Nieuwe Instituut: an architecture archive and a house from 1933
The Rotterdam institution presents an interactive collection display and invites visitors to explore Huis Sonneveld.
Nieuwe Instituut describes itself as the national museum for architecture, design and digital culture. In Rotterdam it also includes Huis Sonneveld, a museum house dating from 1933. The institution connects archive material to current issues such as housing shortages, climate change, artificial intelligence and spatial planning.
According to the institution, the State Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning contains more than 700 designers’ archives dating from around 1850 onwards. The Collection Gallery page mentions approximately four million objects and five terabytes of digital files. This extensive archive provides the background for the display; visitors see a selection in the galleries.
In Collection Gallery, on view from 20 May 2026 through 26 May 2029, visitors enter an interactive installation with large projections and mirrored panels, according to the institution’s website. Its stories cover architecture and democracy, housing shortages, garden cities, computer-aided design and women architects, among other subjects. The collection thus takes on a thematic form.
Huis Sonneveld at Jongkindstraat 12 offers a different scale: the home itself. It was designed in the early 1930s by Brinkman and Van der Vlugt for the Sonneveld family and is, according to the institute, a well-preserved example of New Building. The interior contains mostly Gispen furniture and a colour palette.
Alongside the long-running collection display, Nieuw binnen #2. Work in Progress is on view through 7 November 2026. It features thirteen recent additions to the architecture collection. SIDELINED. Ruimte voor anders samenzijn runs through 30 January 2027 and has transformed the Dek into an alternative sports bar.
Nieuwe Instituut is at Museumpark 25, 3015 CB Rotterdam. Its published hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am to 5 pm; Thursday, until 9 pm; and Friday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Huis Sonneveld closes at 5 pm on Thursday. According to the website, museum admission is free on Thursday evenings from 5 to 9 pm.
A combined ticket for Nieuwe Instituut and Huis Sonneveld costs €18, according to the institution’s website; a ticket for Huis Sonneveld alone costs €12. Children and young people under eighteen, as well as Museumkaart holders, enter free. The museum house has a different address and closes earlier on Thursdays, so visitors wishing to see both should plan around that earlier closing time.