The collection of Het Nieuwe Instituut contains drawings, photographs and models from the archives of Dutch architects and urban planners. The library collects and manages information about Dutch and international architecture, urban design, and related fields such as spatial planning, landscape architecture, interior architecture, art, digital culture and design. The collection is available for research in the Study Centre.

Dutch Structuralism is a movement in architecture in the late '50s and early '60s that renounced the technocratic planning that characterised the post-war reconstruction of the country. Instead, its proponents asked space for the poetic and emotional aspects of architecture, in order to come to a truly dignified living environment.

The Dutch entry at the 14th International Architectural Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia examines the work and ideas of the architect Jaap Bakema. The exhibition Open: A Bakema Celebration critically reflects on the idea of the open society through Bakema’s work and research.

The city of Rio de Janeiro has an advanced command and control centre from which various scenarios – from traffic jams to acts of terrorism and natural disasters –  can be predicted and potentially prevented. The installation Control Syntax Rio, on show at Het Nieuwe Instituut from 12 June 2016, shows how this Olympic city is being read as a matrix of potential calamities and the impact this has on the social climate of the city.

The 1972 Olympic Games offered the host country, West Germany, an unrivalled opportunity to portray itself to the world as a modern, democratic and culturally aware nation. This carefully constructed image was marred two weeks into the games when eight members of the Black September Organisation infiltrated the Olympic Village and took the Israeli team hostage. The exhibition Munich 1972. The Design of a Democratic Body tells this controversial story through the lens of design, by contrasting the narratives and aesthetic strategies of the organisers with the tactics deployed for their disruption.

Myriad forms of appropriation, such as squatting, play an essential role in the development of the city and public space. In a period of renewed interest in a programmatic approach to the city, Het Nieuwe Instituut is conducting research into squatting as an architecture of appropriation. Architecture of Appropriation examines ideas such as vacancy, property, alternative living arrangements and housing policy.

Malkit Shoshan curated the exhibition BLUE: Architecture of UN Peacekeeping Missions at the Dutch Pavilion during the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. Shoshan, an architect and founder of the architecture think tank FAST, has been a fellow of Het Nieuwe Instituut for the past two years. Her on-going research into architecture in conflict areas fitted neatly within the overarching theme for the 2016 Architecture Biennale: ‘Reporting from the Front’.

For the series Surprising Finds archivist Alfred Marks selects extraordinary drawings, photographs, objects and models from the archives of Het Nieuwe Instituut on the basis of a theme. The presentations do not necessarily show the highlights of the Dutch architectural history, but first and foremost show the richness, diversity and narrative power of the collection.

In the context of the 34th World Expo opening in Milan this spring, Het Nieuwe Instituut addresses this phenomenon from different perspectives between April 26 and August 23.  The exhibition What is the Netherlands shows how the Dutch entries to the World Expo have always been the result of collaborations between government, industry, designers and artists.