Exhibition | 17/04/04-13/06/04
The Gerrit Rietveld Academy teaches architecture in a particular way. Students learn the professions by asking questions: questions about the essence of a design brief and about the associations that the brief summons up. In the first exhibition of student work from the Academy's architectural design department in more than a decade, 'askINg questions' at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) will feature thirty objects designed by twenty-five former students in a broad rand of media: furniture, fashion, films, animations, models, graphics and projections. > Read more...
Many Dutch people will still recall the 'cul-de-sac', the 'conversation pit' or the combination of orange, brown and purple. But buildings such as the Centraal Beheer by Hertzberger, the Kasbah by Piet Blom and urban planning projects by Ben Loerakker and Paul de Ley are also typical of Dutch architecture of the 1970s. The NAI exhibition 'Conversation Pits and Cul-de-Sacs' shows material from the NAI's own collection which will be supplemented both with loans from architects and with art works, films and photographs from other collections. The exhibition's designers, NL Architects have transformed the NAI's largest gallery into a maze-like living space complete with a conversation pit. > Read more...
Sorting halls are part of the distribution network that the Dutch Mail Services, PTT, established close to a number of principal railway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Together, these distribution centers form the 'Star Network', a network for distributing post by rail. However, the busy railways soon led the Dutch Mail Service to switch to road distribution, and these distribution junctions subsequently became obsolete after fourteen or fifteen years. As a parallel to 'Conversation Pits and Cul-de-Sacs, The Critical 1970s' exhibition, the NAI presents the results of the study into the value of these gigantic sorting halls located throughout the country. > Read more...
2004, the year in which the Netherlands is honored with chairmanship of the EU and in which the union welcomes the countries of the former Eastern Block: what better moment then for the NAI to focus upon the architecture and urban planning of Central and Eastern Europe. 'Collage Europa' focuses in particular on the way these countries deal with their cultural heritage and the varied solutions for the transformation of their post-war residential neighborhoods. The exhibition is accompanied by symposiums, lectures, book launches and a film program. 'Collage Europa' is part of 'Thinking Forward', the cultural program of the Netherlands' chairmanship of the European Union. > Read more...
Exhibition | NAI Rotterdam - Gallery 2 | 17/04/04-22/08/04
The first thematic exhibition in 'Living in the Lowlands, the domestic scene in the collection of the NAI' is 'The Netherlands Builds in Brick'. This special display within the permanent exhibition comprises material that formed the first architectural exhibition at the neighboring Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1941. > Read more...
Today the library as cultural department store or mediapolis is self-evident, but until recently reading was reserved for a small elite. From 1850 modest public "reading rooms" were established, mostly by prominent citizens. Only in the twentieth century did the library as public building become an important urban phenomenon. > Read more...
The exhibition 'Fresher Facts' in Gallery 3 presents the work of the four finalists for the AM NAI Prize 2004: the award for the best building completed within the last two years by a young Dutch architect. The nominated projects are displayed in the form of models, drawings and video presentations within installations designed by the practices themselves. The exhibition shows how the projects originated and how the buildings function in their contexts. > Read more...
Europan Nederland is the springboard for a series of exhibitions in Gallery 3 in 2004. The exhibition NOW, between past & future - Europan 7 offers an overview of current tendencies in European architecture. > Read more...
The "Omgevingsarchitectuurprijs" (Environmental Architecture Prize) (OAP) is the only prize in the Netherlands exclusively devoted to the design and installation of external public spaces. The exhibition "INbetween" in Gallery 3 of the NAI shows the winning design and a selection of the submissions for the 2004 OAP. Different sorts of maps, such as a subsidence map or a chewing gum map, show traces of use of public space and focus attention on the social and cultural aspects of this environment. > Read more...
The six architectural practices participating in the exhibition in Gallery 3 of the NAI devise alternative means to organize the landscape and the city. They are inspired by and conduct research into our constantly changing and increasingly complex society. > Read more...
In recent years the demolition plans for the Bijlmer district in Amsterdam and the Southwest of The Hague have been closely watched by the media and designers, but the demolition of postwar housing in the Netherlands is much more widespread. A third of the total housing stock in the Netherlands, approximately two million dwellings, was built between 1945 and 1970. Each year approximately seven thousand of these are demolished and replaced with new buildings. As such, the restructuring of post-war residential neighborhoods is the Netherlands' most extensive building project. > Read more...
START comprises the NAI's archive of Koolhaas' early work from the period 1978-1994. The exhibition includes Dutch highlights such as the Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague and the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. The exhibition is installed as an open depot housing forty projects from the period 1978-1994. START forms the perfect introduction to the exhibition CONTENT in the Kunsthal, which examines Koolhaas' later work. > Read more...
