Jaap Bakema and the Open Society is the first extensive publication on the Dutch architect and the remarkable production of his office Van den Broek and Bakema. His ideas on the open society are extremely relevant to the current debates about how to involve citizens in city building and creating alternative systems to crumbling welfare states. This historical document will highlight both his most relevant and less known work through texts, archival materials and photography. The book contains...

The Dageraad is a world-famous social housing complex located in Berlage’s Plan Zuid. It was designed by the architects Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer in the style of the Amsterdam School.

The initiative to build it was taken by a workers cooperative that managed shops and wanted to provide the workers with good quality housing. Important Dutch politicians were involved in its realisation, among them Amsterdam’s Alderman Floor Wibaut, who is still honoured at the complex today. In 2001,...

Residential buildings account for a significant amount of the national energy consumption of all OECD countries and consequently the EU and the Netherlands. Therefore, the national targets for CO2 reduction should include provisions for a more

energy efficient building stock for all EU member states.

National and European level policies the past decades have improved the quality of the building stock by setting stricter standards on the external envelope of newly made buildings, the efficienc...