Nieuwe Instituut

It’s coming home! Following its premiere as the official contribution to the Venice 2025 Architecture Biennale, SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness opens in Rotterdam – the very city it was developed in. Curated by Amanda Pinatih and centring on the work of social designer Gabriel Fontana, SIDELINED transforms the Deck of the Nieuwe Instituut into an alternative sports bar – a space to play, question and belong.

The Just In #2 exhibition showcases 13 acquisitions that have recently been added to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. Items from the archives of the local architecture foundation Stichting Architectuur Lokaal, the art historian Wies van Moorsel and the architects Frans Ghijsels, Aldo and Hannie van Eyck, and Herman Hertzberger can be seen.

Calling all children: come and create the future at the Nieuwe Instituut! There’s an exhibition about the future just for you, with lots of things to do and make. In Future Makers! you’ll go on a real adventure, with an out-of-this-world creature at your side. Help design a never-ending flag, make a magical menu and become a climate hero of tomorrow. What are your biggest hopes for the future? What would you most like to change? Speak up and make your own dream world. For children aged 6 and over.

Immerse yourself in over 150 years of design history in the Collection Gallery. Enter an interactive, hybrid installation featuring wall-sized projections and mirrored panels. Be guided by physical objects, such as models and drawings, on a digital journey of discovery through the Nieuwe Instituut’s architecture collection.

With Another Island, researcher and audiovisual artist Janilda Bartolomeu presents a film installation that depicts the dreams of the Cape Verdean diaspora. Through this piece, Bartolomeu offers a personal and poetic reflection on the shared heritage and potential future of the Cape Verdean archipelago and its diaspora communities in Rotterdam and Dakar.

-1 Digital Lab: Part laboratory, part exhibition space, -1 Digital Lab responds to the urgent need to address critical issues in digital culture, from the rapid advancement of AI and the reemergence of do-it-yourself technology to the inclusion of more diverse and alternative voices in computing.