"As a seasoned Museum Night veteran, Sander knows better than anyone where to be during the anniversary edition."
Sander Hoekstra has attended every Museum Night since the very first edition. As an architect and urban historian, he reads the city differently from most — every building is a document, every neighbourhood a palimpsest of decisions made and unmade. His route this year focuses on Amsterdam's built environment: the social housing experiments of the early 20th century, the grand civic ambitions of the Golden Age, and the contested spaces of the present.
The City as Architecture
A route for people who look up. Sander traces Amsterdam's architectural ambitions from the radical social housing of the Ship to the grand civic spaces of the Golden Age.
The Route
Start in the West. Het Schip is one of the most extraordinary buildings in Amsterdam — a cathedral of social housing from 1921. The evening tour is unmissable.
View museumThe story of Amsterdam's expansion plan — how the city decided to grow west and south in the 20th century. Fascinating urban planning history.
View museumThe Amsterdam DNA exhibition connects the city's architectural history to its social values. The Golden Age section is particularly strong tonight.
View museumA 17th-century canal house preserved exactly as it was. Standing in the kitchen or the garden at midnight is a genuinely strange experience.
View museumAnother Golden Age canal house, but with a very different atmosphere. The family portraits in the stairwell are extraordinary.
View museumThe archaeological collections here include models of ancient cities. A fitting end to a route about how humans build their worlds.
View museumRenzo Piano's building is a work of architecture in itself. The roof terrace at night, with views over the IJ, is one of Amsterdam's best-kept secrets.
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