(Re)read
You can (re)read all the general newsletters we've published since the start of the new cultural season here. Or go to the series of newsletters on Design Culture and Coronavirus that we sent out in 2020.
29 October 2020
24 March 2022
Artificial Intelligence With: Design Dialogues, The Future Through Artificial Eyes, Book of the Future, the tools of MVRDVHNI, and reading interiors by Tivon Rice.
10 March 2022
Working Inbetween With: collaboration with Concrete Blossom, a new Bospolderplein, Life at the Niteshop, Community of Sauce-rers, and The Hoodie On-site / Off-site.
17 February 2022
The World Around Summit On Saturday 5 February 2022, Het Nieuwe Instituut co-organised The World Around Summit 2022, a joint production in cooperation with the international design platform The World Around and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The 'now, near and next' of the contemporary architecture and design field presented some of the past year's most high-profile projects on the intersection of architecture, spatial design, ecology and social issues.
20 December 2021
End-of-the-year selection In 2021, Het Nieuwe Instituut once again collaborated on an exciting programme with numerous designers, researchers, artists, theorists, performers, staff members, participants, visitors and other contributors - benefitting hugely from their energy and inspiration. That can be clearly seen in this end-of-the-year selection of just a few elements of the programme - a collection of holiday reading, watching, listening, researching and strolling for the Christmas and New Year period. We wish you a safe and healthy festive season and New Year, and look forward to seeing you in 2022!
02 December 2021
Collection The second episode of the Green in the City podcast series featuring the Bijlmermeer, The Blueprint Experiment, The Living Archive of MVRDV, homeless archives, and a recent acquisition: Theo van Doesburg's design for a tiled floor in De Vonk holiday home.
18 November 2021
Observers observed This year's Jaap Bakema Study Centre conference explores ethnography's influence on architecture. Plus: the multimedia installation IF WALLS COULD TALK, reflecting on the new fabric of norms, values and manners that we have woven during the coronavirus pandemic, the first event in a three-part series on the spectre of colonialism, the final days of the Biennal exhibition, and 'Main Street USA', an essay on the architectural balancing act between truth and deception.
04 November 2021
Open House Het Nieuwe Instituut is welcoming a new neighbour across the street, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot, and celebrating its opening with the start of its own exhibition about MVRDV. Including a tour of the archive and digilab, the installation Every Body in the Place, and virtual reality in the MVRDVHNI exhibition.
21 October 2021
Housing shortage In the light of the severe housing shortage, we look back at the century-old concept of the 'minimum dwelling'. Plus: The installation As Close at I Get, Funda makeovers in Temporary House of Home, domestic solidarity and tactics of collective resistance.
07 October 2021
Dutch Design Week Featuring the Alchemist, Designer event, the New Material podcast, a limited 'DDW21' edition of the EVJ-bag, Reinterpreting Design Heritage, with designers Bas van Beek and Toon Koehorst, and a talkshow with the internationalisation platform Creative Holland.
09 September 2021
Welcome Aric Chen Last spring, Het Nieuwe Instituut announced the arrival of writer, curator and design historian Aric Chen as its new General and Artistic Director starting 1 May, following the departure of Guus Beumer. The first few months of Chen's directorship were a start-up phase that saw him familiarising himself with his new role, one day a week and remotely from Shanghai. Since 1 September, Chen has been working full-time from his new location in Rotterdam, where he joins Business Director Josien Paulides on Het Nieuwe Instituut's Board of Directors. In this newsletter, we get better acquainted with Aric Chen, based on his appearances in the media.
16 July 2021
Research Including the opening of the new Research Centre, designed by Sabine Marcelis, an Open Call for Research Fellows, and the Financial Architecture research, into the deep-rooted link between the invisible 'architecture' of financial formulas and the tangible design of buildings, cities and landscapes.
02 July 2021
Bye Guus Farewell letter from Guus Beumer, on his departure as general and artistic director of Het Nieuwe Instituut, as of 1 May 2021. And a look ahead: "Before I discreetly disappear, I would like to tell you about some of the activities that the institute and I will be organising in the near future."
27 May 2021
Collection Featuring Designing the Social,_ Open Archive_ and the presentation of a unique acquisition by the National Collection: an interior model by architect and artist Theo van Doesburg. Plus MVRDV's living archive, and designers Koehorst in 't Veld on Atelier Nelly & Theo van Doesburg.
14 May 2021
Who is we? In this time of enormous social and environmental challenges, how can humans and more-than-humans - including animals, microbes and soil - live together in cities on the planet we all share? And in this context, how should we understand the notion of "we"? Who is We? is the Dutch contribution to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. It proposes a more pluralistic interpretation of "we".
29 April 2021
Design to take care of Designer Elisa van Joolen presents the EVJ, Het Nieuwe Instituut's first lendable museum bag. It's a tote made from used plastic shopping bags that visitors can borrow for a longer period of time, provided they take care of it with love. During the Design Dialogue of 6 May, Van Joolen will be joined by archaeologist Maikel Kuipers, philosopher Patricia de Vries, designers Karim Adduchi and Baby Reni and journalist Lynn Berger for a discussion about taking care of things that don't belong to us and assigning value to 'disposable' items. And also: Monique van Heist, Clothes for Progress, the Hacked manifesto and textile design by Elmar Berkovich.
16 April 2021
Tabita Rezaire: Womb Ecology _ Decolonial Birth n the new online magazine Decolonising Design, designers and artists, including theorists, researchers, filmmakers and other practitioners, reflect on racial justice and decolonisation from their own perspectives. In this first contribution, artist, priest, healer and tech expert Tabita Rezaire examines birth as the art of creation par excellence.
08 April 2021
Aric Chen to become Het Nieuwe Instituut’s new General and Artistic Director Aric Chen will succeed Guus Beumer in the role as of 1 May, joining Managing Director Josien Paulides on the Board of Directors. "Het Nieuwe Instituut is a young institution with a long history - one that I've greatly admired over the years," says Chen. "It's an enormous privilege to have this chance to build on the ground-breaking, pioneering work that the institute and its staff have done."
25 March 2021
National Collection acquires unique Van Doesburg Of all the works that Het Nieuwe Instituut acquires annually for the National Collection, this is without a doubt the most spectacular addition yet: an interior design by Theo van Doesburg for Café Aubette from 1926. It is important because the Aubette was one of De Stijl's most significant architectural projects, because the work shows how Van Doesburg approached space as a synthesis of painting and architecture, and because the design is not just a flat surface, but an interior model: the walls can be folded up.
8 March 2021
Feminisms in architecture The Archive Explorations series gives permanent attention to stories that are part of the collection, but which have remained unnoticed and therefore hidden. Among them is the story of feminisms in architecture. Over the coming years, an effort will be made to enrich the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning by identifying thematic and methodological gaps in the collection and potentially responding to them by adding new documents and subjects.
25 February 2021
Jaap Bakema Study Centre The collaboration, within the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, between the Faculty of Architecture of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and Het Nieuwe Instituut has developed from an experiment into a solid multi-year alliance between a cultural organisation and a knowledge institution.
11 February 2021
Reading Sites For the second edition of the Reading Sites series, a reflection on Dutch Design Week has again been chosen. The first edition considered the physical scale and diversity of the event, among other things; this time, it is hybrid programming, initiated in response to the current pandemic, which is under discussion. This change is as radical as it is disorienting. Three designers explore what the transition can mean for the design domain in the long run.
21 January 2021
The Future is Hybrid The institute has never limited its activities to a single medium or format and will not do so during this pandemic - nor once the restrictions are over. The future is hybrid. An online conversation about the wonderful world of Walt Disney, two publications with a more-than-human approach and a video blog about the timeless design of the Bergpolderflat.
7 January 2021
Do It Yourself at Het Nieuwe Instituut In 2021, Het Nieuwe Instituut is offering all kinds of opportunities for you to give form to your DIY ambitions in art, design, research or events. Perhaps you've always wanted to organise your own Thursday Night Live!, or maybe you're walking around with a plan for a Gallery 3 exhibition in your head? Do you know an international visitor who really needs to get to know the Dutch design field, or have you got an idea that would benefit from the feedback of others in your field? Then do it yourself: answer the call, register, sign up!
21 December 2020
Read, watch and listen to our 2020 programme highlights The abundance of interactive workshops, virtual lectures, web-based performances and digital tours in 2020 were difficult to choose from for even the most committed follower of the institute. Which is why we are offering this selection from the variety of offerings that the institute has produced online and offline. Reread, watch and listen to a cross-section of the different themes and formats - a kind of winter holiday compilation.
10 December 2020
New Chapter in Heritage Assignment From 2021, Het Nieuwe Instituut will move forward as a national heritage institution, largely funded by the Heritage Act and with various basic cultural infrastructure (BIS) tasks. As a result of this transition, Het Nieuwe Instituut must play a central role in the realisation of a memory for the design sector. A policy aimed at innovation, and based on the pillars of sustainability, usability and visibility, will take shape for the period 2021-2024. Among other topics, under discussion is how collections, and the associated acquisition and access policies, can bring about new forms of multivocality and accessibility. In this newsletter, we present five projects that spring from the connection between heritage and innovation.
27 November 2020
The Exhibition Model as Temporary Truth In recent years, not only has Het Nieuwe Instituut built up a multifaceted cultural practice, but various classical instruments have radically transformed. For example, exhibiting has evolved from simply presenting to a form of essayism, in which a specific narrative and an entirely unique spatial model are developed for each project. Now that Covid-19 has severely limited the physical experience of the exhibition, there's an opportunity to take some distance and reflect on this shift through the three new exhibition models currently on display at the institute.
12 November 2020
The Travelling Academy In various places in and around Europe, the Travelling Academy explores how formal and informal forms of knowledge development can reinforce each other when dealing with social and spatial issues. The institute has invited researchers and designers Sophie Krier and Erik Wong to design the first five stages of the Travelling Academy. They have introduced a comprehensive perspective, In Search of the Pluriverse, which they will develop in the near future through the form of "warming-up talks".
30 October 2020
The City as Video Clip, and the Video Clip as Public Space Music videos influence a city's image. Thanks to MTV, cities like New York or LA felt like familiar territory even before we visited them; nowadays YouTube videos show urban life and depict alternative public spaces. These videos make the metropolitan experience conceivable and universal, yet at the same time it remains strongly tied to location. What is unique about Rotterdam, for example? And how do videos reflect that? Is it the location or atmosphere that is unique, or the way in which they are portrayed?
16 October 2020
Domestic Solidarity The Covid-19 pandemic has put pressure on the assumed securities of everyday life. The exhortations to keep a physical distance, to isolate yourself and to work from home, make it clear once again how indispensable a home is to be able to put these measures into practice. Much advice is based on the assumptions that everyone has shelter and that it is safe there. Moreover, the "household" within which social distancing can be less strictly applied seems to imply a traditional family set-up. However, for many people in the world, these conditions do not apply.
2 October 2020
Recharge yourself with Lithium The exhibition _Lithium _is conceived as a spa resort that highlights both the benevolent and destructive aspects of the eternal search for energy. Researchers, designers and artists reflect on the role of the element lithium in today's economy. How many times can we recharge our batteries without addressing the causes of depletion in human bodies and the planet?