela Zammit is an art historian and critic.