Back to School with… Paulien Bremmer #3

The other construction site

Back to School with… is a series of research-based lecture evenings, where we invite an inspiring guest to design and curate a program around a question or theme that is currently on their mind. For this edition, we’ve invited architect Paulien Bremmer to take us along her ongoing research project 'The Other Construction Site'.

“There is no alternative,” was the political slogan of Margaret Thatcher, who argued that liberal capitalism is the only viable system. It fits the traditional construction site like a glove. The existing system - driven by time and money, extractive, and masculine - is seen as universal and justifies the way of working.

But is this truly just? And does this way of working align with the urgent issues and transitions of our time? Shouldn't we focus on other values instead of primarily those of money? Can we move beyond a system that seems unshakable and believe in an alternative?

Session #3 - Buildings Worlds

The third evening revolves around the question of what the construction site might look like if we view it more 'separately' from the existing system.  Autonomous practices or practices that repair, build, grow, or operate collectively allowing for freer experimentation and speculation about the future.

About the speakers

Espace Aygo has created an experimental hub dedicated to creativity: the collective of  young artists and designers has repurposed a derelict building in Brussels, from where they operate at a crossroads between design, architecture, and everyday life. Both roommates and studio-mates, they give shape to everything that surrounds them in a radical collective and domestic experiment.

The Kapitaloceen Foundation is a post-capitalist experiment with the goal of removing monoculture agricultural land from the "market," dispossessing it and making it available to those for whom the "market" will not make room: small-scale farmers and non-human life.

Le Bateau is a praxis of artists Laetita Delauny and Aurelia Noudelmann. To reappropriate male dominated craft the two women build a boat with which they sailed to Paris. The boat functions as a public space for artists and other activities.

House of Annetta House of Annetta is a project to repair and imagine the former home of Annetta Pedretti, in Spitalfields - East London. She was a cybernetician and trained architectural designer. The building became her life-work. The project is being developed by House of Annetta CIC, a collective with connections to local housing campaigns, and community-led development.

Preliminary Programme

18.00 – 19.00 Doors open and dinner served. 

19.00 – 19.15 Introduction by Paulien Bremmer

19:20 - 19:40 Lecture by Espace Ago

19:45 - 19:55 Lecture by Kapitaloceen

19:55 - 20:05 Short break

20:05 - 20:15 Lecture by La Bateau

20:20 - 20:40 Lecture by House of Annette

20:40 -21:00 Conversation with the audience and wrap-up.