The Dutch contribution to la Biennale Architettura 2014 is “Open: A Bakema Celebration”, a critical rethinking of the idea of the open society through the work ofJaap Bakema. Bakema was a leading voice in the post-war avant-gardes of 20th-century architecture: CIAM and its successor Team 10.
The shifting roles of the state and the market, the architect and the individual citizen are scrutinised in an installation that utilises a multiplicity of media: models, historical correspondence, photography, drawings, TV material and films as well as the ‘Post Box for the Open Society’, an online platform for architects and designers to share new ideas for the open society.
Jaap Bakema was a partner in the Rotterdam office Van den Broek, he and his team were responsible for some of the most monumental proposals for the Dutch welfare state, such as the famed design for a new-town extension of Amsterdam called Plan for Pampus (1964). Together with Aldo van Eyck and Herman Hertzberger he was a member of the now- famous editorial board of the Dutch journal Forum in the years 1959–1963, which sought to renew modern architecture by pioneering the interrelations of architecture, planning, the arts, history and the social sciences.
The archive of Van den Broek en Bakema is housed in the collection of Het Nieuwe Instituut, one of the world’s largest architecture collections.
Open: A Bakema Celebration constitutes one of the first activities of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, founded in October 2013 by Het Nieuwe Instituut and Delft University of Technology. Its research programme consists of, among others, a broadly conceived study of the history and contemporary relevance of structuralism in architecture in relation to systems theory and the social sciences.
Curators: Guus Beumer and Dirk van den Heuvel
Partners: Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Italy, Delft University of Technology, Foundation Rietveld Pavilion Venice, ArchiNed, Volume
Special Events:
5 – 6 Jun | Press preview
6 Jun, 6pm | Opening
- Open:
Saturday, 07 June 2014 - Close:
Sunday, 23 November 2014 - Address:
Giardini, Castello, 30122 Venezia - Mail:
m.langendijk@hetnieuweinstituut.nl - Phone:
+31 104 401 200 - Web:
Open: A Bakema Celebration - Opening hour:
10am – 6pm - Closing day:
Mon - Transport:
Giardini stop - Photo credits:
1. Elements, 2003 – 2014, Johannes Schwartz; 2. Photo of the model for the Town Hall in Marl Germany, 1957, collection Het Nieuwe Instituut, BAKE ph22, Van den Broek en Bakema Architects; 3. Town Hall Marl, 2014, photographer Johannes Schwartz, architecture Van den Broek en Bakema Architects; 4. Pampus Extension Plan, Amsterdam, 1964, collectie Het Nieuwe Instituut, BROX 1411t5-2, Van den Broek en Bakema Architects; 5. Housing scheme Lekkumerend in Leeuwarden The Netherlands, 1962, collection Het Nieuwe Instituut, BROX_1337t339- 1, Van den Broek en Bakema Architects; 6. Hansaviertel Tower Block, Berlin, 2014, photographer Johannes Schwartz, architecture Van den Broek en Bakema Architects. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut
