Author Description

Rear cover notes: "In this yearbook the most recent developments in architecture in the Netherlands are displayed and commented upon. It is the fourth yearbook in succession from the Dutch Architectural Institute, broader in purpose than the previous publications, with essays, critiques, a wealth of illustrations and a select choice of reports. In four general essays light is shed on current design tasks. In Dutch building production, the large to very large building is on the rise. The design problems associated with this are the subject of an essay entitled Architecture Writ Large. No less striking is the building of many new prisons in the Netherlands. The creation of a decent, inhospitable institution at a minimal cost is a design task which is investigated on the basis of the results. City managers and other clients are looking for more and more razzmatazz by calling in famous architects from abroad. As yet, Dutch architecture is continuing steadily and quietly in the modern tradition. Of explicit postmodernism or highly abstract neomodernism there is little trace. Buildings which both astonish and radiate meaning are published in this yearbook, varying from renovations to large-scale office blocks. It is a selection from the many buildings which have been realised in the course of 1990. Each work is clearly illustrated. From this emerges that a relaxed modernism predominates. In the Reports section extremely different subjects are treated. Monumental church buildings are carefully restored. At the same time the mosque appears in the Dutch landscape. The city of Rotterdam shoots up ever higher. And in Hilversum there is posthumous confrontation between Duiker and Dudok. An overview of the exhibitions held in 1990, the publications, prizes and competitions make this yearbook, with an index of personal names, a valuable source of information."