Three years ago Platform21 opened to the public with the specific purpose of developing a concept plan for a Dutch design museum. Artistic Director, Joanna van der Zanden calls the incubation period a resounding success and says that together with her team, she is ready to implement all they have learned in the next step towards opening a permanent space. Tucked in behind a small chapel in Amsterdam’s Zuidas development, Platform21 has put on over forty exhibitions in its 300 square meter space.

Rather than showcase the best of Dutch designed objects or ideas, Platform21 took a more inclusive and democratic approach. Sensing that design, like art, can sound elitist and very final, the team instead broached subjects and often verbs from everyday life and curated exhibitions that explored the ideas that make those genres tick. The point was to attract different communities beyond the design world. Inevitably, exhibitions delved into design thinking and processes albeit in an organic rather than a self-conscious way.

The project for the permanent space is called SUPERMAKER_DOCK. The design of DOCK is in the spirit of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace where the content of the building equals the construction of it: Building=Making. In Supermaker the process of design and production are as important as the final product. Products are never understood as pristine and perfect, but somewhere between a process of becoming and in state of needed repair.

The DOCK consists of a 600 sqm., green house with multiple pods attached to it. Each of these pods contains a programme that can be transformed by connecting it to other pods or by changing the connection to the main DOCK. Workshop spaces can become exhibition spaces, and vice versa, a kitchen can become a shop, and a shop can become a dining room. Each pod rests on a four-wheel frame allowing it to be moved with a small tractor. In the course of Supermarker’s development over the years , new pods can be added, with new materials, colors and shapes.

SUPERMAKER_DOCK by NOX/Lars Spuybroek
Type: Design Museum
Date: 2009-12-02
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Client: Premsela.org/ Platform 21
Floor area: 800sqm.

Via: Abitare