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Ladies and gentlemen,

This year’s curator, Rem Koolhaas, has chosen Fundamentals to be the theme of the biennale.
He wants to provoke discussion about architecture, not architects.
By talking about the fundamental components such as doors, floors and walls Koolhaas hopes we discover new things about architecture.
An exciting prospect.

We tend to take the constant elements in our lives for granted.
We feel safe in our homes with sturdy windows and locked doors.
Life is comfortable thanks to heating and insulation from natural elements and street noise.     
Our homes are our castles and inside we are kings and queens.
But what good are our castles if they stand in cities suffering under oppression?
What are the fundamentals of our architecture worth if we neglect the fundamentals of our open society?

The Dutch pavilion this year celebrates the ideas and principles the architect Jaap Bakema formulated on the open society.
Bakema’s notion of the open society was an ongoing grassroots project.
Everyone was responsible.
Governments, private parties and citizens each had a role to play but never in isolation.
These three entities needed to be connected.
Overcoming divisions and thinking in terms of relations was at the heart of Bakema’s ideas.

The individual should become aware of the larger whole he is a part of, feel responsible and act if necessary.
Architecture was to help the individual to develop this awareness.
In other words, architects needed to do more than design buildings.
They needed to think as much about the fundamentals of society as they did about the fundamentals of buildings.
Bakema’s philosophy should be seen in the context of his experiences and time.

A survivor of one of Germany’s prison camps, Bakema’s career took flight during the Cold War.
He strongly believed in the welfare state and the collective.
A lot has happened since Bakema passed away in 1981.
Everyone is connected globally, the classic welfare state – as it was organised in the sixties and seventies - is no more.
Physically too our streets and cities have changed.
We no longer work and live the way we did forty years ago and so, the architecture has changed too.
It has accommodated the change.

But even though you and I live in very different times, the fundamentals remain the same: People still only thrive in open societies and ideas only flourish if opinion is free;
And we still cannot take our way of life for granted.
It needs constant attention.
In Europe we need not travel far from our castles to witness with our own eyes what happens when people disengage.
So I would like to propose that you and I here today symbolically resurrect Bakema’s ideas and re-launch the open society.

Let us start renovating the fundamental components of our society.
Not with old ideas and worn down philosophies, but anew.
Suitable for our times.
That project starts here today and I am convinced it will gain momentum if you infuse it with your new ideas about the fundamentals of your own profession.
I thank you very much and wish you an inspiring biennale. Thank you.