Spring 2019 catalogue

Out now! Check all our new and upcoming books on art, architecture and design in our new Spring 2019 Catalogue. 

This spring catalogue is about the large scale. Global themes like migration, globalization and urbanization are radically changing the way we think about the design and development of our cities – in Africa, China or Rotterdam. Given the intimidating scale and pace of these developments, the collective power of thinking and designing gathered in the publications presented is both impressive and encouraging. It is at moments such as these that nai010 gets to live up to its position as a platform for design power. A historical analysis of city-making in Africa, for example, precedes a study of urban megaprojects in Asia and Europe and a collection of interviews with 12 of the most influential urban planners in the world is presented alongside a study on the possibilities of planning and architecture for migration-proof European cities. Intelligent analysis, ingenious solutions as well as open-mindedness and some degree of rebelliousness are the keys to an optimistic perspective on the design of our cities – and thus of our planet.

Rebelliousness is also the hallmark of one of the Netherlands' greatest geniuses ever: Rembrandt. In the Rembrandt year 2019, the Rijksmuseum will use research curator and Rembrandt expert Jonathan Bikker’s Rembrandt biography to highlight this rebelliousness in order to get closer to the painter than anyone has ever done. Even 350 years after his death, the master painter's ability to make the highs and lows of human existence understandable has lost none of its eloquence.

And so in the end, this catalogue is yet another ode to perhaps the most human of our capacities – the imagination: of human emotions, of possible solutions to the most complex challenges of our time, and of a past and a future.

Eelco van Welie

Director