Jaap Bakema Study CentreJaap Bakema Study Centre

Esra Akcan is the keynote speaker for the Jaap Bakema Study Centre conference 2019 Architecture and Democracy 1965-1989: Urban Renewal, Populism and the Welfare State. Akcan's research explores the concept of 'open architecture' through the thorough investigation of the urban renewal of Kreuzberg, Berlin's immigrant neighbourhood, in the 1980s.

This year's international conference of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre focuses on the years 1965 to 1989, in which welfare state arrangements were contested on both left and right, by counterculture movements and the rise of populism. While government institutions sought a proper response, urban renewal and city repair became a new field of work for architects and planners.

On March 18, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre and Archis/Volume will host the presentation of the book Jaap Bakema and the Open Society, the first extensive publication on the Dutch architect Jaap Bakema, his ideas and ideals for society at large. With Dirk van den Heuvel, Brita Bakema, Arnold Reijndorp, Dick van Gameren, Frans Hooykaas, and Herman Hertzberger.

On June 16 2017 the Jaap Bakema Study Centre convened a symposium on the pressing issue of affordable housing, its architecture and planning. The symposium was part of the International Social Housing Festival 2017 and brought together a range of international scholars and designers: Kenny Cupers, Anne Kockelkorn, Jörg Stollmann, René Boer, Mirjana Milanovic, and Dick van Gameren.

On 9 June Professor M. Christine Boyer (Princeton University, USA) delivered a lecture on the open society and the relationship between architecture, planning and democracy in the 20th century. The lecture was followed by a conversation in response to issue #16 of Footprint, which examines the commons and the urban environment.

The Jaap Bakema Study Centre organised a special conference on the work of Jaap Bakema (1914-1981) and his idea to build towards an open society. Speakers included professor Tom Avermaete, professor Carola Hein (both TU Delft), professor Mark Swenarton (University of Liverpool) and Christoph Grafe, director of the Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi). The conference acted as a conclusion to the Dutch presentation for this year's Venice Biennale Open: A Bakema Celebration.

Together with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, the Jaap Bakema Study centre has launched the new Architecture and Democracy PhD programme. This investigates how, over the course of the 20th century, architecture and urban planning played a role in representing, embodying and enabling democracy.

Jaap Bakema and the Open Society is the first extensive publication on the Dutch architect Jaap Bakema, his ideas and ideals for society at large.

As part of the Dutch contribution to the 14th edition of the Venice Biennale a special publication was made. It served as a supplement for Volume #41.