Disclosing Architecture: 18 Stories of Heritage and InnovationDisclosing Architecture: 18 Stories of Heritage and Innovation

The primary aim of Disclosing Architecture was to preserve the National Collection for future generations by conserving, digitising and, where necessary, restoring a significant proportion of its design drawings and photographs. At the same time, the programme provided every opportunity to question, challenge and innovate current heritage practice – from collecting and research to opening up and presenting. Disclosing Architecture offered a unique opportunity to develop all these building blocks of heritage practice in relation to each other.

In 18 stories, we document the results and findings that the programme has delivered. The programme runs until the end of 2024, but completing all projects, processing the data, and conducting a comprehensive evaluation will continue into 2025. This collection of stories will therefore be further expanded in the coming months.

The National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning contains around 700 archives of Dutch designers dating from 1850 onwards. In addition to museum-quality drawings, these include sketches and working drawings, correspondence, photographs, models, posters and objects. In addition to analogue material, the collection also includes born-digital material –archive material originally produced in digital format, such as 3D models, images, videos, animations, renderings and computer code.