Architecture Archives of the Future

The Architecture Archives of the Future group aims to develop innovative methods of architectural knowledge production based on the new opportunities presented by digital media and technologies, while building on the Delft traditions of plan analysis and precedent research. Questions behind the research and education of the group are design-driven to contribute to the urgent societal questions of today, including the ones of climate change impact on the built environment and ecological systems, and the socio-political ideas around democracy, diversity and inclusion, post-coloniality and modernity, and how these pertain to the traditions of open societies.

Architecture culture and knowledge are produced in many interconnected places. One of the most interesting sites today is the one of the archive under the impact of new digital technologies. Once a dark place where forgotten drawing rolls collected dust, the digital turn has brought a new excitement as well challenge to the architectural archive for research, education and design knowledge.

Archives are potentially more open and more public than ever, more and better connected, linked with other archives and other institutions, communicating with other disciplines and other media platforms. While residing in depots and repositories, archives have also become nomadic and multimedia, on phones, tablets and other communication devices. Architectural archives must therefore be reconceived as generative memory spaces, as data producers themselves, and an interface between publics and professionals.

The group's activities are closely connected with the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, the research collaboration between the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, which hosts the Dutch national collection of architecture and urban planning.