UPCOMING EVENTS
The Independent School for the City and affect lab teamed up once again for another Gossip Session of Bloody Beautiful - a movement aimed at normalising conversations about menstruation & menopause. This time we will explore the question "Will we Bleed in Outer Space?" together with architect Thais Zuchetti and former NASA space gynaecologist Varsha Jain.We will delve into the unique considerations of space architecture not as an escape from the human-made-environmental-crises on our planet, but rather as an extreme case study for how to approach the challenges we face on Earth. We invite participation from architects, urbanists, activists, cultural thinkers and anyone interested in the intersection of inclusive design and menstruation rights.
Wednesday 23 April 2025, 18:30 - 22:00. Tickets are available for 5 euro here
Every last Friday of the month the Independent School for the City celebrates the start of the weekend with a public lecture. For this evening we've invited the Brussels-based architectural office Traumnovelle to talk about their practice and works, followed by a short film, drinks and tunes.
Traumnovelle is an architectural practice who believe that architecture is more than the design of buildings; it is a tool for world-making and community-building. Founded by Léone Drapeaud, Manuel León Fanjul, and Johnny Leya, Traumnovelle explores the intersection of architecture and fiction, using both as critical and creative instruments to address how we live together. Tickets available for 5 euro here
On average, food on Dutch supermarket shelves travels about 30,000 kilometers before it ends up on our plates—that's the equivalent of a round trip to Australia. At the same time, 80% of food produced in the Netherlands is exported, while the high concentration of livestock and intensive food production causes odor nuisance, air pollution, eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions, soil subsidence, degradation, animal welfare issues, and more.
On this evening we will explore the global food crisis and the transition towards a vegan society as a possible way out, together with photographer Kadir van Lohuizen and landscape architect Berno Strootman. Tuesday 20 May, 19:00 - 21:00. Get your tickets here.
An evening with journalists and fact-finders Eric Smit (Follow the Money) and Nina Zelen (Cracking the Frame) about truth seeking in times of alternative facts and disinformation.
Eric Smit is co-founder of Follow the Money, where he also served as co-editor-in-chief until the end of 2023. Follow the Money is a platform for radically independent investigative journalism, with a clear mission: uncovering the truth in service of society. Nina Zelen is a journalist, economic analyst and policy advisor, who is dedicated to challenging dominant narratives and breaking the frames through which we understand economic, political, and social realities. She does this through various social media outlets such as her instagram account @crackingtheframe and on Bluesky
On Wednesday 28 May, 19:00 - 21:00 (doors open at 18:30)
A lecture by historian and writer Samia Henni about built and destroyed environments, dealing with questions of colonisation, nuclear weapons, and deserts. Henni will present her latest research on the French nuclear weapons testing programme (1960–1966) in the Algerian Sahara, bringing together nearly six hundred pages of materials documenting this violent history of France’s nuclear bomb programme in the Algerian desert. Meticulously culled together from across available, offered, contraband, and leaked sources, Henni will present a rich repository for all those concerned with histories of nuclear weapons and engaged at the intersections of spatial, social and environmental justice, as well as anticolonial archival practices.
The lecture is followed by a short film and drinks at the bar. Friday 30 May 2025, 19:00 - 22:00. Doors open at 18:00. Get your tickets here
A public lecture by Isa Fremeaux and Jay of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination about their work that brings together artists and activists to co-design and deploy creative forms of direct-action, which aim to be as joyful as they are politically effective. Creation and resistance, protest and proposition are the entwined DNA strands of our practice. Whether training folk or co-organising actions, at the heart of everything we do are horizontal ways of relating and organising ourselves. They call their work experiments, because they never know what might emerge but they do know that the role of art in the Capitalocene can no longer be to show the world to people but to transform it together.
Thursday 19 June, 19:00 - 21:00. Doors open at 18:30
A lecture by Kenny Cupers, Professor of Architectural History and Urban Studies at the University of Basel, where he co-founded and leads the Urban Studies division since 2015. This lecute will be about his historical and collaborative research in Kenya, exploring the planetary politics of design, the coloniality of infrastructure, and African worldmaking.
The lecture is followed by a short film and drinks at the bar. Friday 27 June 2025, 19:00 - 22:00. Doors open at 18:00. Get your tickets here