Het Nieuwe Instituut

Every two weeks, Het Nieuwe Instituut sends out a newsletter based on a theme relating to a current social issue, which we approach from the perspective of design.

Collecting Otherwise is one of the research projects currently being developed by Het Nieuwe Instituut as part of the Rethinking the Collection initiative, and under the umbrella of Disclosing Architecture. This background of this initiative is the decision of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) to invest 11 million euros over the next six years in the visibility – and thus the restoration and digitisation – of the National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, which is hosted and cared for by Het Nieuwe Instituut. In this context, Het Nieuwe Instituut considers it imperative to ask fundamental questions about the value and significance of the documents contained in the collection. In turn, these questions could contribute to the reorientation of notions of what could, or should, constitute heritage and archiving in specific moments in time.

Conceived as a spa resort, the exhibition Lithium highlights the beneficial and destructive aspects of the eternal human search for energy. Researchers, designers and artists reflect on the role of the chemical element lithium in powering today’s economy. How many times can we recharge our batteries without addressing the causes of depletion, in both human bodies and the planet?

A new look at the work of Nelly and Theo van Doesburg is possible thanks to the restoration of their architecture archive. The exhibition recognises Nelly as a key figure in the consolidation of the reputation of Van Doesburg and De Stijl. The magnificent focus of the exhibition will be on the couple’s most striking joint project: their studio-house in the Parisian suburb of Meudon. Sketches, drawings and scale models rarely (if ever) exhibited before reveal the house’s rich history.

Gallery 3 By You is Het Nieuwe Instituut’s initiative to make museum presentation space available to makers from the field.

At Het Nieuwe Instituut, children and young people discover that everything around them is designed, and get to try design techniques themselves.

Design and digital culture contribute significantly to the way Dutch society defines, manifests and develops itself. A well-preserved, open and accessible archive is therefore a precondition for the design discipline in order to meet the task assigned to it by Dutch culture and society. The Network Archives Design and Digital Culture has therefore been created as a partnership between heritage organisations including Het Nieuwe Instituut, knowledge and research institutions, and individual archives of Dutch design heritage.

Reading Sites is a series of written perspectives on the broader field of design.

As an extension of their short film AS TOLD TO G/D THYSELF, The Ummah Chroma collective provides a sacred space at Het Nieuwe Instituut entitled G/D THYSELF: Spirit Strategy On Raising Free Black Children. The sacred space invites visitors to explore themes of meta-physical transcendence, spirituality, and self-expression.

This exhibition considers the role of a fashion garment as a socio-political carrier. The hoodie is a staple of contemporary dress, hyped as a trend and a must-have item; but elsewhere it is also a topic of moral panic, banned by certain institutions and dissected by the media as an emblem of inequality, crime or deviancy.Curated by writer and curator Lou Stoppard.

For the Record investigates how contemporary video culture operates as a public space for consumerism, activism and emancipation, by exposing existing realities and by imagining alternatives.