Netherlands Pavilion

'Vacant NL' Where Architecture meets ideas exhibit, Giardini Venice, 2010 Architecture Biennale

This installation made subject of the thousands of buildings in the Netherlands that remain unoccupied. Vacant NL aimed to show how this enormous quantity and diversity of temporarily available property offers a range of possibilities, and that temporary use can give positive impulse for innovation within the creative knowledge economy. Ironically, the building where the exhibition takes place had also been empty for over 39 years since its inauguration in 1954. Rietveld Landscape (the exhibition curators) emphasized the theme by leaving the ground level of the pavilion empty. From below, one could make out a suspended ceiling of blue foam. From the first level of the pavilion, the suspended field revealed itself to be a collection of model churches, schools, water towers, factories, hangars, light houses and offices. A diagram on the wall shows the connections that could be made between vacant buildings and creative professionals.