OMI has temporarily become the Office for Metropolitan Investigation. The exhibition presents landmark Rotterdam buildings from the period 1965-1990 in a weird and wonderful office setting, designed by Iris van der Wal, featuring lamella shades and carpet tiles. Historical photos, film clips, models, advertisements, newspaper clippings and retro computers transport you back in time. The Post 65 Files starts with gigantic office complexes that rose up in the city centre in the 1970s: Rotterdam Building, AMRO tower and Coolse Poort. What were the original ideas and reactions? What is their reputation now? Let yourself be inspired by the wealth of material in the exhibition and add your favourite Post 65 buildings, with a photo from the matrix printer.

Post 65, the merits of ‘ugly’ architecture

The Post 65 architecture consists of a medley of buildings that include experimental residential developments, brutalist beasts and shimmering towers. They are currently the subject of great interest owing to their supposed ‘ugliness’ and their cultural and historical value, and because many of these buildings form part of new development proposals. The Post 65 architecture provokes fierce debate, as we see with the plans to demolish the Pompenburg residential building. But it is the public buildings and office complexes that are now set for redevelopment, or have already been transformed.

Demolition, renovation or renewal

The exhibition focuses on the constantly changing city centre of Rotterdam. In the 1970s the cityscape was dominated by huge office complexes with striking façades in dark-red, dark-brown and gravel concrete. During the exhibition period the presentation will expand to include 1980s architecture in the city centre: the high-rise structures and head offices along the urban boulevard of the Weena, and the wide variety of projects around Blaak, among them the brutalist Blakeburg and Central Library. The former is slated for demolition, while the latter is undergoing renovation. OMI presents the various buildings as current projects that are worth looking at and examining.