2025: A Year in Review2025: A Year in Review

We’ll certainly see Worldglimpsing in the 2026 annual review, but we are so excited about it that the announcement back in January was a highlight in itself! We reported our collaboration with ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, on this two-part exhibition. Together, we are exploring two interconnected forms of creativity: ‘worlding’, or creating fictional worlds; and role-playing, or imagining and ‘acting out’ alternative versions of yourself. The first part of the exhibition has already opened in Stockholm, and the second part can be seen in Rotterdam from December 2026.

At the end of the month, the Soengoe Kondre / Submerged Heritage exhibition, which had previously been on display at the Nieuwe Instituut, travelled to two locations in Suriname: Brownsweg and Paramaribo. Taking visitors – quite literally in this case – to the submerged interior of Suriname, the exhibition explored the 1964 completion of the Afobaka Dam, which flooded an area of about 1,560 km2 and resulted in the large-scale displacement of the Maroon communities who had lived there until then. Displaying the exhibition in these locations was highly significant. Brownsweg, a migrant village, is home to former residents of Ganzee and Koffiekamp – two of the largest villages on the banks of the Suriname River that were subsequently flooded. These communities play a prominent role in the story told in the exhibition.

In the first quarter of the year, the Garden Futures exhibition was still on display. We explored the collection to find examples of Dutch gardens from the previous century. Although garden architecture has never been part of the collection’s long history, the results were impressive. Together, the photographs we found paint a picture of the evolving value placed on private green spaces, nature and fresh air over time – as well as who could afford them.

We also took a closer look at the exhibition’s spatial design. The Italian studio Formafantasma created the design for the original version of the travelling Garden Futures exhibition. They were inspired by historical gardens that were furnished as though they were indoor spaces, complete with carpets. For the Rotterdam edition and its location, artist Frank Bruggeman attempted to breathe new life into them, quite literally.

While large-scale art and design events serve significant economic and cultural interests, they also contribute to overtourism, pollution and rising housing costs. However, these events can also provide an important platform to address such issues, enabling designers to explore alternative, more sustainable approaches. During Milan Design Week in April, we launched the first edition of the Redesigning Design Weeks residency programme, which addresses this very topic.

This year’s resident designers, Pete Fung and Studio-Method, presented their initial findings after spending two months immersed in Milan’s urban, social, ecological and cultural ecosystems, and collaborating with Milanese communities. We will have to wait a little longer for the final results, which will be presented during Milan Design Week in 2026.

Less than a week later, the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan, got underway. Nieuwe Instituut curated the cultural programme of the Dutch Pavilion for the expo, which is perhaps the world’s biggest cultural event. Entitled Activating Common Ground, the programme was based on the idea that culture and identity are shaped by exchange, interaction and curiosity. Taking the form of a ‘living magazine,’ Activating Common Ground was loosely based on the iconic Dutch magazine Avenue, which devoted equal attention to literature, fashion, food, design, shopping and photography.

Two major exhibition openings this month focused on the search for connection, for example through sport. Sport can bring people together – but it does not always succeed, nor include everyone. For SIDELINED, the Dutch contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale, designer Gabriel Fontana chose the sports bar as a setting to demonstrate how everyday spaces can be made more inclusive. He achieved this by inventing new forms of play, with new ‘rules.’ You can read how this works in practice in interviews with the owners of the Queer Gym and Café Costa del Sol, two Rotterdam venues that bring diverse communities together through sport.

Architect Ma Yansong seeks connection through expressive, organic forms that reconnect people, cities and landscapes. De Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper, wrote, “The exhibition about MAD, the dynamic Chinese architecture office, captivates right up to the final project.” Unusually for an architecture exhibition, one of the works was within walking distance and could be viewed or even climbed: MAD’s extraordinary spiral staircase, designed for Rotterdam’s new migration museum, Fenix, that winds its way up from the building to the roof.

Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion can still be experienced digitally. SIDELINED is set to arrive in Rotterdam in 2026 in a modified form.

In the summer, two projects on archival practices entered a new phase. Since 2021, Collecting Otherwise has been critically examining the way in which we and other heritage institutions collect and archive. The project culminated in the publication of five manuals to equitable archival practices. These are intended to inspire anyone conducting archival research, managing a collection, or interested in historical objects or places. While the Collecting Otherwise project has now concluded with the publication of these manuals, the topic will remain on the Nieuwe Instituut’s research agenda.

During the Regenerative Archives symposium, meanwhile, the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD) launched its own website, raising the profile of its 70 partners and their collections. The website provides online access to information on 8,500 designers and makers whose work is held in 809 collections at 125 cultural institutions. The NADD network is committed to preserving, showcasing and ensuring the sustainability of archives for design and digital culture.

This summer, the contract was finally signed for an archive transfer that had been 30 years in the making. Adding the archive of architects Aldo and Hannie van Eyck to the National Collection was a long-cherished dream. The internationally renowned duo played a crucial role in the development of Dutch Structuralism, a post-war movement that sought to counter excessive functionalism by restoring the human scale to architecture with small-scale designs focused on spontaneous encounters. Furthermore, the archives of major contemporaries they influenced, such as Piet Blom, Jan Verhoeven, and Herman Hertzberger, had already been acquired.

With hindsight, the Built Homecoming exhibition could be considered a preview: until 2 March, there was a unique opportunity to view part of the Van Eycks’ enormous art collection, which was on temporary loan to us, at the Re-Centre. The entire collection is currently being auctioned. This means that the entire estate of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck could be in new hands this year.

At first glance, the Dutch digital culture sector appears to be thriving. It produces technically innovative work that is rich in high-quality content and regularly wins awards. However, a persistent problem is the scarcity of distribution and presentation options, particularly for immersive media projects. These projects are often expensive to produce and present, because of the complex technologies involved. Consequently, after their festival premiere, they are rarely seen elsewhere.

Nieuwe Instituut and the Digital Culture Moonshot have researched possible distribution and revenue models that could contribute to the sustainability of such productions. The results were presented at the end of September during the Netherlands Film Festival and are available to read on the website. During an earlier phase of the research, a series of video interviews were produced in which creators and cultural organisations explained how a subsidised pilot had increased project visibility.

This year, -1 Digital Lab became not only a laboratory for digital creators but also, increasingly, an exhibition space. Installations by Sam Lavigne, Colette Aliman and Hanchen Zhang can be seen until the end of March.

The housing crisis hits young people the hardest. Homes are either unaffordable or unavailable. The resulting uncertainty and feeling that life is on hold can lead to stress and frustration. In the run-up to the 29 October elections, young people and prospective members of the Dutch parliament took part in a debate moderated by Marsha Simon, in which they discussed the issue with a critical youth panel. Topics covered included affordability, how to create more housing and how to involve young people in these plans.

The debate was organised by the Nieuwe Instituut, Platform Woonopgave and Architecture Everywhere – the collaborative network of Dutch architectural organisations established last year to facilitate the discussion of social issues related to architecture and urban planning and to strengthen the connection between politics and society.

Fungi – better known as moulds or mushrooms – are primarily used for our own benefit. We eat mushrooms, use penicillin to fight bacteria, and vases and lampshades made of mycelium are in high demand. Yet the FUNGI exhibition tells a less human-centred story: that of fungi as independent entities and creators of a unique, multi-species world that is flourishing in the ruins of capitalism. Having witnessed the power of fungi as destroyers and deadly forces as well as ingenious builders, you’ll never look at your oyster mushrooms in the same way again!

The book Invented by Copies, which explores the cultural significance of reproductions in architectural practice, was published almost simultaneously with the opening of FUNGI. Essentially, the book is also about discovering new value by taking a fresh view of things. Copies in an archive turn out to be more than just ‘duplicates’ taking up shelf space. They have led to new forms of collaboration and creativity, and are just as much a part of the design process as the ‘original’, which is consistently held in higher regard.

We have been following the work of Rotterdam-based filmmaker Janilda Bartolomeu for some time. Born in Cape Verde, she has spent years researching the undocumented history of the Cape Verdean diaspora in Rotterdam and Dakar, Senegal. Due to their large Cape Verdean communities, these two cities are often referred to as the ‘other islands’ of the archipelago.

Bartolomeu’s research in Rotterdam resulted in the 2020 film The Eleventh Island: Activating Silent Histories Through Video. For the next phase of the project, the Nieuwe Instituut, together with the RAW Material Company, a local organisation, invited her to undertake a residency in Dakar. This spring, she conducted research on the largely unknown history of Cape Verdean migrants in Dakar. She used the stories she collected there for the film installation at the heart of the Another Island exhibition. It focuses on the dreams and imagination that connect the 12 islands.

We look forward to seeing you again in 2026! Would you like to stay informed about our programme? Subscribe to our newsletter.