Architecture of Appropriation: between institutions and activist practices
book preview and discussion – June 6, 19:30 – 20:30

Since 2016, Het Nieuwe Instituut has embarked on a research on squatting as a form of architecture. The project aimed to open up a discussion on the inclusion of these criminalized spatial practices in architectural debates and platforms, while acknowledging the precariousness of the communities involved as well as the need to carefully limit the processes of institutional appropriation. The project has been assessing forms of architectural representation, and the role of archives and museums as social and political agents, including the forms of control and consumption and changing conditions for inclusion and exclusion, that this position facilitates.

This evening will discuss tensions between institutions and activist practices, and address the construction of institutional memory, how to acknowledge and archive unrepresented voices and criminalized urban practice, as well as collective forms of authorship. With statements by Amal Alhaag (Research Centre for Material Culture), René Boer (Failed Architecture), Rianne de Beer and Giulia de Giovanelli (Vereniging Poortgebouw / Autonomous Archive), Piet Vollaard (Stad in de Maak), Marina Otero Verzier (Director of Research, Het Nieuwe Instituut), Katía Truijen (Senior Researcher, Het Nieuwe Instituut) and other speakers to be confirmed.

Architecture of Appropriation
The project and forthcoming publication Architecture of Appropriation: on Squatting as Spatial Practice recognizes the role of the squatting movement in the transformation of cities and their systems of inhabitation. While squatting is mainly understood as a social movement or approached as an historical phenomenon, this publication -- involving representatives and collectives of squats, architects, urbanists, researchers, lawyers, curators, activists and archives -- reads squatting through the language of architecture and urban design, in order to offer and inspire alternative models to the policies currently driving the development of cities. The spatial analysis of the architectures of the squatting movement is mobilized here to study their resulting confluence of informal practices, legal frameworks, and sociopolitical and economic conditions, as evidence of the possibility of alternative futures for the development of cities.

The book, published by Het Nieuwe Instituut, will be released this Summer. All visitors to this event will receive a free copy of the publication at home.

After the event, you are invited to join for the lecture and discussion Streaming from the Streets with Mídia Ninja, a decentralized network of journalists and activists who produce and disseminate reports based on collaborative work and online sharing, and to promote independent journalism: https://thursdaynight.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/activiteiten/streaming-streets-midia-ninja-over-nocutvideo-en-stedelijke-tactieken