Designing the Social

3 July 2021 - 1 June 2024

Rooms

On display in the museum

The Minimum Dwelling

Social inequality, poverty, unemployment and housing shortages characterised the crisis climate of the 1920s and 30s. Architects such as Jacob Oud, Mart Stam, Willem van Tijen and Gerrit Rietveld argued for the need for radical change within their own profession and in society.

De Ploeg in Bergeijk

In the 1920s, a group of idealists laid the foundations for De Ploeg, a weaving mill in the agricultural colony of  Best, Brabant. Some were inspired by religion, others by socialism, anarchism or pacifism; or even a mixture of them all. 

The Community Centre

Since the first one opened in Amsterdam at the end of the 19th century, the community centre has assumed various forms and names.  The designs reveal how architects sought specific spatial solutions in order to combine various social functions.

RoXY: nightclub as cultural crowbar

The Roxy was the birthplace of house music in the Netherlands and a springboard for a new generation of musicians, artists and designers, it was a place where clubgoers delighted in transforming their appearance or gender identity.

Life in the Digital City

When 'The Digital City' was founded in 1994, only a few hundred Dutch people had internet access. Yet the promise of the new medium sent a shockwave through society.

Online only

Appropriation as Collective Resistance

The fundamental right to affordable housing is under pressure worldwide. In addition to squatting communities' tactics of collective resistance, the focus is on other groups fighting in their own way for affordable and non-normative forms of housing.

Feminist Design Strategies

For a long time, the (his)story of architecture, urban planning and design seemed to be a matter for white men. Other voices, such as those of women ‘herstories’ remained grossly underexposed. During the second feminist wave (1968-89) countless networks and initiatives had formed in the Netherlands that fought this distorted image.

The Eco-Cathedral: Louis Le Roy, wild garden idealogist

In the 1970s, Louis Guillaume Le Roy (1924-2012) became known for the idea of the wild garden. Recently, this unruly artist and self-proclaimed 'ecotect' has been rediscovered.

Ministry of Moving Matter

The Ministry of Moving Matter will work on archiving and mapping the elusive and subjective things of the city. You can submit dreams, desires, sins and childhood memories at the Ministry.

Sonneveld House

News

Events

Now on display

Tickets