ROTTERDAM.- At the end of February, the first Design Biennale Rotterdam will transform the city with exhibitions, talks and events dedicated to collectable design. This unique event is made possible by the combined efforts of over 15 venues and hundreds of designers, curators and creatives from Rotterdam and beyond. As the main partner of the biennale, the Nieuwe Instituut will host a number of activities between Wednesday 19 February and Sunday 2 March, including a symposium on the role of design in shaping cities and communities

From 16 May 2025:
Ma Yansong: Architecture and Emotion
In May, the new Fenix Museum of Migration will open in Rotterdam, with an eye-catching roof-top Tornado designed by the Chinese architect Ma Yansong. At the same time, the Nieuwe Instituut will open the first exhibition outside China on the internationally influential Beijing-based architect and his studio MAD Architects, founded in 2004. Curated by Aric Chen, the exhibition offers a journey through Ma’s work, from his critical response to modernism to expressive designs that refer to Chinese tradition and to conceptual relationships between humanity, nature and emotion.

From 6 June 2025:
BNA Best Building of the Year
In June, the announcement of BNA Best Building of the Year and the award ceremony will take place at and in partnership with the Nieuwe Instituut. This 20th edition of the award will be celebrated with the opening of an exhibition of the most significant highlights of Dutch architecture from the past 20 years.

From 22 November 2025:
FUNGI: Anarchist Designers
Curated by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and Feifei Zhou, FUNGI: Anarchist Designers presents fungi – better known to us as mushrooms and toadstools – not as human resources such as food and medicine, nor as hip new materials for designers. Instead, this exhibition reveals fungi as anarchist designers through research-based collaborations between scientists and artists that show how these organisms undermine notions of safety, reinforce capitalist exploitation and create multispecies worlds.

Ongoing temporary exhibitions:

On view until 13 April 2025:
Garden Futures

Garden Futures shows how the garden can be a place for experiments in climate adaptation, biodiversity, social justice and a sustainable future, drawing on the work of famous designers and artists such as Roberto Burle Marx, Jamaica Kincaid, Mien Ruys and Derek Jarman, as well as local examples.

On view until spring 2026:
Dutch, More or Less: Contemporary Architecture, Design and Digital Culture

The long-running Dutch, More or Less presentation is the Nieuwe Instituut in a nutshell: the boundaries between architecture, design and digital culture have become blurred, meaning that the three disciplines belong in the same building! Over 70 interactive installations, fashion items, models and furniture pieces by Dutch icons such as OMA, Mina Abouzahra, Viktor&Rolf, MVRDV, Hella Jongerius and Iris van Herpen also prove how versatile and distinctive ‘Dutch design’ is, and why it is considered so ground-breaking worldwide.

On view until December 2026:
Future Makers!

The long-running Future Makers! exhibition gets children involved in shaping the future through doing, making and discovering. What are their wishes for the future? What do they want to change? Future Makers! was made not only for, but also by children: a team of nine 8- to 12-year-olds helped with the thinking and decision-making, supported by 150 pupils from five Rotterdam primary schools, design agency Opperclaes and design collective STORE Rotterdam.

International projects:

From 8 April 2025:
Milan Design Week

While Milan Design Week is one of the world's leading design events, its hundreds of thousands of visitors put an unsustainable pressure on the quality of life in Milan and the surrounding region – from pollution and sky-high property prices to the CO2 emissions from all the kilometres travelled. In collaboration with the Dutch Embassy and the cultural agency cheFare, the Nieuwe Instituut invites three designers for a year-long residency during which they will explore possible design responses to these problems in collaboration with local communities.

From 13 April 2025:
World Expo Osaka: Common Ground

The World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan is an international event that will bring together more than 160 countries and organisations for cultural exchange and cooperation. Nieuwe Instituut has been appointed curator of the cultural programme for the Dutch pavilion. The programme will explore various themes and disciplines and will tie in with the overarching theme of the pavilion: Common Ground – which emphasises collaboration and dialogue.

From 10 May 2025:
Biennale di Venezia

Every two years, the Nieuwe Instituut commissions the Dutch Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2025, curator Amanda Pinatih and designer Gabriel Fontana will transform the iconic Rietveld Pavilion into a sports bar. Through a queer lens, sport is viewed as an architectural system that regulates spaces, bodies and behaviour, thus offering an alternative view of societal norms around gender, identity and group dynamics. How can architecture resist normativity and create living environments that foster new forms of togetherness?

From May 29
Trailblazers of the Abstract

Nieuwe Instituut and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) are jointly organising a ‘dialogue exhibition’ juxtaposing two avant-garde movements: De Stijl, founded by Theo van Doesburg, and its Antwerp counterpart, the Kring Moderne Kunst [Modern Art Circle], led by Jozef Peeters. At the KMSKA, visitors can see drawings, paintings, architectural designs, graphics and furniture by artists including Theo van Doesburg, Cornelis van Eesteren, J.J.P. Oud, Vilmos Huszár, Jozef Peeters, Jos Léonard and Huib Hoste. The exhibition highlights both the shared ideals and the different visual languages of the two art movements.