"It's important to claim the architect as someone who thinks before building. We would have saved large portions of the population from suffering if we had debated the consequences of the architecture we designed, before agreeing to expensive, inaccessible buildings of low spatial and environmental quality."

“Work, Body, Leisure, brings together multi-faceted voices and gives a major contribution to the debate on the architecture responsibility about the new technologies of work automation – and not just that."

"So various and dense is Verzier’s pavilion that it could hold the seeds for numerous future investigations. That it achieves this with such sensory elan is remarkable."

"In the Dutch Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, architectural expert Beatriz Colomina has reconstructed John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Honeymoon Suite, the historic room 902 at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam."

"Work, Body, Leisure maakt duidelijk dat het denken over freespace meer behelst dan prachtige gebouwen en straten."

“Hoe ga je als cultureel instituut voor architectuur, design en e-cultuur (alias Het Nieuwe Instituut) anno 2018 om met het gegeven van een nationaal paviljoen op een architectuurbiënnale in den vreemden? Het antwoord van Het Nieuwe Instituut: een hele goede tentoonstelling maken, over een onderwerp dat iedereen aangaat én trouw blijven aan een ongeschreven, zelfopgelegde taak: de notie van een inclusieve samenleving te onderzoeken en bevragen.”

"This biennale once again revealed a profound disconnect between practicing architects that inherit models of interpretation of the real from older generations and younger architectural practitioners who, confronted with new and rapidly evolving technological paradigms, are exploring new ways of using and producing architectural discourse. Outside of the main exhibition, and even beyond the official program of the Biennale itself, a number of National Pavilions and independent exhibitions signal these efforts."

"De ontdekkingstocht is zo verrassend en speels dat je nieuwsgierig blijft – je kunt niet ophouden met deuren opentrekken."

"Dutch pavilion invites you to explore a Narnia-like locker room"

The Top 10 National Pavilions (...) "Spatially ambitious and conceptually busy, the pavilion is nonetheless a triumph."

"Toch heeft deze pyjama-actie meer om het lijf dan een publiciteitsstunt."

Venice Architecture Biennale Highlights

"Im holländischen Pavillon, einem der klügsten und provokantesten auf dieser Biennale.."

"The sight of so many shy bare feet and pyjamas was disarming and revealing. Great to be in the space of ideas rather than ‘things’."

"The exhibition examines historical and present-day case studies in Rotterdam, as well as utopian and dystopian visions of a society where full automation is the norm."

"An eye-popping project (...)  that takes a playfully serious approach to the fluctuating conditions of labour and the pressures placed on the body in the wake of automated technology".

"Considering its intellectual density and far-reaching, international content and contributors, it feels more akin to an exhibition at a major cultural institution than a pavilion installation".

"The Dutch Pavilion demonstrated the benefits of employing experienced curators, who presented a rich selection on the theme of ‘Work, Body, Leisure’ "