OLE BOUMAN WANTS
A MORE PROACTIVE DESIGN MENTALITY / WDCD2011

Ole Bouman has been director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) since 2007. Prior to that he was editor in chief of the periodical Volume, a cooperative venture set up by the Archis Foundation, architectural think-tank AMO, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. As a curator, Bouman dedicated a series of public events to the reconstruction of the public domain in cities hit by disasters, among them Ramallah, Mexico City and Kabul.

Bouman has written articles for a wide spectrum of publications, ranging from ArtForum, the Harvard Design Review and Proiekt Russia to Domus and De Gids. He was a guest editor in chief of A+D (India) and an editorial consultant for Urban China. Bouman also co-authored the encyclopedical The Invisible in Architecture and Al Manakh. He also contributed to the architecture and design manifestos RealSpace in QuickTimes and De Strijd om Tijd.

Bouman’s most recent publication, Architecture of Consequence, published in 2009, examines a more proactive design mentality. ‘Architects that keep their eye on the bigger picture and focus more on serving the society as a whole than on short term profit deserve to be honoured.’