Public Lecture by Space Popular

The Global Home

The Independent School for the City and Nieuwe Instituut have teamed up to invite Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular for a talk about their ongoing research into virtuality and the domestic environment, titled 'The Global Home'.

Central to the talk was an immersive film exploring the future of virtual togetherness in the home. It depicts different scenarios of living in a mixed-reality future and examines how our physical domestic spaces shape and are shaped by the virtual worlds we inhabit. Alongside this, Space Popular will discuss how archival research has driven projects such as Freestyle and The Portal Galleries - shown at the Sir John Soane's Museum and the MAK in Vienna as tools for understanding the collective imagination of virtual space across history. 

In what was the first public presentation of the project, Space Popular also gave an exclusive preview of the Collection Gallery at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam an interactive, hybrid installation offering a digital journey through nearly 700 architecture archives spanning 150 years of design history, set to open imminently. 

Programme 20 May 2026

16:45 - 17:00 Door open

17:00 - 17:15 Welcome and introduction

17:15 - 18:15 Talk by Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular

18:15 - 18:45 Q&A

18:45 Drinks and aftertalk

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Space Popular is an architecture studio founded in Bangkok in 2013 that explores the relationships between media and the built environment through research, design, and artworks, directed by Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg. Both are Professors at the Institute of Architecture at the Angewandte in Vienna.