News
Hugging Architecture: Exhibition Opening
April 28, 2023
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June 2nd between 18.00-20.00 we invite you to the opening of HUGGING ARCHITECTURE, an exhibition which invites one to experience Amare in unconventional ways. Amare is designed as a ‘multiversum’: an inviting, multifunctional, cultural and social space with streets, alleyways and small squares. Guided by architect Renske Maria van Dam and performance researcher Leon Lapa Pereira students of the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague have explored how to activate new levels of radical care with and for our surroundings. To radically care is to collectively move, listen and breathe with the building to find its voice. Together they explored how Amare feels, how its atmospheres shift in different settings, and how different groups of people behave in this multiverse.
As an outcome of the research the ArtScience Interfaculty presents the exhibition HUGGING ARCHITECTURE. Between affect and affection, the spatial and performative interventions presented in this exhibition make hidden
As an outcome of the research the ArtScience Interfaculty presents the exhibition HUGGING ARCHITECTURE. Between affect and affection, the spatial and performative interventions presented in this exhibition make hidden
experiences tangible, point out sounds which one does normally perceive, uncover and confront
you with your own presence and invite you to shift the usual routes through the building. Hugging Architecture is an open call to ‘pour your body into’ the built environment. By introducing a soft playfulness, the artworks make Amare feel closer, warmer and invites you to more intimate relationship with each other and the building.
with works by Alexander Koppel; Dominika Badyla; Emma Hanny; Ecaterina Grigoriev; Esmée Witsel; Gemma Luz Bosch; Julianna Gräf; Leon Lapa Pereira; Luca Serafini; Milu Chen; Niki Scheijen; Tom de Kok; Tomas Bermudez; Shuyin Hou & Zhu Ou.
Gratefully supported by Amare: Gerko Telman, Mariska Simons, Anouk Thole, Jan Zoet; Noahh Architects: Patrick Fransen; Dag van de Architectuur Den Haag; Paul de Vries; NDT: Jelle Verhoef, Eva Moonen.
with works by Alexander Koppel; Dominika Badyla; Emma Hanny; Ecaterina Grigoriev; Esmée Witsel; Gemma Luz Bosch; Julianna Gräf; Leon Lapa Pereira; Luca Serafini; Milu Chen; Niki Scheijen; Tom de Kok; Tomas Bermudez; Shuyin Hou & Zhu Ou.
Gratefully supported by Amare: Gerko Telman, Mariska Simons, Anouk Thole, Jan Zoet; Noahh Architects: Patrick Fransen; Dag van de Architectuur Den Haag; Paul de Vries; NDT: Jelle Verhoef, Eva Moonen.
Final Presentations Hugging Amare in June 2nd- 17th.
April 19, 2023
We are back! After a
long winter break, we are moving, listening and breathing with Amare again.
We will present the results of our exploration to radical care and affection on June 2nd. Feel free to pass by during the opening of the exhibition HUGGING ARCHITECTURE. between 18.00-20.00. Looking forward to see you at Amare!
We will present the results of our exploration to radical care and affection on June 2nd. Feel free to pass by during the opening of the exhibition HUGGING ARCHITECTURE. between 18.00-20.00. Looking forward to see you at Amare!
You can visit the exhibition between the 2nd and 17th of June.
Final Presentations Hugging Amare in June 2023
December 23, 2022
Just before the christmast break students of the Interactive/Media/Department of the University of the Arts in The Hague presented their spatial and performative installations in new cultural centre of The Hague Amare. Furthermore, the students of the ArtScience Interfaculty presented their plans for a performative event and exhibition which will take place in the context of Open Amare, an participatory artprogram which fills the public spaces of Amare.
In June both groups will present their final work in the context of De Dag van de Architectuur Den Haag. Keep an eye on our website and our social media for the latest updates.
New Project: Hugging Architecture
August 16, 2022
September 2022, we start with a
new pedagogical research project Hugging Architecture. As part of an intensifying
desire to respond to intertwined socio-environmental catastrophes, in this project we explore artistic and designerly
tactics to activate new levels of radical care and radical affection with and
for our surroundings. With a focus on affirmative ethics as a practical
exercise, we wonder what it means to shift focus from the disempowering feelings
of fear or nostalgia, to the generative power of compassionate actions in the
here and now.
In this project we closely collaborate with Amare, the new cultural center of The Hague. Amare is designed as a ‘multiversum’: an inviting, multifunctional, cultural and social space with streets, alleyways and small squares. In this context, we work towards artistic interventions that invite one for empathic engagements with the built environment. Collectively, we will question what it means to “dare to care”.
In this project we closely collaborate with Amare, the new cultural center of The Hague. Amare is designed as a ‘multiversum’: an inviting, multifunctional, cultural and social space with streets, alleyways and small squares. In this context, we work towards artistic interventions that invite one for empathic engagements with the built environment. Collectively, we will question what it means to “dare to care”.
We collaborate with students from the
Interactive/ Media/ Department and the Artscience Interfaculty at the
University of the Arts The Hague. The project is initiated and guided by Dutch architect and researcher Renske Maria van Dam, together with German performance researcher Leon Lapa Pereira, and Irish atmosphere designer Hannah Mulqueen.
Contact us in order to participate ➞
Contact us in order to participate ➞
New Website
July 20, 2022
Welcome to Spacious. We are glad to have you on our new site. Our new teaching assistant Vivien Vuong started her work at Spacious with a revival of our online presence.
Vivien is a Master ArtScience student with a keen interest in using breathing as an artistic medium.
Vivien’s interests in calibrating bodies and responsive environments lead her to a spacious pedagogy.
Furthermore, preparations are being made for the next academic year. We are happy to announce a new collaboration with
Amare, a contemporary performance art centre of The Hague, with teachers Renske Maria van Dam and Leon Lapa Pereira.
Stay tuned for updates.
Workshop at KU Leuven
October 20, 2021
Photography by Annelies De Smet
In the context of the project Tiny Perceptions, Renske Maria van Dam gave a workshop at KU Leuven. Together with students of the Master Architecture, and their teacher Annelies de Smet she explored the faculty building in Ghent. After the sensorial fieldwork, the students gathered to discuss their experiences. We are looking forward to return!
In the context of the project Tiny Perceptions, Renske Maria van Dam gave a workshop at KU Leuven. Together with students of the Master Architecture, and their teacher Annelies de Smet she explored the faculty building in Ghent. After the sensorial fieldwork, the students gathered to discuss their experiences. We are looking forward to return!
Grasping Ma
September 19, 2021
As a result of the three-year long project Movement Matters, Spacious presented the spatial performance Moments of Ma at the Architecture Faculty of the TU Delft. On October 11th, 1978, the exhibition Ma. Space-Time in Japan opened its doors in Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In this exhibition, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki introduces the concept of ma to the European-American context by presenting nine spatial installations in which ma shows up in different modalities of Japanese thought and action.
On October 11th, 2018, exactly 40 years after the opening of the exhibition in Paris,
the Architecture Theory Chair of the TU Delft commemorated the 40th anniversary of this exhibition with apublicseminar in the context of the 4th Intensive Cartographies series: Mapping Rhythm. Spacious presented the spatial performance ‘Moments of Ma’ during this event.
The experimental process in preparation towards the performance resulted in the visual essay Grasping Ma (2021), which is now published in the new Rowman and Littlefield publication Architectures of Life and Death: The Eco-
Aesthetics
of the Built Environment.
Contact us for the full essay ➞
Contact us for the full essay ➞
Summer Sessions Field Academy, StrandLAB Almere
August 23, 2021
Spacious practioner and researcher Cocky Eek was invited by StrandLAB Almere to put together a program full of outdoor workshops and inspiring field lectures. For the summer sessions, Cocky van Eek invited everyone to immerse themselves in the landscape surrounding Almere Beach, from fellow artists and nature lovers to Almere residents and qi-gong practitioners. Spacious founder Renske Maria van Dam, joined the workshops as fieldreporter and shared her insights in the Dutch Article ‘Tussen wilde maakbaarheid en gemaakte wildheid’.
Where art often invites you to look at an environment differently through the eyes of the artist, the field academy goes one step further. The creative makers and local experts invite young and old to dig, listen, smell and taste for themselves. From an adventurous children's workshop to a training session for the salt-loving, each session took us on a journey of discovery.
Photography by Erwin Budding.
Photography by Erwin Budding.
Academic Year 2021/2022
July 13, 2021
Upcoming academic year (2021/2022) we host a general course 'Spacious' in which we provide inspiring lectures, workshops and discussions in
which we introduce our basic working
methods; tiny perceptions, procedural
interventions and sited experimentation.
The program is set up as a research-atelier in which lectures, close-reading and workshops alternate free time to set up and proceed with your personal spatial practice and research.
We work from September
21st
to October 1st, Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri from 10 AM - 4PM.
Hope to see you after the summer break!
Fault Lines
November 21, 2021
Save the date!
Fault Lines: KABK Research Symposium 2020
11.12.2020, 11:00-18:00, ONLINE
Spacious will present at Fault Lines: KABK Research Symposium: Please join us for Fault Lines 2020, a critical celebration of the research-in-progress by KABK tutors. Researchers will present aspects of their projects and solicit feedback and input in interactive critique sessions.
Fault Lines: KABK Research Symposium 2020
11.12.2020, 11:00-18:00, ONLINE
Spacious will present at Fault Lines: KABK Research Symposium: Please join us for Fault Lines 2020, a critical celebration of the research-in-progress by KABK tutors. Researchers will present aspects of their projects and solicit feedback and input in interactive critique sessions.
They
will each
take you on a live guided tour of their “studio” or site of research practice.
With Hannes Bernard, Katrin Korfmann, Silvio Lorusso, Vibeke Mascini, Dirk-Jan Visser, Renske Maria van Dam, Sabin Garea, Shailoh Phillips, Laura van Santen and Marion Tränkle. A special identity and online surrounding have been designed by Vera van de Seyp.
With Hannes Bernard, Katrin Korfmann, Silvio Lorusso, Vibeke Mascini, Dirk-Jan Visser, Renske Maria van Dam, Sabin Garea, Shailoh Phillips, Laura van Santen and Marion Tränkle. A special identity and online surrounding have been designed by Vera van de Seyp.
SandHouse
October 7, 2020
A research project by Finn Stevenhagen, Nina Luisa and Thorir Hoskuldsson in memory of Arakawa and Gins conducted in the context of the pedagocial research project Architectural Body.
The rain wets both you and the sand. As awful as it may seem, this is the perfect time to work. The sand is at its most compliant and, with no roof to protect you, this heavy work is essential for your warmth. You address only your immediate needs and build structures to satisfy them. Though the work will supply you with warmth, it is unhealthy to sustain this intensity of action forever and so you will have to work towards a shelter, most importantly a roof.
The rain wets both you and the sand. As awful as it may seem, this is the perfect time to work. The sand is at its most compliant and, with no roof to protect you, this heavy work is essential for your warmth. You address only your immediate needs and build structures to satisfy them. Though the work will supply you with warmth, it is unhealthy to sustain this intensity of action forever and so you will have to work towards a shelter, most importantly a roof.
You won’t need it yet, but you must conclude your first shift having constructed this and a place to start a fire.
This is an example of a framework for building a work of procedural architecture, a sand house, but is, however, completely dependant on the weather at the location of your site. Time and use will influence its shape. Using destroys and neglecting to use is not preserving. Every step risks the structure of the space you carve out and the wind slowly fills the room with that which you have carved out. One cannot preserve this space since one cannot keep it in its intended state. Its shape shifts constantly and with active resistance to your procedurals. This space must be actively and constantly maintained, carved and re-carved out.
Text by Finn Stevenhagen.
Text by Finn Stevenhagen.
Daily Research
October 3, 2020
On October 1st we presented the exhibition 'Daily Research' as part of our Architectural Body project. Departing from the work of artist- and- philosopher- turned- architects Shusaku Arakawa and Madeleine Gins we study the Architectural Body; the crucial bodily dimension that gives way to the emergence of our spatiotemporal
experience.
With works by Tamman Azzam, Flora van Dullemen, Jacob Wallet, Thorir Hoskuldsson, Max Baraitser Smith, Bjarte Wildeman, Kristján Stein, Thordur Hans, Finn Stevenhagen, Nina Luisa and Yujia Wu.
Walking Through Doorways
October 1, 2020
In October 2020 Spacious will host the workshop: Walking Through Doorways Makes You Forget. Inspired by the scientific work of Gabriel A. Radvansky, Andrea K. Tamplin, and Sabine A. Krawietz we choose the architectural element of the door as our site for experimentation. Current developments in contemporary sciences spark a general willingness to re-entertain questions on perception, experience and even consciousness. Recent studies have confirmed that walking through doorways causes forgetting.
Based on sensuous and conceptual exploration of the door we collectively wonder: ‘How do we respond to particular materials, textures, sounds and movements of the passage?’ and ‘How does walking diagonally differ from walking in a straight line?’
This is a collaboration between students of the master INSIDE, the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague, Japanese performer Kenzo Kusuda, German artist Alexander Johannes Heil and Dutch architect Renske Maria van Dam.
This is a collaboration between students of the master INSIDE, the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague, Japanese performer Kenzo Kusuda, German artist Alexander Johannes Heil and Dutch architect Renske Maria van Dam.
Borrowed Scenery
September 1, 2020
After participation in the Spacious project Movement Matters, artist Zoe d'Hont immersed herself in Japanese zen gardens while traveling through Japan. This resulted in her graduation project Even the Moon Borrows its Light from the Sun guided by Spacious founder Renske Maria van Dam.
The spatial installation Even the Moon Borrows its Light from the Sun investigates the concept of borrowed scenery by using given matter and adding what’s nescessary to reveal the spirit that lies behind the form.
The spatial installation Even the Moon Borrows its Light from the Sun investigates the concept of borrowed scenery by using given matter and adding what’s nescessary to reveal the spirit that lies behind the form.
Within this garden two different ways of perceiving the space are combined. First the stroll garden where paths are created through the garden causing constantly changing directions and viewpoints.
The experience of passage, a bodily experience of moving through the garden gives a sense of connection between subject and object. On the other hand, viewing platforms are created that recall zen gardens where the visitor looks upon the garden from a distance, with or without a framed view. Here the bodily experience makes place for a more internal reflection on the space.
The experience of passage, a bodily experience of moving through the garden gives a sense of connection between subject and object. On the other hand, viewing platforms are created that recall zen gardens where the visitor looks upon the garden from a distance, with or without a framed view. Here the bodily experience makes place for a more internal reflection on the space.