Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, Dutch pavilion
A collaboration with Rietveld Landscape (RAAAF), curated by Saskia van Stein for NAi
Invitation leaflet showing the empty interior of Gerrit Rietveld's pavilion of 1954 in the Giardini of Venice, Italy
This installation calls upon the Dutch government to make use of the enormous potential of vacant buildings from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries in our country.
In 2020 the Dutch government strives to attain a position among the top five knowledge economies in the world. The creative industry is one of the five key elements described in this ambition.
The transition to a knowledge economy requires not only excellent research and education, but also specific spatial conditions, to enable and support new connections between different professional fields. This exhibition proposes using these vacancies in a new way, and more specifically for innovation within the creative knowledge economy.
The challenges we are facing today call for innovation. Not just a little, but plenty of it - in fact, for a culture in which design skills and cooperation between scientists and creative pioneers play essential roles, with the physical conditions to support it. This submission shows that architecture can contribute to this development, by addressing societal problems on different levels and scales. Starting nationally, aiming globally.
view of the installation as seen from the entrance of the pavilion, 2010
— Combining expertise
Rietveld Landscape, the curator for the Dutch entry to the Venice Architecture Biennial 2010, invited by the NAI, Roitterdam, has formed a multidisciplinary team to develop the installation and communication of the pavillion.
The team consisted of Ronald and Erik Rietveld (RAAAF), Jurgen Bey/ product designer, Joost Grootens/ graphic designer, Saskia van Stein/ NAI and Barbara Visser/ visual artist, built and advised by Landstra & de Vries in collaboration with Claus Wiersma.
Additional assistance by Peer Frantzen, Arna Mackic, Kasper Jacobs, Chantal Bax and Mauro Perosin
Placebook, a visual landscape of connections between people, buildings and projects
Installing Placebook, a visual landscape of connections between people, buildings and projects
Atlas of Vacancy by Joost Grootens
