
This raw and revealing journey of MVRDV’s pursuit of sustainable architecture pulls back the curtain on decades of trials, triumphs, and introspection, tracing the Dutch firm’s trajectory from early ideas on densification, such as Berlin Voids and EXPO 2000 (image shown), to today’s hands-on work in biodiversity, carbon reduction, and climate-driven material innovation.
Carbon Confessions lays out an honest narrative – a timeline of milestones and missteps that mirrors the broader movement to redefine what buildings can offer in an era of climate urgency. Here, carbon isn’t a footnote. It’s the raw material, the provocation, and the design challenge of our time. The exhibition explores how architecture can be a tool of activism, sparking change through adaptive reuse, new material approaches, and digital tools that transform sustainability from an abstract idea into action.
Through candid storytelling, the exhibition lets visitors in on MVRDV’s knowledge gains and calculated risks, and the growing pains of “carbon accounting” in every project layer. But this is more than a showcase; it’s a confession, one doesn’t shy away from paradoxes and complexities. This is a space for urgent, honest dialogue around the carbon challenge in architecture and an invitation for architects, students, and the public to join a conversation that’s bigger than design – one that’s about reshaping cities to heal the planet, through architecture that breathes, adapts, and even dares to regenerate. Designed to keep waste at a minimum, the exhibition itself is a testament to resourcefulness – it utilizes repurposed props and materials.