The plans of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) for 2025-2028 have received positive evaluations from the Rotterdam Cultural Plan Advisory Committee 2025-2028 and the Council for Culture for the Cultural Basic Infrastructure 2025-2028. These recommendations have been respectively presented to Alderman Said Kasmi (Education, Culture, and Events) and Minister Eppo Bruins (Education, Culture, and Science). With the definitive allocation of funds on Budget Day 2024, the IABR can continue to build on the role architecture plays in addressing the urgent societal challenges and transitions we face in the coming years.
For the 2025-2028 period, the overarching theme of the IABR is Systems of Support. The IABR asserts that supportive systems are necessary because the challenges we face are complex. The systems that have caused ecological and social crises need to be re-evaluated or replaced. We must build systems that positively impact biodiversity, climate, and the well-being of local communities. With Systems of Support, the IABR will explore the knowledge, architectural culture, and social infrastructures needed for this transformation.
Catalyst and Platform for Positive Change
Saskia van Stein, Director of IABR, stated, "The IABR aims to support and inspire the architecture and design sector. Additionally, we want to act as a connector between design disciplines, other sectors, and citizens in the search for spatial solutions to ecological and social issues. By envisioning a different perspective on the future and how spatial design can create these possibilities, we aim to bridge the gap to a broader audience. I see the positive evaluations as recognition of the necessity and utility of our efforts to be both a catalyst and a platform for positive changes. However, both recommendations assume a lower amount than we requested for carrying out our activities. This forces us to make choices."
"Innovative Program Creation Leads to Innovative Outcomes"
The Rotterdam Cultural Plan Advisory Committee 2025-2028 assesses the artistic and substantive quality as excellent. According to the committee, the powerful application of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) is ambitious, substantive, extensive, and well-structured, with a clear and urgent positioning of the IABR. The committee also highlights the value for the city, residents, and discipline, and appreciates the collaboration with various partners, both locally, nationally, and internationally, across different domains. These collaborations are sustainable, with research projects set up for multiple years. The committee recognizes the innovative nature of the IABR primarily in the way and with whom the chosen themes are addressed and the interactive nature of many events. This innovative program creation leads to innovative outcomes.
For the Design category, the Council for Culture emphasizes that the core activities of institutions should contribute to a pluralistic, broad (inter)disciplinary offering. In this category, the IABR is recognized for its diverse exhibitions of (inter)national offerings at various locations in its home city (Rotterdam) and for organizing debates, workshops, and publications to promote knowledge exchange among professionals and inform the general public.
IABR 2025-2028: Systems of Support
The IABR aims to make an impact on three levels with its activities: international cooperation and knowledge exchange, nationally applied design research with concrete results for spatial policy, and locally anchoring and connecting with urban partners and the population of Rotterdam. Two interconnected planetary issues are central: the climate crisis with its spatial consequences and the historically grown (social) inequality and exclusion of economically, geographically, ethnically, or gender-vulnerable groups.
Successful programs will continue in 2025-2028, such as the research and talent development program Agents of Change, the platform for showcasing (Dutch) design power Ministry of Make!, and the long-term research in the diverse Rotterdam neighborhood Boschpolder-Tussendijk on the energy transition as a catalyst for emancipated citizenship. The IABR works with its studios alongside governments and other stakeholders on societal challenges. Two long-term research programs, the results of which will be presented in the biennial editions of 2026 and 2028, are:
- Augmenting Architecture (working title) – focusing on our increasing digital data usage and its effects on space, architecture, and landscape, as well as their ecological and socio-economic impact.
- Tracing Trade (working title) – examining visible and invisible infrastructures that influence the future of work, production, and distribution during a reorientation on a local, regional, and continental circular urban economy.
