Inside Dutchville. Photo: Mike Bink

Exhibition | NAI Rotterdam - | 01/07/11-01/07/16

From July 1, the exhibition Dutchville is on display in the fully renovated NAi. In a remarkable approach to architecture, Dutchville is an exhibition that intentionally inspires conflicting feelings. At the NAi, you can explore your love-hate relationship with the urban environment and discover how the city shapes and affects the way you feel.

The urban environment is perhaps one of the most significant factors that affects our lives and how we feel. Setting out to play on these very feelings, Dutchville takes a radically different approach from many other architecture exhibitions. We see the city at its most alluring, and at its darkest and most foreboding. Come and take a trip through a traditional Dutch city with its historical centre, industrial estates and new-build affordable housing developments. The city is constructed using models from the impressive collection of the NAi. But what appeals to you may not be to the taste of your next-door neighbour – one man’s meat is another man’s poison. So what are the qualities you look for in a welcoming, comfortable city? And what would you avoid?

Six residents will tell you their stories, sharing their own views of the city – and they don’t pull any punches. Architectural features that one person describes in glowing terms are his neighbour’s pet hates. And the roles are reversed when the residents talk about other aspects. In this exhibition you will discover that architecture and urbanisation permeates the world around us, discover your likes and dislikes, and get a taste of how the city might look in the future.

Inside Dutchville. Photo: Mike Bink

Dutchville exhibition nominated for prestigious award

The exhibition Dutchville has been submitted for a prestigious award for its original approach and the use of multimedia: a Golden Heron in the category of spatial media. The special series of stamps that the NAI developed along with TNT and Gummo, was also submitted by DPI Animation House.
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Dutchville audio tour

Tour/excursion | The exhibition Dutchville is an experience that is guaranteed to stir up conflicting emotions. You see the city at its best – and at its least appealing. And hear to the stories of six people who live there. Each one of them has a different tale to tell – and they don’t mince words!
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Living in brick

Exhibition 17 april 2004  - 22 august 2004 | 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.
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Gallery 2: Living in the Lowlands

Exhibition 17 november 2004  - 26 april 2009 | The NAI has one of the world's most important collections of archives of architecture, interiors, landscape architecture and urban planning. The permanent exhibition Living in the Lowlands (2004-2009) revealed the collection's wealth of drawings, models and photographs.
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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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