Built Homecoming. Het huis van Aldo en Hannie van Eyck

Aldo and Hannie van Eyck are among the most influential architects of the 20th century. Approximately each of the works from the relatively small oeuvre has become famous, including internationally, such as the Burgerweeshuis in Amsterdam (1960), the Pastoor van Arskerk in The Hague (1969), the Sonsbeek Pavilion in Arnhem (1965) and the playgrounds in Amsterdam ( 1947-1978).

In 1953, Aldo van Eyck, together with Jaap Bakema and Peter Smithson, was one of the founders of the architectural group Team 10. His work inspired, among others, Herman Hertzberger and Piet Blom to structuralism, an architectural movement with attention to social spaces and human encounters.

Monoculture

In the years following the Second World War, a one-sided, rationalist view of modernism had led to a monoculture of large-scale architecture. In contrast, the Van Eycks proposed an architecture that was based on a richer and more inclusive understanding of culture, beyond the boundaries of the Western world. They were inspired by classical antiquity and North African architecture, such as the kasbah.

Western perspective

By collecting objects from all parts of the world, Aldo and Hannie van Eyck wanted to counterbalance the Western sense of superiority and draw attention to previously ignored works of art, cultures and ideas. Based on the house and the Van Eyck collection, Built Homecoming tells a story about the Western perspective in architecture, about being different ("otherness") and the broad spectrum of ideas that shaped modern Dutch architecture in the second half of the shaped the 20th century.

Ethnography

Collecting ethnographic art is not without controversy. Ethnography is used to better understand others and differences with the other, while at the same time confirming, magnifying or even creating differences and 'otherness'. The pieces from the collection of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck are presented in a series of display cases. The display case is traditionally used to protect a work of art, but also to remove objects from their original context and appropriate them. The showcases in Built Homecoming therefore work not only as windows, but also as a mirror of the Western view.