Architecture of Appropriation

This research, archival project, series of exhibitions and publication acknowledges squatting as a spatial practice with a large impact on the urban landscape, and recognizes the resulting spatial constellations as an architectural style. In collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut, and the communities of ADM, Landbouwbelang, Plantagedok, Poortgebouw, Vluchtmaat and WH7.


Wijde Heisteeg 7. Photo: Johannes Schwartz.

This project originates from a request by the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, who seek to make their collection more inclusive by adding queer and feminist perspectives but also the contribution of anonymous, precarious and even criminalised groups on the city. In response, this collaboration was set up to collectively document the architectures created by six communities in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Maastricht.


Experimenting ew representations. Collage: Anastasia Kubrak.

The project emphasises the importance of such non-normative spaces. It brings the expertise of the squatting movement together with the insights of architects, activists, scholars and lawyers, to discuss approaches to researching, archiving and representing such spaces in the institutional framework of an archive and museum, and establish forms of reciprocity and solidarity within the project.


The exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut. Exhibition design: ZUS. Photo: Johannes Schwartz.


The São Paulo exhibition. Exhibition design: Maria Fernanda Duarte. Photo: Luiza Strauss.

Architecture of Appropriation was presented in an exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut in 2017 and at the 11th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale. The final publication forms the basis of a new acquisition policy for the archive. Edited in collaboration with Marina Otero Vezier and Katia Truijen. Photography by Johannes Schwartz and graphic design by Maud Vervenne.