| Join Us on Thursday! | Every Thursday in September, our online conference focuses on developments in house design in the 20th century. Every week, a keynote speaker will give a lecture on a topic, followed by a video which explores the Dutch context of that topic. It's sure to be fascinating – so join us next Thursday, and, if you miss any of the five modules, remember that you can watch them on demand over the following month. Watch the trailers below and visit our website for interviews with all our speakers.
See you on Thursday!
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| | Meet Our New Chairman! Welcome Nanne de Ru | Architect Nanne de Ru, a longtime Friend and supporter of Iconic Houses, is our new chairman of the board. He is a co-founder of Powerhouse Company, an award-winning architecture firm known for inspired villa designs such as Villa 1, Villa L and Villa B that reinterpret the great houses of the 20th century. In this interview, he explains why the house is the perfect platform for architectural invention.
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| | New in our Webshop: Casa Orgánica Video Tour! | Explore our collection of exclusive house tours from the new Inside Iconic Houses programme. The directors and curators of the world’s most extraordinary houses invite you to be their special guest for a personal behind-the-scenes tour. Come with us as the architect's daughter, Natalia Senosiain, shares her childhood memories with us and shines a light on some surprising hidden features in the house!
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| | Hygiene and Health in the Modern Home – 2 Sept. | BEATRIZ COLOMINA’s keynote address focuses on the huge impact of health and hygiene on modern architecture from the end of the 19th century to today’s pandemic. She will show how theories and fears of disease literally shaped the architecture we live in. HETTY BERENS will explain in the accompanying video how improved hygiene made homes healthier in The Netherlands.
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| | Palaces for the People – 9 September | In his lecture, VALENTIJN CARBO explores social housing in the Netherlands, and the impact of the 'woningwet' ('dwelling law') of 1901. He is also the presenter of the accompanying thematic video. From the Model Home of Museum Het Schip, he explains what building for the masses looked like in the 1920s and 50s, connecting the projects by their differences or similarities.
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| | A Woman’s Place: Clients and Architects – 21 September | ALICE FRIEDMAN’s keynote address covers Wright's Susan Lawrence Dana house, emphasizing the contributions of Marion Mahoney, Eleanor Raymond’s house for Natalie Hammond, and the Farnsworth House, with a nod to Tugendhat and Lily Reich. In the accompanying video, NATALIE DUBOIS will tell us about the different and important roles that women played in the Netherlands: Hélène Kröller-Müller as client, Truus Schröder-Schräder as co-designer and Lotte Stam-Beese as architect.
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| | Experiments with Space – 23 September | ANITA BLOM of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands talks about the Dutch government-supported experimental housing of the 1970s in her keynote address. ROBERT VON DER NAHMER talks in the accompanying video about the search for architectural and visual ways to guide and intensify our experience of space and time, and experiments involving these. It explores what in Dutch is called 'wooncultuur' – the culture of living in our homes.
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| | Home as Self-Portrait: Architect's Houses – 30 Sept. | In his keynote address, GENNARO POSTIGLIONE looks at the architect’s house as an interesting form of 3D self-reflection which is otherwise rare in the architect’s oeuvre. In all the houses built by architects for themselves, you see a mix of character and ideas – which may or may not be in harmony with each other. In the accompanying video, NATASCHA DRABBE explores four Dutch architects' houses that served as test labs for new ideas.
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| | Live Stream House Tour Penthouse WEST399 – 30 Sept. | The last module on 30 September will be followed by an optional Closing Live Stream House Tour of Penthouse WEST399 in Rotterdam, designed by architects Nanne & Nolly de Ru of Powerhouse Company for their own family (circa 1,5 hour). WEST399 was built in the 1960s to house the payroll administration for the port of Rotterdam and transformed into a luxurious, versatile apartment complex.
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| | LA CUPOLA, Michelangelo Antonioni’s dome, AT RISK | Help save La Cupola, designed by Dante Bini! Sign the petition here: https://bit.ly/3lhdKaM. The Bini shell today attracts cinephiles, journalists and curious people from all over the world, as evidenced by the numerous reviews of the place. Imagine Monica Vitti walking down the staircase of the living room on a lazy summer afternoon... Even looking through the (now) dusty window that overlooks the open sea is a unique experience.
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| | Adopt an Icon at Risk - PLEASE DONATE | Thanks to your donations, we can add new listings to our Icons at Risk Watch List. In addition to the 42 houses already listed, we have 30 more houses on our radar worldwide that need research in order to get published. And we need your support for that. Like many non-profits, the Iconic Houses Foundation is in a precarious position due to Covid. Please donate to help us continue putting these houses in the spotlight to (hopefully) save them from demolition. Your support means a lot to us, thank you!
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