Nieuwe Instituut
Zoöp since: 2022 | Location: Rotterdam, NL | Speaker for the Living: formerly Maike van Stiphout, now Marit Janse
Nieuwe Instituut works as a Zoöp towards a museum practice in which programming, building and environment serve not only people, but all life. They use the cultural sector as a testing ground for regenerative thinking and doing: learning by making, testing and changing.
Highlights
Highlights of the goals Het Nieuwe Instituut is working towards as a Zoöp:
- Regenerative exhibition materials
The institute is making exhibitions and projects progressively more sustainable and, where possible, regenerative. They work with biobased and reusable materials, are building a materials library, and are testing new standards such as a 'material rider' for designers. In this way, the impact of material choices is being made progressively smaller and more considered. - Sharing the building and roof as living space with other life
The museum sees the building, garden and roof as living space for more than just people. For example, it was discovered that a large herring gull had built a nest on the roof of the institute, showing that the roof is part of a broader urban ecosystem. This calls for new ways of designing and managing use and visitor interaction, in which other species are also weighed in decisions. - New ways of exhibiting and collecting
The institute is exploring how a museum can engage with change, decay and temporality. Not everything needs to be preserved or fixed: decay and disappearance are also becoming part of the practice. This creates space to think differently about archives, collections, and what 'preservation' actually means. - Education and the public as co-designers of change
Through educational programmes such as 'Omleidingen' ('Detours'), visitors are introduced to the Zoöp philosophy. They learn through looking, moving and experiencing how design choices influence both people and other life forms, and how a place never belongs to people alone.
