Nieuwe Instituut
Nieuwe Instituut

Sonneveld House

Portals

16 May 2024 - 31 August 2024

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Image: Philipp Thier, 2023

Portals is an interactive exhibition at the Research Centre focused on acquiring, preserving and providing access to born-digital archival material. The architecture collection managed by the Nieuwe Instituut comprises not only paper archives but also archival material originally produced in digital format, including 3D models, images, videos, animations, renderings and emails, from the digital archive of MVRDV architects.

Audio tour

The digital collection now exceeds 5 TB of data and comprises over 1,000,000 files. As the shift from analogue to digital design practices continues, this volume is rapidly expanding.

Through an audio tour, archivists and researchers share stories about working with born-digital archives. Though paper is enduring, how do we navigate the rapid developments in software and hardware? How do we access files created with obsolete software? How do we ensure the original information isn’t lost? And what level of accessibility does a nonlinear digital archive offer to researchers and users?

Portals. Photo Aad Hoogendoorn

MVRDV Archive

Portals primarily draws from the archive, acquired in 2016, of MVRDV architects. On display are the computers that powered MetaCity Datatown, showcasing obsolete hardware, and the 500 CDs required for storing this project. Various renderings of Pig City raise questions about the concept of originality, and the colour collages depicting the design for Expo 2000 in Hannover offer deeper insights into the design process through their use of different techniques – digital, analogue and digitised

Portals also features a selection of books on digital design from the Nieuwe Instituut's library collection, as well as a video by Philipp Thier, a master’s student in Interior Architecture Research and Design at the Piet Zwart Institute. Thier and his peers conducted research on a number of born-digital files from the collection.

Opening hours

You can visit the Research Centre during the museum’s opening hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10.00 to 17.00 and until 21.00 on Thursdays.

Nieuwsbrief

Ontvang als eerste uitnodigingen voor onze events en blijf op de hoogte van komende tentoonstellingen.