ROTTERDAM.- Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch national museum for architecture, design, and digital culture, has acquired the archive of architects Aldo and Hannie van Eyck. The couple’s contribution to architectural innovation in the second half of the 20th century cannot be overstated. The archive is exceptionally rich and informative, with strong visual quality, and consists of models, design drawings, slides, photographs, audio tapes, travel films, project records, correspondence and texts.

With this acquisition, the Nieuwe Instituut adds a highly important and authoritative archive to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. Managed by the Nieuwe Instituut, this ‘collective memory of Dutch architecture,’ comprises some 4.5 million items and is one of the world’s largest architectural collections. This new addition greatly enhances the international significance of the Nieuwe Instituut’s collection.

Over the coming years, the Nieuwe Instituut will work on the inventory, conservation, and digitization of the archive. This will enable it to be made permanently available in the future for the public, research, and loans. It also plans to dedicate an exhibition and various research and public projects to the oeuvre of the Van Eycks in the coming years.

Founders of Dutch Structuralism

Through their approach to design, Aldo and Hannie van Eyck laid the foundations for Structuralism, an influential post-war architectural movement that emphasised encounters and connections between people, in Dutch architecture. However, they did not use this term themselves, preferring to speak of architecture as a ‘configurative discipline.’ The Van Eycks sought an alternative to the prevalent modernism of the West, one with more room for human expression.

This is reflected in projects such as the Zeedijk playgrounds in Amsterdam (1955), Wheels of Heaven in Driebergen (1963), Hubertus House in Amsterdam (1973–1980), the Sonsbeek Pavilion in Arnhem (1965), the primary schools in Nagele (1954–1956), the Amsterdam Orphanage (1955–1960), the Pastoor van Ars Church in The Hague (1964–1969), and the Court of Audit building, also in The Hague, in the late 1990s. Aldo van Eyck’s later work on urban renewal in Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood with architect Theo Bosch was also ground-breaking internationally and can be found in the archive.

The archive joins the series of archives of Dutch Structuralist architects that the Nieuwe Instituut has acquired in recent decades. These include those of students and former employees of the Van Eycks, such as Joop van Stigt, Hans Tupker, Piet Blom, Theo Bosch and Jan Verhoeven. The archive of Herman Hertzberger, Aldo van Eyck’s co-editor at the magazine Forum, is also part of the Nieuwe Instituut’s collection.

The Role of Hannie van Eyck

We now refer to the archive as the Aldo and Hannie van Eyck archive to recognise Hannie’s contribution to the oeuvre. From 1983 onwards, she was an official partner in the firm led briefly by Van Eyck and Theo Bosch, but she was involved in most of the projects even before that. Following Aldo’s death in 1999, she continued to run the firm, designing projects such as the Dutch entry for the São Paulo Architecture Biennale in 2000 and the Hunebedcentrum in Borger, Drenthe in 2005. The archives from these projects will also be transferred to the Nieuwe Instituut.

Aukje Bolle, Managing Director of the Nieuwe Instituut: “With the Aldo and Hannie van Eyck archive, the Nieuwe Instituut is adding vitally important heritage to the National Collection. The fascinating and rich oeuvre of the Van Eycks plays an essential role in our understanding of post-war Dutch architecture and its international significance. Acquiring the archive was the result of the efforts of many people, and we are delighted that we succeeded. I would like to specifically mention the models, for which we received a generous contribution from the Rembrandt Association and the Mondriaan Fund, enabling us to make them publicly accessible in the future, both through loans and in our own museum."

The transfer of the Van Eyck archive was carried out under the leadership of former general and artistic director Aric Chen, in close collaboration with Tess van Eyck-Wickham (daughter of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck). he models from the archive were acquired with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt (thanks in part to its Kruger Fund and its VriendenLoterij Acquisition Fund) and the Mondriaan Fund, the public fund for visual art and cultural heritage in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Thanks to these contributions, the models will be permanently accessible at the Nieuwe Instituut in the future for the public, research, and loans.

The Van Eycks’ archive is currently being transferred to the Nieuwe Instituut.