If there is one city in the Netherlands where modern architecture is cherished and shown, then it must be Rotterdam. So it’s quite an honor for the Eindhoven Eight to be presented in an exposition at The Nieuwe Instituut in exactly this city. “Essential Eight” is a group of eight Eindhoven-based architecture bureaus: Open Architecture Office, Werkstatt, UArchitects, Atelier to the Bone, Houben/Van Mierlo, Wenink Holtkamp, 12N/Fulco Treffers and Ateliereen.
“Influenced by the particular context of a city attempting to redefine itself through design and technology, a new breed of architecture studios is emerging in Eindhoven”, curator Sergio M. Figueiredo says. “Combined, their work indicates a recalibration of the idea of architecture and the city, one that is wider and more inclusive, where the problems of context, scale, and detail are inextricably linked to abstraction, communication, and orchestration. While the resulting work takes on a wide array of forms, shapes and spaces, it nevertheless shares material and conceptual affinities, suggesting a fresh vocabulary of productive methods and spatial sensibilities.”
Eindhoven Eight is curated by Figueiredo and a group of students from TU Eindhoven under the banner of the fledgling research programme Curatorial Research Collective (CRC).
“A new breed of architecture studios is emerging in Eindhoven”Sergio M. Figueiredo, Assistant professor of architecture history and theory at TU Eindhoven
Sergio M. Figueiredo is an assistant professor of architecture history and theory at TU Eindhoven, where he is the research seminar coordinator for the unit of Architecture, Urban Design, and Engineering (AUDE). He also directs the newly established program Curatorial Research Collective (CRC), which develops critical positions on architecture through research and exhibitions, expanding conventional territories for academic architectural scholarship and purposefully engaging a broader public. Previously, Figueiredo completed a doctoral dissertation at UCLA, analyzing the history and development of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), which was published recently by nai010 publishers under the title The NAi Effect: Creating Architecture Culture.
This afternoon, Wednesday 3 May 2017, from 17:15 until 18:15, Het Nieuwe Instituut organizes a lecture by Sergio M. Figueiredo will discuss the way architecture exhibitions have been used to create their own architectural effects and critical reflections, as well as to represent architectural work.