A series of three evenings exploring the spatial and cultural impacts of digital technologies, curated by Hedwig van der Linden and Kevin Westerveld of Dérive. Taking place on Tuesday 20 Oct, 17 Nov and 08 Dec. 2026. Tickets available here
Tickets for individual evenings are €17.50. A three-evening package is available for €45. All tickets include a simple dinner before the lecture. Dinner is served from 18:00–19:00, and the event starts at 19:00. Please note: The elevator will be out of service from 16 November to 8 January. Our school is located on the 6th floor, so please be prepared to take the stairs.
Spatial and cultural consequences of digital infrastructure
As Tech Bros exert increasing influence over our society, urgent questions arise: How can we democratise digital technology? What does it mean to be human in this digital age? How can we harness digital technologies to promote our well-being and foster a just, healthy, and resilient society? For this edition of Back to School, we examine how digital technologies are reshaping the built environment, and how these transformations influence the ways we inhabit and experience it.
Through a series of public conversations, we explore the multiple scales at which today’s technological systems operate. From global power structures and geopolitical tensions to the spatial and cultural consequences of digital infrastructure, from hardware to images and visual culture.
Digital technologies are often presented as immaterial and inevitable. Yet behind the seamless experience of platforms, artificial intelligence, and networked devices lies a vast physical landscape of data centres, energy infrastructure, and resource extraction, as well as new forms of political power. These systems increasingly shape not only how cities function, but also how they are imagined, represented, and designed.
At the same time, architecture is becoming deeply entangled with contemporary image cultures. Buildings circulate as images before they are experienced as spaces, while digital visualisation tools, social media platforms, and algorithmic forms of mediation influence how environments are produced, consumed, and understood.
The same systems that shape how images circulate, how attention is captured, and how platforms govern perception are also reshaping territory through data centres, logistics networks, extraction, energy infrastructures, and new forms of political power. Architecture sits at the intersection of these material and visual dimensions.This lecture series wants to make these structures visible and open the conversation around this broad and urgent subject. By examining the relationships between power, representation, and space, we aim to develop a better and critical understanding of the (post)digital condition and encourage possibilities for imagining alternative futures.
Invited speakers
Paola Verhaert Paola is a Brussels-based digital rights researcher and writer who has been exploring the social and political impact of digital technologies for over ten years. Her book, titled ‘Technology is political: The battle for digital justice’ is a philosophical and practical introduction to the concept of digital justice.
Martijn de Waal Martijn is a writer and researcher, exploring the entanglement of new media technologies and public spaces. He is lector of the Civic Interaction Design at the HVA and co-founder of The Mobile City, a non-profit focused on digital media and urban culture. Hi publications include: The City as Interface, The Platform Society, The Hackable City and the essay Stedelijk leven onder algoritmes (urban life under algorithms), together with Paul Rutten.
Paul Rutten Paul is an independent researcher and educator. Since 2004, he has been involved as a project leader and researcher in the Creative Industries Monitor, the tenth edition of which was recently published. In 2026 he published the essay Stedelijk leven onder algoritmes (urban life under algorithms) together with Martijn de Waal.
Bruno Ávila Eça de Matos Bruno is Head of Digitalisation, Process and Information at the City of Amsterdam. Previously, he served as Director of the i-Team and Head of the Digital Urban Planning Lab. Trained as an architect and urban designer, he has various years of experience, working at the intersection of digital innovation, spatial planning and community engagement.
On this first evening we will dive into the broader topic of digital technology, exploring its power structures and the regulations around big tech and AI in relation to our urban surroundings. The evening starts with an introduction by Hedwig and Kevin on the series, followed by a lecture by digital rights researcher and writer Paola Verhaert.
The second session is focused on the impact of digitalisation on the public realm, looking at the impact on urban processes, the organisation of the city and its services. What does digitalisation mean for the way that we are using our cities? With Martijn de Waal (lector of the Civic Interaction Design), Paul Rutten (independent researcher), and Bruno Ávila Eça de Matos (municipality of Amsterdam).
This third and last session of the series deals with the way in which digitalisation and AI influence the architectural practice. Together with Corneel Cannaerts we will look not just at the impact on the act of designing itself, but also on the production of images and on the ways we conceive and experience space and materials.
About Dérive Dérive was founded by Hedwig van der Linden and Kevin Westerveld with the ambition of creating space within complex transition challenges. Based in Brussels and Rotterdam, the practice operates at the intersection of architecture, public space, and spatial strategy. Dérive seeks synergy between conceptual thinking and co-creative practice by creating space for dialogue and local coalitions – consciously starting from the qualities and resources of existing habitats. In April 2026, they were selected for the Prix de Rome Architecture with their proposal: Welcome To The Black Box with explores the spatial consequences of accelerated industrial growth caused by digitalisation.
Hedwig van der Linden and Kevin Westerveld of Dérive. Picture by Sepideh Farvardin
