Yesterday evening, the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam hosted the launch of Attitudes, the latest monograph of MVRDV projects. Published by Maas Lawrence, the 344-page hardcover book presents twenty-five recently completed projects in Europe, North America, and Asia, alongside essays by Tim Abrahams, Hans Ibelings, and Joann Plockova. As the second entry in the series begun by Powerhouse Company’s Episodes, like its predecessor Attitudes is complemented by a specially-designed coffee table, the High Profile / Low Table, which was also unveiled at the event.

Image © Pim Top

Among the projects featured in the book are several that show the potential of reuse and transformation, such as High Profile, a lamp made from leftover metal profiles, or Seoullo 7017, the transformation of an elevated highway in Seoul into an urban park. Many of the projects also have a distinct public dimension, welcoming people in, around, and sometimes also on top of buildings, as in the case of the depot of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, or the Idea Factory in Shenzhen.

The launch of the book was accompanied by a panel discussion featuring Nieuwe Instituut director Aric Chen, architect and urbanist Oana Rades, editor and critic Hans Ibelings, and MVRDV founding partners Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. As Rades highlighted during the discussion, the concept of the “coffee table book” was developed in part to garner public support for the preservation of natural environments, with publications such as This is the American Earth. In a similar way, Attitudes could be seen as an accessible vehicle to raise people’s awareness of current global urgencies, and the ways in which architecture can provide solutions.

Left to Right: Aric Chen, Oana Rades, Hans Ibelings, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries. Image © MVRDV

The High Profile / Low Table is similarly concerned with how design can address our global challenges. The table is conceived as an additional entry in the High Profile luminaire collection, designed in collaboration with and produced by Delta Light. This collection looks critically at the manufacturing process, finding not only opportunity, but also beauty in elements that are normally discarded as waste. The table further demonstrates the versatility of High Profile’s reuse concept, using the leftover aluminium profiles that are emblematic of the collection to create a new, different type of product.

Attitudes was co-edited by MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs and MVRDV partner Jan Knikker in collaboration with Hans Ibelings and Nanne de Ru. You can purchase the book here. You can see more of the High Profile / Low Table here; production of the table is available on request, for which you can place an enquiry here.