Link to website: https://whoiswe.nl/
Image by: Richard Niessen - Whoiswe.nl
Click on the image below to go to the website of 'Who is We?'. This site was especially created by Het Nieuwe Instituut for the digital presentation of the Dutch pavilion.
Who is We? is the title of the Netherlands’ official contribution to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Who is we questions the dominant structures and histories we inhabit and inherit, presenting an urbanism that is Other – female, of colour, queer, and multispecies. Het Nieuwe Instituut, commissioner of the Dutch pavilion, fuels the discussion on Hashim Sarkis’ call for a ‘new spatial contract’ addressing how we will live together.
The installation opens by asking who ‘we’ is, given current ecological, social, and urban urgencies, stating that the negotiation should equally represent and involve humans, soil, animals, plants, and artificial cognitive systems. Such a contract requires specific tools and insights for emancipating com- munities and decolonising soil and ecosystems. These tools and insights have been developed throughout history by a variety of architects, researchers, gardeners, writers, community workers, activists, politicians, but have never become part of the norm set by the architecture canon. While this canon still forms the basis of our buildings and cities, it is clear that it is inadequate for supporting a multiplicity of lifeworlds for humans and non-humans.
Who is We? presents a counter-language based on Other knowledge development and pedagogies that make visible what is unseen, and that propagate inclusivity on all levels. It departs from the research and practice of architect Afaina de Jong and artist Debra Solomon, around respectively Multiplicity of Other and Multispecies Urbanism. Who is We? Is a strong plea against monoculture and homo- geneity: multiplicity and reciprocity are crucial for the interactions that keep a society and ecosystem alive. On the invitation of Het Nieuwe Instituut Caroline Nevejan, Chief Science Officer of the City of Amsterdam, developed a parallel public research programme with the title Values for Survival.
For more information, visit the HNI website.
With 'Multispecies Urbanism' Debra Solomon formulates an answer to the question that is central to the Dutch contribution of the 17th International Architecture exhibition La Bienale di Venezia: 'Who is We?'. The Amsterdam Zuidoost Food Forrest serves as an example of a philosophy in which a city prioritises care for its nature and ecology, and where humans do not stand alone, but are part of a multispecies reciprocal relationship with the urban landscape.
In this collection you can find the three chapters out of the cahiers, that togother form the parallel research, that are dedicated to the Amsterdam Zuidoost Food Forrest.
Afaina de Jong has worked for renowned international firms before establishing her own firm in 2005. With her creative studio AFARAI she works on the boundary of architecture and art. Her work is deeply connected to represent people and cultural movements that are not traditionally represented in architectural form. By using form languages, colors, patterns and narratives that are other, she works towards a more inclusive experience of space. Afaina is a contemporary thinker, keeping a pulse on the now while at the same time projecting a unique vision of the future. For Afaina it is important that architecture is not only perceived, but also experienced and interacted with. Her discourse is international and intersectional, connecting counterculture with architecture.
De Jong is the head of the Contextual Design MA department at Design Academy Eindhoven. She has been an active educator for years amongst others at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft and The Sandberg Institute and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University GSAPP in New York, KTH in Stockholm and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Her design research The Multiplicity of Other is commissioned for the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021.
AFARAI is an Amsterdam-based architectural agency that specializes in spatial design and strategy, led by architect Afaina de Jong. The studio’s aim is to cross the boundaries of the traditional architecture practice by dealing with the existing city with an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, integrating theory and research with design. As a studio AFARAI considers itself a feminist practice that encourages change on social and spatial issues and that accommodate differences.