Invented from Copies

A plea for the reassessment of photocopies and reproductions in architectural collections worldwide

A visual spectacle of blueprints, whiteprints, colourful adhesive films, rub-down letters and symbols and zips

Never-before-published designs from the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning at the Nieuwe Instituut

Original Copies radically discards the idea that reproductions are inferior to the ‘authentic original’. It introduces the copy as a driver of new creative design processes in architecture. Using blueprints, whiteprints, colourful adhesive, zips, films and photocopies, the book shows that the photographic copying practice, which began around 1870 with the introduction of the blueprint, accelerated and scaled up the design process, and led to new forms of collaboration and creativity. This revolution in copying processes provided the building blocks for new office practices, a fascinating insight brought into the limelight for the first time in this publication.