The lost buildings

Rietveld Landscape were asked by the Netherlands architecture institute to raise awareness of the high number of empty public buildings in the country, which have “enormous potential and the government are failing to make use of.” Over the summer I coincidentally visited the Netherlands for the first time, and they have so many beautiful buildings, so it’s a shame to learn that some are potentially not being used.

The result is Vacant NL: an installation that “calls upon the Dutch government to make use of the enormous potential of inspiring, temporarily unoccupied buildings from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries for innovation within the creative knowledge economy.”

The installation features in the Dutch Pavillion at this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice. It is formed of over 1,000 small, blue foam model buildings, one for each empty building in the country. Every single model is suspended from the double-height ceiling of the pavilion. A book was also provided with the details of each building, and I adore the idea of the audience being able to locate them if they so wished.

The scale of the installation looks fantastic and quite imposing; I wish I could see it in person. I love the idea of being able to walk under the models and view it from above as well. I also admire the choice of colour and the decision to use only one for the models; I believe it has helped to intensify the lost and forgotten aspect of the situation.