The NAI collection consists of a couple of million drawings, sketches, floor plans, photographs, letters and other documents, and more and more pieces are being digitised. Every two weeks, a special item from the collection will be on display. Download, collect and share them all!


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H. Maaskant. Technikon school complex, 1955-1970. NAI Collection / MAAX 3093
Technikon was built to integrate seven technical schools into one single multi-tenanted building. Maaskant designed a ‘sports tower’, a main building with assembly hall and an interconnecting building, linked by a substructure. It never became a true unit however. There are no collective entrances, for example, no shared corridors, staircases or canteens. Critics considered the combination as it had been put together a pointless exercise, but given the government’s strict guidelines and the fragmented drafting of the programme of requirements, it was not only Maaskant’s fault that no integrated school building came about. On completion, the assembly hall became an independent theatre, now known as Hofplein theatre. The drawing shows an impression of Karel Appel’s artwork on the façade.

View all items presented in the showroom



You can order reproductions of all collection pieces, from small prints to poster formats. Reading room staff will gladly advise you of the options. Take a look at the Prices page for the costs of reproductions.

History of the Collection

The NAI was formed in 1988 by a merger of The Stichting Architectuurmuseum, the Nederlands Documentatiecentrum voor de Bouwkunst, and Stichting Wonen. These three organizations placed their collections in the care of the new institute. The history of the collection however, goes much further back.
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Archives and collections

The NAI keeps and cares for roughly 500 archives and individual collections created by Dutch architects, urban designers, professional associations and training institutes.
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101 Highlights from the collection

One hundred and one unique, poignant, valuable, striking, influential, everyday, erudite, personal, gripping and ordinary objects from the collection of the Netherlands Architecture Institute.
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From the showroom

View all items from the Collection presented in the showroom so far. Click any of the pictures to start a slide show. You can navigate forwards and backwards from there.
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Treasury

Exhibition 01 july 2012  - 01 july 2017 | In the new permanent exhibition Treasury, you can admire 100 highlights from the vast NAI collection. Works on display include famous designs by the icons of Dutch architectural history such as Cuypers, Dudok, Rietveld and Koolhaas. The Treasury completes the new NAI, museum of architecture.
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