ROTTERDAM.- After six years, Disclosing Architecture has concluded with a closing event at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. Nieuwe Instituut launched this six-year heritage programme in 2018, thanks to a one-off investment from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The main objective of Disclosing Architecture was to improve the durability, usability and visibility of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, which is managed by the Nieuwe Instituut. The National Collection consists of more than 4 million sketches, drawings, letters, photographs, models, posters and other objects that have been collected over the past 150 years.

Conserving the National Collection and making it accessible is important not only because it offers a rich insight into our cultural design heritage. It is also categorically a user archive that continues to help architects and designers to answer design questions every day. In doing so, it makes a positive contribution to societal challenges such as the housing shortage, the climate crisis and social inequality.

The results

A key aim of Disclosing Architecture was to conserve, digitise and, where necessary, restore the design drawings and the photographic collection in order to preserve them for future generations. While the Nieuwe Instituut had been working on digitising the collection for some time, Disclosing Architecture provided a major boost.

During the course of the programme, some 600,000 drawings and 300,000 photographs were conserved and 635,000 objects were digitised. This includes Theo van Doesburg’s complete architectural collection of 448 objects, and archives of Van den Broek and Bakema, OMA, MVRDV and Berlage.

New digital Collection Platform

Part of the brief for Disclosing Architecture was to develop an innovative platform to test new ways of making heritage collections digitally accessible. This new digital Collection Platform was launched at the closing event of the programme.

The new platform, which is accessible via the website of the Nieuwe Instituut, not only makes the National Collection accessible and searchable to everyone, but also connects it to other collections worldwide through the use of linked open data (LOD). The purpose of this is to eventually allow users to search for items in other collections within the same digital environment, resulting in richer search results.

In addition, the Collection Platform offers various options for users to add information and contribute to the platform. For instance, by sharing stories about certain objects, adding descriptions or introducing other perspectives. This not only enriches the information about heritage, but also makes it more democratic and multivocal.

New insights

Disclosing Architecture has provided a unique opportunity for in-depth research into the contents of the National Collection. The photographic collection, for example, was mapped out in detail for the first time, providing a clearer picture not only of the materials and techniques used, but also of the enormous wealth of content.

This sometimes led to special discoveries, such as a photogram by El Lissitzky in the estate of architect and urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren. In other instances, photos by Cas Oorthuys, Bernard. F. Eilers, Violette Cornelius and Eva Besnyő were also discovered.

The programme also enabled the Nieuwe Instituut to look at the collection through ‘contemporary glasses’, for example on issues such as the decolonisation of archives or the under-representation of female designers. This has led to new insights and methods for the practice of preserving, categorising and opening up heritage.

The results of Disclosing Architecture were shared with the heritage sector, other institutions, partners and other stakeholders and interested parties during the interim conference in 2022 and during the closing event. A collection articles about the programme, Disclosing Architecture: 18 Stories about Heritage and Innovation, was presented at the closing event.