Jo Coenen’s Archive AcquiredJo Coenen’s Archive Acquired

The acquisition of this archive is a long-held ambition: Jo Coenen is a leading architect with an extensive and varied oeuvre, of which a number of models and files are already in the collection. He is also the architect of the building of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (1993) which now houses the Nieuwe Instituut and the National Collection.

Jo Coenen’s archive covers almost 50 years of practice, and almost everything has been preserved. As a result, all sorts of social developments can be traced over a longer period of time, such as the rise of collaborations with private parties, the internationalisation of architectural practice and the digitisation of design practice.

Coenen is an architect, urban planner and overseer of complex urban development projects. He was Chief Government Architect from 2000 to 2004. Some important projects include the redevelopment of the former Céramique factory site in Maastricht, the urban design of the KNSM island in Amsterdam, the Municipal Office Delft, the master plan for the Vaillantlaan in The Hague, and the public libraries in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Heerlen.

Jo Coenen graduated from Eindhoven University of Technology in 1975 with a degree in architecture and urban planning. In 1988, the first batch of Eindhoven graduates were presented as a group in the exhibition and publication The Eindhoven School. According to the compilers, these architects, including Wiel Arets, Bert Dirrix, John Körmerling, Sjoerd Soeters and Rudy Uytenhaak, were characterised by a broad cultural orientation in the field. This common thread runs through Jo Coenen’s oeuvre: references to architectural history manifest themselves at all levels – in the typology, in the spatial organisation, in the detailing and/or in the materialisation of the design.

Another recurring motif is that Coenen approaches many of his architectural designs from an urban planning perspective: what are the structures and patterns of the environment and how do they relate to the design? A good example of this is his design for the new building of the then Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), and its location on the edge of the Museumpark. Coenen himself has often referred to his work as ‘architectural-urban planning’, by which he means that architecture and urban planning are expressed in the design in an equal relationship, without losing their autonomy.

In the 1980s, architecture increasingly became a cultural statement and firms developed their own powerful visual language. Architecture became ‘iconic’ and the term ‘starchitect’ was born. At the same time, the influence of project developers, contractors, suppliers and builders on design continued to grow. Architectural firms responded to this in different ways: OMA with a conceptual architecture and MVRDV with data-driven design using ‘datascapes’. Coenen remained particularly true to what he calls ‘craftsmanlike construction’; the use of balanced building systems, in which the entire design is thought out in detail. In this method, everything is coordinated: scale, material, construction and architectural details.

Coenen acts as a conductor, keeping all parties in line. This is not only in order to arrive at a well-considered design; it is also a conscious position. If design is increasingly determined by contractors and project developers, the profession of architect can only survive if it designs and determines all the components itself. Coenen discovered that the digital design practice offers many opportunities for such an integral design approach.

The archive is extremely complete, rich in composition and in reasonable to good physical condition. This makes it very valuable for research. The archive also has great communicative value, in the sense that it contains easily readable and attractive drawings and models. This makes it possible to make Coenen’s architecture and urban planning accessible to a wide national and international audience, for example through digitisation, an exhibition or an online presentation.

The Coenen archive enriches the National Collection and is an important addition to the existing material. Coenen’s approach to design is related to the ideas expressed in the archives of Jos. Klijnen, Jos. Bedaux, M.J. Granpré Molière and F.A. Eschauzier. These architects also considered architectural history as a source for the design process, as the beginning of a search for a meaningful continuity between old and new. The Coenen archive also has points of contact with the archives of the SAR (1965) and of John Habraken. Habraken was a professor of architectural design at the TU/e when Coenen studied there. It was through him that Coenen became acquainted with the study and analysis of urban fabrics. The Coenen archive also complements the archives of other architects of the Eindhoven School, such as Sjoerd Soeters, Rudy Uytenhaak and Madeleine Steigenga.

The acquisition of this archive is an addition to the archive collection which is being built up on the basis of the Making Choices collection note and the collection themes identified in it. Making Choices covers archives from 1960 to the present. For this period, a transition has been made from a predominantly monographic collection policy based on the work of individual architects, to a thematic approach that places more emphasis on the social context of architecture and the main spatial developments. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. The archive of Jo Coenen is of great importance as a monographic oeuvre, and at the same time ties in with collection themes such as internationalism, education, the existing city and heritage, discourse, digital culture and government.

The first part of the acquisition is the professional archive. The selection and appraisal of the personal archive, which relates to Coenen’s teaching positions, professorships, travels, lectures and other activities, will be completed later this year.

Part of the acquisition has been loaned to the Centre Céramique in Maastricht, Jo Coenen’s home base, for a period of 10 years. This concerns the designs relating to Europe. During this period, the archive will form part of a research programme at Maastricht University.