Staal around the Mediterranean

The project focused on the travels of Dutch architect Arthur Staal (1907–1993), who journeyed by motorcycle through Greece, Palestine, and Egypt between 1936 and 1940. His photographs, sketches, and notes document encounters with cities, landscapes, and architectures shaped by modernisation, colonial presence, and cultural exchange. The material reflects on questions of gaze, mobility, and the circulation of architectural ideas across different geographies.

Supported through a development grant from the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, the first phase involved research in the Arthur Staal archive, held at the Nieuwe Instituut. The work engaged with travel documents, images, and written observations produced during the journeys, tracing forms of exchange between places, practices, and historical moments.

The collaboration included Phoebus Panigyrakis, Gabriel Schwake, John Hanna, and Herman van Bergeijk, and resulted in a small publication and an exhibition presented at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft (Bouwkunde). The project brought together archival material and spatial presentation to reflect on travel, observation, and exchange across contexts.