International Construction Law Review
BOOK REVIEW
PROFESSOR SARAH LUPTON
MANOS STELLAKIS
Reactivate! Innovators of Dutch Architecture. Indira van ‘t Klooster. TrancityxValiz, the Netherlands. 2013. 256 pp. ISBN 978-90-78088-80-6. NUR 648. €27.50.
This book, funded in part by the Creative Industries Fund NL, is the result of a series of interviews of young Dutch practices by the author, who is Editor-in-Chief of the journal A10 new European architecture, consultant for Architectuur Lokaal, and guest lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Over a period of several years she interviewed around 50 practices, gathering material about their views, working processes, and projects (the material has also been the subject of an exhibition shown in Maastricht (NL) and Glasgow (UK)). According to the author the “architecture sector” in the Netherlands has halved in recent years, but the number of practices has nearly doubled since 2007, with many architects leaving the larger established practices to set up their own firms. The book gives a rare insight into the perspectives of these young firms, exploring the innovative strategies they have adopted in response to a changing economic, social and political climate.
The book is divided into two main sections; the first three Chapters outline general themes, and the remaining, entitled collectively “Portrait of a New Generation”, present detailed studies of 46 selected practices.
The introductory chapter (Innovators of Architecture: Conceptual, Pragmatic and Involved) depicts a vast array of current issues and pre-occupations that are concerns not only of the chosen designers, but of the vast majority of professionals (in the Netherlands and elsewhere). It concludes by setting out the book's aims: to showcase a chosen group of architects with “similar views of today's world” and to give the reader an insight into their work processes and outlooks. It poses a series of questions, namely: do these new modes of practice lead to new architecture, a new role for the architect, a new way of designing? Are there lessons for other architects?
The next chapter (The End of History and a New Beginning) discusses the thinkers that have influenced the architects portrayed in the book, ranging from Francis Fukuyama, to Richard Florida, William McDonough and Michael Braungart, and to Alessandro Baricco. The main message they collectively convey is that faith in capitalism and the pursuit of profit has been in decline for some time, replaced with an increasing interest in “collectivity, sustainability and flexibility”. The chapter concludes by posing a further series of questions: whether through this rising interest young architects are “developing a new sense of commerce, a certain pragmatism”, which will affect “the idea of the architect in his ivory tower”; and will this evolving outlook influence “their architectural processes … even the way they design”?
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