UPCOMING EVENTS
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
The financialization of housing has been no accident – it has been a deliberate process. Many benefit from it, but it has also led to increasing housing inequality, making it inaccessible to an increasing number of people. Part of this also has to do with a knowledge deficit: people think that home ownership is the only housing solution - even if buying only brings misery. Call it housing illiteracy.
On this evening, we will discuss alternatives to ownership and explore what can be done about this illiteracy together with housing law specialist Nicolas Bernard. In his talk he will address question such as: Why does property hold such fascination today? What explains why housing assistance policies (at least in Belgium) are so heavily focused on homeownership? What values does this promotion of property convey? What are the benefits, but also the unintended consequences, of this policy? And, most importantly, are there alternatives—perhaps more social, less costly for the community, more collective, and more ecological—to private, individual, and perpetual ownership? The Community Land Trust is one such solution, but it is not the only one. Ultimately, how can we rethink our approach to property without falling into collectivism?
School's Out! #49 - XL edition. A festive opening of the Independent School for the City's new location with Guardian's architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright, drinks and DJ's.
Oliver Wainwright will talk about "The New Utopias". City building is back – and being weaponised like never before. Silicon Valley tech bros are drawing up plans for libertarian free states. The Saudi monarchy is concocting sci-fi fantasies in the desert. Donald Trump has a megalomaniacal ambition to transform Gaza into the “riviera of the Middle East”. Bjarke Ingels is busy conjuring everything from a Mindfulness City in Bhutan, to a floating city for the UN, to a masterplan for the entire planet. Friday 28 March 2025, 19:00 - Late
A lecture about the work of this Brussels-based architectural practice that operates at the intersection of architecture and fiction, using critical and creative instruments to rethink how we live together, followed by a short film, drinks and tunes. Get your tickets here
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 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