Archive

This is the Archive of the Dutch contribution to the 14th edition of the Venice Biennale. Several items can be found here: a special publication with essays elaborating on the topic of the open society and the work and ideas of Jaap Bakema, newsletters and address list derived from the archives of the New Institute, papers that resulted from 'Bakema and the Open Society', a conference held at TU Delft to conclude the event, the newsletters of the Post Box for the Open Society and six articles published by ArchiNed, that discuss the open society.

'Open: A Bakema Celebration'
As part of the Dutch contribution to the 14th edition of the Venice Biennale a special publication was made. It served as a supplement for Volume #41. Contributors were Guus Beumer, Dirk van den Heuvel, Failed Architecture, Luca Molinari, Johannes Schwartz, Jorrit Sipkes, and Łukasz Stanek. The graphic design is done by Experimental Jetset.

Movie 'the Death of CIAM', by Team 10.

 

'Post Box for the Development of the Habitat: archive of original newsletters'

In 1959, Jaap Bakema organized the last CIAM conference at the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterlo. It was there decided to terminate the CIAM organization. As an alternative and to maintain the international network of CIAM, Bakema established a post box: the Post Box for the Development of the Habitat. The idea was as simple as effective: everybody could send in materials, designs or ideas they wished to share. Bakema would collect them and distribute them by way of a newsletter. 'Postman Bakema' - as he signed the newsletters - produced 18 such newsletters up to 1971. The Post Box is now an archive of exchanges between the various international avant-gardes active during the 1960s, among which Team 10 of course, but also the Japanese metabolists, Yona Friedman and Hans Hollein.   The Post Box correspondence archive is now part of the collection at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The complete series of newsletters and its address lists are made available here (c Het Nieuwe Instituut). 

 

 

'Bakema and the Open Society' 

On 25 November 2014 the conference 'Bakema and the Open Society' was organized, by the Jaap Bakema Study Centre together with Het Nieuwe Instituut and TU Delft as a conclusion of the Dutch contribution to the 14th edition of the Venice Biennale. On the ocassion of this event, several papers where presented that will soon be published here. 

 

'Post Box for the Open Society: newsletters during the Biennale 2014'

During the Biennale, a monthly newsletter was published. Each one included new submissions to the Post Box for the Open Society, material from the archives and a reflective essay. Through this link an overview of the newsletters of June, July, August, September, October and November 2014 can be found.

 

 

 

'ArchiNed: six articles on the open society'

During the Biennale, ArchiNed contributed to the discussion by publishing six articles on their website about the open society.

'The Open Society and its emergencies' Theses on Urbanity in the Age of Disaster, 2 June 2014

The dull city creates social distance, 30 June 2014

The Openheid State From closed to open society in Cape Town, 4 August 2014

New collectivities, 1 September 2014

Urbanity of Things, 6 October 2014

Bakema's blind spot, 13 November 2014