The Netherlands | 14th Venice Architecture Biennale

Open: A Bakema Celebration
Dutch Pavilion

The contribution of the Netherlands at the 14th Architecture Biennale focuses on the country’s open society model, developed by analyzing the work of Jaap Bakema that, first in CIAM (Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne) and then with Team 10, represented one of the most interesting voices of the post-war architectural avant-gardes.
The hopeful architecture imagined and designed by Bakema was aimed at the construction of the Dutch welfare state after World War Two as well as at creating a democratic and open society; the project for the famous Lijnbaan shopping center and even more his Pampusplaan, an urban plan for Amsterdam’s extension, for Bakema, were means to establish a new modern and welcoming community.
Today, in a globalized society threatened by populism, that seems to have lost its egalitarian ideals and where the debate on the social role of architecture is almost missing, the work of Bakema still represents an encouraging reference point for reassessing the principles of the open society.

left: photo by Simone Ferraro. right: Sketches Open: A Bakema Celebration, by Experimental Jetset

top: photo Inexhibit. bottom: photo Het Nieuwe Instituut

left: Bakema meeting Bonnieux, courtesy Smithson Photo Collection. right: Page Manuscript Van Stoel tot Stad, 1963, Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut

Pampus Extension Plan, Amsterdam, 1964, Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut

left: Model Town Hall Terneuzen, 1961. right: Model Town Hall Marl, 1957. Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut

Shopping Window Lijnbaan, copyright Steef Zoetmulder / Nederlands Fotomuseum