Invented from CopiesInvented from Copies

Curator Hetty Berens explores Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection for evidence of the introduction and use of the blueprint by Dutch architects and engineers from 1870 to 1920. Blueprint processes, then one of several new copying techniques, became a common method for architects to reproduce their drawings until the 1950s.

Due to its white background, the whiteprint was ideal for adding changes, annotations and colour schemes. This created dialogues on the copies between clients and architects. Such exchanges of ideas made whiteprinting a vital link in the design process. In this essay, conservator and archivist Clara Stille-Haardt discusses the whiteprint's peculiarities and significance based on examples from the National Collection.

Zips are industrially manufactured self-adhesive plastic sheets, patented in 1923 as a graphic medium for illustration and graphic design. They are paper-thin and transparent and are sold as a sheet with a self-adhesive layer and a removable backing. When construction production soars after WWII, the use of zips for design rendering increases because they expedite the process.