After Winka Dubbeldam’s introduction, Iwan Baan describes the task of documenting the construction of CCTV Headquarters in Beijing as his introduction to architectural photography. It led to other projects in China, and other projects documenting buildings by significant designers.
As he worked in this field, he came to see his interest was capturing how buildings fit in, or contrasted with, he urban fabric. Similarly, he became fascinated by capturing images that showed how people used or abused buildings.

Baan describes how commissioned projects take him to places that spark his interest, which often leads to personal projects. He shows images from several of these:
• A 2026 trip with Rem Koolhaas, revisiting the sites on the Pearl River that Koolhaas and students visited in 1996 for Harvard GSDs “Project on the City: Great leap forward”.
• Aerial perspectives of New York City, and of Houston, that became “The Notational surface” exhibition at Rice (2025).
• A series of aerial photographs of the Italian highway system, for the MAXXI’s 2025 exhibit, “Italia in movimento. Autostrade e future”.
• The 2023 book, “Brasilia - Chandigarh : living with modernity”.
• Working in Africa with Francis Kéré led to two books covering different faces of the African scene: “African Modernism – Architecture of Independence” and “Momentum of Light”, featuring traditional architecture of Burdina Faso, especially the decorated houses of Tiébélé.
• The 2024 book, “Rome - Las Vegas : bread and circuses”, on display in the SCI-Arc Gallery March 20 through April 26.

At 37: 53, SCI-Arc alumnus and contributor to “Rome – Las Vegas”, Ryan Scavnicky, provides concluding remarks on how Baan’s photographs focus on architecture as a stage for creating self, a backdrop.