Left: Gerrit Th. Rietveld, 1918, photo Stedelijk Museum. Right: Maarten Baas, 2004.
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Design's history can tell us a lot about the design we see today. But its importance goes further than that. As a part of our cultural heritage, design reveals influences that have informed our culture. In this way, it tells us something about the formation of our identity.
The history of Dutch design is a recent but surprisingly rich one. In the twentieth century, the field underwent furious development. Industry and the population, new materials and techniques, wars and ideologies were just a few of the factors that inspired designers to great achievements. Countless highlights in areas from jewellery to typography are the result.
Yet this glittering past is quickly losing its shine. Not only are the objects deteriorating, their context is disappearing too. When a designer dies, his or her story often dies too. If no one bothers with that designer's archive, it is likely to end up with the rubbish.
With the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Premsela has formed a working group to improve the curatorship of design archives. The RKD has developed a
central register . This is a database containing information on location, size, contents and accessibility of design archives in the Netherlands. The working group has chosen 400 archives of national and international importance. Of these, 25 will be given homes at various archival institutions during the next three years.
