A selection of our chairs is on display at the TU Delft Hortus Botanicus for the summer. The Hortus has been conducting botanical research on plants for over 100 years. This has always focused on the use of plants by humans, as a source of food, medicine, fibres for textiles, and raw materials for buildings and furniture. In the coming years, the botanical garden will cooperate more with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. A great opportunity to highlight developments in the use of plant materials in furniture together with the faculty's Chair Collection. In the exhibition at the Hortus Botanicus, we see chairs from the last two groups, together with the plants from which they are made.

Welcome to the opening exhibition of the BK Treasury. In a Faculty building whose corridors are habitually flooded with exhibitions showcasing current research and student work, this space will serve as a showcase for the treasures hidden in collection depots, both from TU Delft and other Institutions. The heritage of 160 years of our University’s existence, contributions from outside institutions, and partnerships will surprise and delight visitors. Moreover, it will form a point of departure for new developments at our faculty.

The Rietveld Chairs
This first exhibition at the BK Treasury shows some of the most extraordinary items in the collections: three of the six chairs that Gerrit Rietveld donated in 1964, on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate. Rietveld carefully selected these six chairs, that would support the Chair Collection’s mission in educating young designers.

All seven chairs are constructed from different materials or using different techniques, making them exceptionally well-suited to the Chair Collection’s purpose. Together, the chairs illustrate Rietveld’s experimental approach to furniture design. In more recent years, others have generously donated more Rietveld chairs, increasing our collection to a total of eleven original chairs and four replicas.

The Second World War was not an easy time for TU Delft –then still a technical college. It was a period in which the institution had to guard its survival and its integrity. After the war, the sad balance was drawn up. During the war, 180 Delft students, recent graduates and teachers were murdered or died. Several places in and around the Aula of TU Delft commemorate this difficult period. Because in 2022 it will be 80 years since many Delft students were murdered because of resistance work, extra attention will be paid this year to the war history of the university. You are invited to take a tour of the building’s places of commemoration.

A website to show both the Chair Collection and the collection of models of the faculty of A & BE of TU Delft. The history and purpose of the collections are explained, and information about each individual item in both collections is made available.

This exhibition shows pieces from the Architecture collections of models and chairs, combined with images from the collection archive. Together the collections form a record of educational and research activities. And: a source of inspiration and of information for current education and research.

A selection of the material from Drawing Rooms on display in the faculty.

Eugen Gugel came to the Netherlands to become the first architecture professor at the newly established Polytechnic School in Delft, in 1864. In fact, he was not just the first professor of architecture here in Delft, but in the entire country. Over almost 40 years, Gugel managed to build up the field of Dutch academic architectural education from scratch. This exhibition starts from an Album that his former students presented to Gugel on the occasion of his 25th anniversary as a professor, which is held in the special collections of TU Delft Library. In addition publications by Gugel and other heritage objects are on display inside the faculty library.

In 2016 dook een interessant stukje immaterieel erfgoed van de faculteit bouwkunde op, het archief van de sectie vrouwenstudies. Het archief bestond uit vier verhuisdozen met een zeer gevarieerde inhoud: publicaties, zowel van de hand van leden van de sectie als van anderen, verslagen van besprekingen en onderwijsactiviteiten, aantekeningen voor lezingen en dia’s. Al met al voldoende materiaal om een goed beeld te krijgen van de sectie, en hoe zij indertijd kon ontstaan tegen de achtergrond van de tweede feministische golf.

Gemeentehuizen hebben al eeuwenlang een belangrijke representatieve functie als bestuurscentra en als bakens van democratie. Ten gevolge van de gemeentelijke herindelingen en een groeiend takenpakket is er in de twintigste eeuw een groot aantal nieuwe gemeentehuizen gebouwd. De voormalige stad- of raadhuizen zijn vaak te klein geworden en hebben daarom andere functies toebedeeld gekregen.

De gemeentehuizen die nu in gebruik zijn, zijn toegankelijk en transparant. Het zijn openbare ruimtes met verschillende maatschappelijke en culturele functies. Door de opkomende digitalisering lijken gemeentehuizen verder verwijderd te raken van de burger, maar ze worden des te meer ingericht op een manier die mensen juist samenbrengt. Ook zijn er nog vele voormalige gemeentehuizen die hun plek in het Nederlandse landschap hebben behouden. Het oude stadhuis van Gouda is bijvoorbeeld een prachtig voorbeeld van gotische architectuur uit de vijftiende eeuw, evenals de vele andere oude stadhuizen die rijksmonumenten zijn geworden.

`Gemeentehuizen in Nederland` biedt een compleet overzicht van alle in gebruik genomen gemeentehuizen van Nederland. Het boek bespreekt ook de gemeentelijke herindelingen, de plaatsing van de gemeentehuizen en de verschillende bouwstijlen waarin deze gemeentehuizen gebouwd zijn. De speciaal voor dit boek gemaakte foto`s laten de diversiteit aan moderne gemeentehuizen van Nederland zien, waarbij de lezer kennismaakt met de historische en architectonische ontwikkeling van deze gebouwen en hun functionaliteit.

In 1932, Herman Rosse (1887-1965) was appointed professor at the decorative arts department of Delft University of Technology. For most of his career, Rosse worked in the United States, and was successful as, among other things, a set designer for theatre and film. His professorship in Delft, from 1932 to 1948, was an intermezzo to his design career. In the field of education, his contribution was hardly remarkable; Rosse seems to have focused his creative energy on other matters, such as theatre set design...

This chapter describes and analyses the cafes and restaurants of Roma Termini Railway station in the 1950s.

The »Atlas of Furniture Design« is a new comprehensive overview on the history of modern furniture design. The publication includes works by the most significant designers of the past 230 years and documents all important stages of design history.
Mateo Kries, director of the Vitra Design Museum and co-editor of the publication, explains: »The publication is set up to provide a new comprehensive outline for scholars of furniture design by considering the latest academic research, questioning extant knowledge, and giving top experts a platform to share their ideas. The book touches on a range of subjects spanning the beginnings of industrialization to digitalization, which is becoming increasingly influential in contemporary furniture design.«

An exhibition in the TU Delft Teaching Lab on using objects in education, historical and current. A film was recorded in which curator Charlotte van Wijk explains the exhibition.

This paper discusses the section for Women’s Studies at the Department of Architecture in Delft (ca. 1978-2000). It describes the circumstances that made it possible that such a section came to exist. And it investigates what the activities of the section were, and what the impact of this section has been.

The chapter describes the Chair Collection of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of Delft Technical University. It summarizes the history of the collection and its use in education. A set of furniture based on Talasjkino designs is the focal point of the text.