The Berlage Affair

Kenneth Frampton once called Vedran Mimica, the spiritual leader of the Berlage Institute. The Berlage Affair is a book that investigates the educational legacy of that institution, and in the process, explores new ways to research and project new models of global urbanization. Through this multilayered book of diverse views, the essays, studies, reviews, and interviews within all share an intellectual origin from the Berlage, where Mimica worked for 22 years alongside contemporaries such as Herman Hertzberger, Wiel Arets, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Kenneth Frampton, Rem Koolhaas, and Elia Zenghel, as well as many leading architects and students from all over the world.

What sets The Berlage Affair apart from other architectural literature is its very subject. Rarely do we learn about innovative or alternative educational models that have produced and imparted applicable, real world knowledge in the field of architecture. This knowledge was produced in an experimental environment as a result of exchange between leading and emerging Dutch, North American, Japanese, and European architects and their students from around the globe. In the process of this exchange, the Berlage created a platform for the construction and consumption of an array of contemporary architectural pursuits. And here, Mimica records those efforts.