A sneak peek into 'Open Work' Archiprix 2024 

Opening 'Open Work'. All photos: Jacqueline Fuijkschot

This exhibition presents the graduation projects of seven talented designers who completed their studies at one of the Dutch design academies in 2023. The jury, which selected their projects from 27 submissions, was particularly impressed by the bold freedom of thought, analysis, and polemical engagement of these pressing and contemporary design challenges. The jury praised the designers’ critical mindset, coupled with a sense of idealism, a spirit of experimentation, and strong personal motivation – qualities essential to the vitality of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design. 
 
For over 40 years, the Archiprix Foundation has served as a link between academic projects, the professional community, and the general public. Through the annual selection of graduation projects, Archiprix creates opportunities to foster innovation in the discipline and to stimulate conversations about the possibilities, directions, and responsibilities of design practice. At its core, the foundation provides a platform for the graduation projects selected by the Dutch design academies – projects that allow talented young designers to critically engage with spatial challenges and social issues. 
 
The title of the exhibition, ‘Open Work,’ is inspired by Umberto Eco’s book Opera Aperta, in which he places notions such as openness, indeterminacy, and ambiguity in the context of the constant reinterpretation of meanings, values, and certainties. According to Eco, a work of art is never final, but remains open to new interpretations. With ‘Open Work,’ Archiprix embraces the multifocality and exchange of perspectives and ways of thinking embodied in the seven featured projects. This exchange – with the designers, the design academies, and the wider social context – is what Archiprix seeks to explore and enrich through the conversations that will take place during the exhibition. 
 
We thank the Kasteel Groenveld Foundation for providing a unique setting for these conversations and debates, a setting where design, nature, and landscape come together.