Searching for information about architecture on the internet

Perhaps you have been unable to find the information you seek in the NAI collection. Or you may wish to consult other sources as part of your research. This page presents a selection of useful web links. Some useful portals have also been included, thereby giving you access to the huge amount of architecture information scattered across the web. The list also includes searchable architecture-related collections of publications, archives and images.

Portals (general, plus references to other Internet sources)

Archined
News, reviews, competitions, columns, exhibitions, events, lectures and publications, opinion and discussion. Numerous links to websites of architects and architecture companies.

Dutch Architects.com
Website with a focus on Dutch architectural practice: news, product information, projects, competitions, appointments and professional information.

RIBA Architecture.com
Portal of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects). It presents a very extensive, well chosen collection of links to web pages in numerous categories, such as architects, awards, publications, buildings and projects, education and research, museums and galleries, portals and search facilities, products and technical information, landscape architecture, art and design.

OKBN Guide
Information on and links to institutes with art history collections, such as museums and the libraries of universities with an architectural faculty. Many of the collections are searchable.

ICAM
ICAM, the International Confederation of Architectural Museums, including architectural archives and similar institutions, has over 120 members. The website includes an index of all the members with links to their websites and collections.

Architectural Archives Europe (AAE)
This website for architectural historians and researchers has descriptions and links for archives on European architecture. It also offers information and guidelines for architects on how to manage and conserve their own archives.


Libraries and Bibliographic Sources

Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), The Hague
Gives access to a variety of catalogs, among them Dutchess, a database of annotated, quality-selected Internet links. Subscribers also have access to the Picarta database and to the LexisNexis Dutch newspaper database (Krantenbank).

Public Library, Rotterdam
The whole collection is searchable by means of their "Aquabrowser". An interesting feature is their extensive collection of audiovisual material, which contains a great deal of non-fiction on video and DVD.

University Library, TU Delft
Access to the Virtual Knowledge Center for Architecture. You can search the Central Catalogue, or any of the reference source overviews. Some material can be borrowed.

ABSIS
The ABSIS database is maintained by TU Delft and gives access to periodical articles since 1989. The articles are on Dutch and Belgian architecture, the work of Dutch and Belgian architects abroad, and the work of foreign architects in the Netherlands and Belgium.

TuiN
Database on Dutch Garden History and Landscape Architecture provided by the University of Wageningen. Data originates from Gids voor de Nederlandse tuin- en landschapsarchitectuur, from the print collection of Leonard A. Springer (1855-1940), and from Ruilverkavelingen van Staatsbosbeheer (1930-1970). Digital access to the oeuvres of Mien Ruys (1904-1999) and John Bergmans (1892-1980) is under construction.

RIBA Online Catalog
The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) online catalog has links to a huge collection of books, periodical articles, photographs and archival material.


Archives

Rotterdam Municipal Archives
The Rotterdam Municipal Archive preserves construction drawings of many existing and vanished buildings in Rotterdam (including the formerly independent municipalities) and Capelle aan den IJssel. At present, 900 inventories and 350,000 descriptions may be searched. This relates to only two thirds of the actual archive material. For the remainder, only the name, period and size are documented, a description has not yet been entered. The collection includes the archives of: J.W.C. Bezemer, J.P.L. Hendriks, J.C. Meischke, S. van Ravesteijn (personal archives) and H. Sutterland.

Amsterdam Municipal Archives
Among the archives kept by the Amsterdam Municipal Archives are those of several architects, including C. van Amstel, Baanders, Y.G. Bijvoets, L.H. Eberson, J. and B. de Greef, A. van der Hart, G. de Klerk, A. A. Kok, H. Leguyt, J. de Meyer, B.J. Odink, G.B and A. Salm, J.B. Springer, W. Springer, and A.W. Weissman.

The Hague Municipal Archives
The Hague's collection of archives includes those of C. Brandes, Friso de Iongh, J. J. Kroon, I.A. Lindo, C. Reinerie jr., S. Schamhart, L. Simons, R. de Vries, W. de Vrind jr. Jan Wils (part), L.A.H. de Wolf, and J.L.M. de Wolf. They also have archive material from the Rozenburg Porcelain and Pottery Factory (1883-1917).

Netherlands National Archives
The maps and drawings section includes documents relating to P.G.J. Blauwhof, S. de Clerq and J. J. Ligtenberg, construction drawings from the State Archives in the Hague, the drawings archive of the Government Buildings Agency, maps for zoning plans of municipalities in South Holland, construction drawings of churches from 1760 to 1983, the catalog of the Royal Institute of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI - NIRIA), alterations to the Noordeinde Palace, and documentation of irrigation work in Indonesia by the civil engineer De Schoenmaker. Other official archives held here are those of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Sciences (1918-1945), and of the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (from 1945). There are also archives originating from Bouwcentrum Rotterdam (1945-1984) and construction drawings of military buildings in the Netherlands (1700-1940).

Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (The National Service for Cultural Heritage)
The archives contain administrative data relating to listed historic buildings and buildings forming part of historic towns and villages. The documents date for the main part from 1920 or later, and include building histories, specifications, alteration and demolition licences, and correspondence relating to subsidies. The Rijksdienst also has an archive of photographs and drawings (see Geheugen van Nederland). Neither the archives nor the library are searchable online.

Archieven.nl
This website provides archive overviews, inventories and links for some thirty Dutch archive agencies, predominantly those of municipalities. You can search all the archives simultaneously.

Beeld en Geluid (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision)
A large collection of audiovsual material, searchable by means of the catalog on the website. A large proportion of the material was originally broadcast on radio or TV, was shown in a cinema, or originates from collections belonging to government bodies, social and political organizations, corporations or private individuals.


Image Databases

Image Database, Amsterdam Municipal Archives
The "Beeldbank" image database contains over 170,000 pictures of streets, canals, squares and buildings in Amsterdam. These include nearly 130,000 photographs, 30,000 construction drawings and over 10,000 prints and drawings.

Image Catalogue, Rotterdam Municipal Archives
Scanned images from the collection of the Municipal Archives in a searchable database. The accessible material includes practically all acquisitions (photographs, picture postcards, prints, drawings, posters, videos and sound recordings) since the year 2000. Collections dating from before 2000 are being entered retrospectively. So far 18,000 prints and drawings, all portraits of Rotterdam residents with surnames beginning with A or B, all photographs by the Rotterdam photographer Henri Berssenbrugge (1873-1959) and all photographs of the catastrophic floods of 1953 have been entered.

CODA Image database
More than 200.000 photographs, postcards, aerial photographs, citymaps from buildings, streets and neighbourhoods. The images are coming from archives of the town of Apeldoorn, the Water Board District Veluwe, corporations, associations, religious denominations and families.

Image bank of the Nederlands Fotomuseum
Thousands of photographs, coming from 129 archives of Dutch photographers and collections of amateur photography. The collection presents more than a century of Dutch history in images.


Special Projects

Rietveld Collection Centraal Museum
Here you can find all objects by and about Gerrit Rietveld owned by the Centraal Museum. It concerns more than 300 museum objects, mostly pieces of furniture, and over 8000 items of archive material.

KICH (Knowledge Infrastructure for Cultural History)
A variety of cultural history information originating from a variety of specialized institutes - The Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg (Netherlands Department for Conservation), Rijksdienst Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek (National Service for Archeological Heritage), the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Alterra (Wageningen University) - has been compiled and made available online here. A digital map of the Netherlands provides access to a wide range of architectural, topological and landscape history, and archeological data.

WatWasWaar ("The Netherlands as it Was")
A digital map of the Netherlands, based on current and historic land registry data, helps you explore the historical residential environment. In a number of pilot projects, archiving institutes have added further data to the cadastral information, such as aerial photographs, photographs and other data about buildings, and drawings. One such project was carried out by the NAI in connection with Nagele, a new village in the polders with a contentious design history.

Historische kranten in beeld
On this website you can view the scanned images of historic newspapers from the collection of The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Dutch Royal Library). The newspapers concerned are four national dailies from the period 1910 to 1945: Het Centrum, De Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, Het Vaderland and Het Volk. The seventy-six annual volumes total some 350,000 pages.

Het geheugen van Nederland
Het Geheugen van Nederland ("The Memory of the Netherlands") is a large online database of illustrations, photographs, texts, films and audio fragments from the collections of numerous Dutch cultural institutes. Interesting resources include the collections of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg (photographs of listed historic buildings) and of the ICN (the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage) with work by Th. van Doesburg and furniture desiged by Kropholler and Crouwell jr. Available soon: photography by Bernard Eilers and photographs of the Delta Works.

Europeana
Europeana contains images and descriptions of 4.5 million objects from more than 1000 European heritage institutions. My Europeana enables you to bookmark, share and tag your favorite objects. This website is a prototype. Europeana Version 1.0 is being developed and will launch in 2010 with links to over 10 million digital objects.

Open Images
An open media platform for online access to audio visual collections from heritage institutions as well as individuals. This beta version offers a few hundred movies from the Sound and Vision collection, most of them about cities and building. The aims of this project is to offer online access to CC-licensed archive material to stimulate creative resuse. Works best in Google Chrome.

Eeuw van de stad (Century of the city)
A cross media project from VPRO broadcasting corporation and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. The website offers all Century of the City- programmes on radio, television and internet initiated by VPRO, as well as an audio visual archive containing hundreds of other televison programmes about the city. Includes also a weblog and four related websites: Dream City, Promised Land (web documentary), Soundtrackcity (audio tours) and Cityoneminute.

Organisation structure

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Lecture by Thomas Kong

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Green from Scratch

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