2024: The Year in Review2024: The Year in Review

Hidden (Hi)stories is a long-term programme that aims to make hidden stories visible through design. Think of secret or erased places, rituals, legacies or perspectives. But what does ‘making visible’ mean if tangible documentation no longer exists? What other ways of telling and imagining are there to convey these hidden histories? At the end of January, the selection of proposals in response to an open call from the Creative Industries Fund NL was announced. Almost all of the 13 have a direct connection to the Netherlands’ colonial past. Click here to find out about the knowledge exchange programme that the Creative Industries Fund and the Nieuwe Instituut came up with for the participants.

Contrary to what the name suggests, the Open Model Storage facility is not open at all – at least, not to the public. But hundreds of models, from the biggest to the smallest, made of wood, plaster, eggshells, matchboxes or blue foam, are on open display. The facility, located on the grounds of the Van Nelle factory in Rotterdam, is mainly a stylishly designed storage and work space. It was therefore a special event when the ‘OMS’ opened its doors (free of charge) to anyone who wanted to take a peek during Art Rotterdam on 1 and 2 February. The crowds were overwhelming, with long queues forming outside as though for a real blockbuster.

Last year, the institute opened a laboratory and exhibition space for digital culture called -1 (minus one). On 7 March, a new generation of artists-in-residence presented the projects they intended to develop during the second season. A few examples: Patrick Hutchinson worked on a website to keep alive the legacy of the experimental music centre STEIM; Teresa Fernández-Pello talked about Heart of the Heart, an altarpiece that combines technology and spirituality; and Yotam Sion and Erez Levanon explored the concept of data decay with installations that show the natural breakdown of data. You can follow all the projects on the dedicated website.

Embroider with human hair? At the New Store 2.0 you could – with your own hair, if you liked. For this experiment during Milan Design Week, we took a fresh look at the how the store of the future might work. New Store customers were not passive consumers. They supplied the raw materials and actively helped to develop the final product. They were invited for a free haircut, and their hair clippings were spun into a yarn that can be made into a wide range of textiles. On 12 December, New Store 3.0 will open, this time much closer to home, with new methods and new products.

“Dutch, More or Less is an ambitious exhibition that shows how humour and self-assertion change over the years into activism and involvement in social issues,” wrote design critic Jeroen Junte in De Volkskrant. It was certainly ambitious to not only sketch the development of design, architecture and digital culture since the 1990s in one (semi-)permanent exhibition, but to also try to capture something as intangible as ‘Dutchness’. In any case, this exhibition contains a wonderful collection of designs guaranteed to make you smile. Featuring Iris van Herpen, Mina Abouzahra, UN Studio, Alessandro Mendini, Irma Boom, Viktor&Rolf and XS4all.

When you think of a design archive, you probably imagine sketches, material samples and prototypes – the tangible products of design practice. But the one-day event Living Archives, organised by the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD), was also about something else: the ephemeral, immaterial side of our design heritage, including exhibitions, festivals, stories, networks and experiences. Through roundtable discussions and workshops, participants explored these themes with an impressive line-up of artists, designers, archivists, researchers and curators. Archive coaches were also on hand to help with the participants’ questions about their own archives.

Back in 2003, the first edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (theme: mobility) took place under the direction of curator and architect Francine Houben. The then Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) was one of the main venues, with three exhibitions and a ‘historic traffic jam’ on the Arcade. As the Nieuwe Instituut, we were delighted to welcome the IABR back. Nature of Hope was an exhibition that took nature and biodiversity as a starting point for design, and saw hope as a driving force for change. Speaking of hope, the renewed alliance with the IABR has also been continued in two other forms of collaboration: Architecture Everywhere, and, together with the Board of Government Advisors, Future Studio Oostkop.

Towards the end of the summer, the New Garden is at its most beautiful, in full leaf with a rich variety of shades of green. It’s a pleasant place for us humans to be, but do other forms of life feel at home there too? The good news is that biodiversity is thriving in and around the garden. This is evident from various counts and observations made this spring in this modest 1.34-hectare biotope. The main thing they show is that nature is being observed more in 2024. Nevertheless, there has probably been a real increase in species; the transformation of the ponds in particular has been beneficial for animals and plants.

Cities can be seen as ‘living archives’ of collective knowledge. But how does all this knowledge benefit the city itself? During the After Summer School, more than 20 guest lecturers held a week of public classes throughout the city of Rotterdam. This was inspired by the idea that there are unused forms of knowledge everywhere that are worth recognising and learning from. Classes were led by Verhalenhuis Belvedere, Vers Beton, Stadspark West, Rosi Braidotti, the Independent School for the City, the WaterSchool, Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie, OMI, Huis van de toekomst, the Zoöp, Stichting Wijkcollectie and Concrete Blossom.

Two highlights this month, or three actually: the transfer of the archive of architect Jo Coenen to the National Collection, the opening of The Multi-Sensory Sonneveld House, and the NOS news programme, which featured both. ‘Making the news’ is always special, but even more so when it comes to heritage. Archivists from the institute and Jo Coenen himself spoke about (from 20.25 min) the importance of the archive and all the work that still needs to be done to make it accessible to the public. And in the news item about Sonneveld House (from 14:50 min), designers Simon Dogger and Hedwich Hooghiemstra explained how they made the museum house more accessible and attractive by appealing to all the senses, with smells, sounds and objects you can touch.

The eagerly anticipated exhibition Garden Futures opened on 14 November. Previously shown at the Vitra Design Museum, it features world-famous gardens as well as a number of experiments with alternative, sustainable garden concepts. “The idea of the garden does indeed seem to be in need of an update – and the ‘call to action’ is infectious. You may suddenly feel like picking up a shovel yourself,” wrote Wouter van Noort in the NRC. Not all the content has been transferred directly from Weil am Rhein to the Nieuwe Instituut. We have added stories about recent, ‘wild’ Rotterdam gardens and landscapes and about the archives of garden and landscape designers. The design of the exhibition has also been given a distinctive new character.

Workshops, educational programmes, handicrafts and dress-up parties for our youngest visitors are regular events at the Nieuwe Instituut, but on 14 December we opened the first exhibition for and by children. Future Makers! was co-curated by Alpha (10), Aurélie (9), Jing Jing (9), Lua (12), Malikai (11), Mio (9), Nori (8), Ocean (8) and Uma (10). They came up with ideas for the themes, design, content and promotion of the exhibition. What would children like to change about the world today? What could we do better? In the exhibition, children get to work on shaping the future – not by showing not what they want to become, but by showing what they already are: the designers of the future!