De Gids is a general cultural and literary magazine founded in 1837. This issue, produced in collaboration with the NADD, tackles the two functions of archives: preservation and accessibility. Writers, poets, essayists and visual artists ask what we should not lose, look for gaps in archives and show that any attempt to open up an archive irrevocably leads to highly personal interpretations. Because archives are never just a window on the past, but certainly also a mirror that shows what we want to see, what we are looking for and undertaking in the present. As such, archives always give a picture of two eras at the same time. This underlines once more that every archive is as much useful as it is mythical.
For this occasion, Richard Niessen wrote a fourth 'Excerpt' for The Vestibule of Principles & Rationale. In it, the Designer discusses what the archive means to him and his Palace and the importance of preserving and unlocking design history: in all the spaces of this structure, the idea is kept alive that ideals can actually be represented, that they can be smuggled into public space and each a wide audience.
