The Dutch pavilion at Venice architecture biennale 2010 – ‘Vacant NL’

Venice’s 12th international architecture biennale started on the 29th August and in my opinion one of the most striking elements of it has to be what’s going on inside the Dutch pavilion.

Housing the installation ‘Vacant NL’, the pavilion calls upon the Dutch government to make use of the huge amount of unoccupied buildings that the country has within it. It also asks what the role of the architect now is - when so many buildings go unused is it right to just build more rather than utilise already existing space?

Ronald and Erik Rietveld of Rietveld Landscape were chosen by the Netherlands Architecture Institute to make this statement and it’s one that’s been realised via building a landscape of the vacant properties (which include lighthouses, hospitals, water towers, factory buildings, airports, hangars, offices, forts, bunkers, schools, swimming pools and many more buildings besides) out of blue foam and then suspending everything on wires that dissect the building.

partial repost from

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