Bouwcentrum Research Network (BRN) — TU Delft, ETH Zurich, Princeton University

Exploring the Bouwcentrum as a role model for contemporary questions on public data

 

Initially founded as a statistical office for war damage documentation of the city of Rotterdam in 1948, the Bouwcentrum developed into a leading institution combining design, data, industry, and society. Based on systematically gathered and classified open data, architects, civil engineers, and statisticians collaborated on future planning methods, industrialized housing, material standards, urban design, and building optimization. But while building information data has become a decentralized obstacle of privatization and authorship in the following decades, Bouwcentrum had early understood the relevance of making architectural data a public good. As a new model of interdisciplinary knowledge production for society the Bouwcentrum initiated a global network of so-called Building Information Centers in the postwar period.

In times of global challenges such as digitalization and climate crisis, BRN revises and reflects on concepts, discourses, tools, and methods of the Bouwcentrum Rotterdam to provide societal and sustainable solutions for our data-driven built environment. How could the history of Bouwcentrum Rotterdam help to integrate open data in the architectural production of the 21st century?

The Bouwcentrum Research Network is part of the Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture Group of Prof. Dr. Georg Vrachliotis, and a collaboration with Dr. Andreas Kalpacki (ETH Zurich), Dr. Dennis Pohl (TU Delft), and Bart-Jan Polman (Princeton University).