The mayor of Rotterdam receives letters from local architects

A new exhibition, Letters to the Mayor: Rotterdam, features personal letters written by local architects to their mayor. The exhibition will be on display at Het Nieuwe Instituut with an opening ceremony in the presence of the Rotterdam mayor.

This project is the result of a year-long collaboration between Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Storefront for Art and Architecture under a larger project called City Forces, which has been realized in several other cities globally. 

The Rotterdam edition includes letters from the architects Elma van Boxel, Elsbeth Ronner, Ekim Tan and Nathalie de Vries, discussing relevant issues in their city. In recent decades, architects have addressed the different global power structures behind local issues in many ways and with varying degrees of success.

In Letters to the Mayor, questions of the architect are brought to the center of the political arena, addressing the ethical and political dimensions of the role of the architect. The presentation is the starting point for a further exchange with policymakers and residents of Rotterdam.