Cultures of Assembly

Noemi Biasetton talks about the entanglements of design, politics, and media, as well as potentials for navigating complex political landscapes in the times of crisis. Noemi Biasetton is a design researcher, writer and editor based in Venice. Her academic studies focus on design cultures and visual representation, with a specific interest in how these are deployed within the social and political dimension. Her practice includes the production of essays and articles, the organization of talks and lectures, and the contribution to research projects for cultural and educational institutions. She is the author of SUPERSTORM. Design and Politics in the Age of Information (Onomatopee, 2024) and curator of the publishing series Bookcloud (bruno, 2022 – ongoing).

Najha Zigbi-Johnson talks about urban struggles and spatial injustice. Najha Zigbi-Johnson is an independent writer, educator, and curator. Her work explores the intersections of the built environment, contemporary Black art, and social movement building. She is the editor of Mapping Malcolm, a publication that explores the legacy of Malcolm X as inscribed in the built environment. She is a graduate of Guilford College and Harvard Divinity School, and was a Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Architecture Preservation and Planning at Columbia University (2021-2022.) Najha’s work has been published by New York Magazine, Artforum, SEEN Journal, White Cube Gallery and more. Najha was raised in and currently resides in Harlem.

Florian Malzacher talks about assemblies as a form of art and activism. Florian Malzacher is a curator, writer, dramaturg, and currently visiting professor for dramaturgy and curatorial practice at the University for Design and Arts in Karlsruhe. He is the host of The Art of Assembly, a series of lectures and talks about the potential of gathering in art, activism, and politics (since 2021) as well as co-editor of the series Postdramatic Theater in Portraits published by Alexander Verlag Berlin. His texts have been translated into more than 15 languages. Portrait of Florian Malzacher, The Art of Assembly © Christine Miess.

Jonas Staal shares experiences on assemblies and internationalism contesting imperialist propaganda. Jonas Staal is a visual artist whose work deals with the relation between art, democracy, and propaganda. He is the founder of the artistic and political organization New World Summit (2012–ongoing). Together with Florian Malzacher he co-directs the training camp Training for the Future (2018-ongoing), and with human rights lawyer Jan Fermon he initiated the collective action lawsuit Collectivize Facebook (2020-ongoing). With writer and lawyer Radha D’Souza he founded the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (2021-ongoing) and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of the Obscure Union. Portrait of Jonas Staal, © Ruben Hamelink

Oana Bogdan and Olaf Grawert discuss about the possible ways of political commitment in architecture. They share ideas and professional experiences confronting the rhetoric of conventional politics that keep citizens away from the debate and from the design and construction of the city. Oana Bogdan is a Belgium-Romanian architect. She founded the architectural firm Bogdan & Van Broeck, now reconfigured as &Bogdan which stands for cooperation. Her problem-solving mentality and cooperative ethos questions the architect’s traditional role, believing that the profession’s skills can be used to navigate the complexity of many areas of life. She took the role of Secretary of State for cultural heritage in the Romanian Government which assumed leadership of the country in 2016. In 2021 she was appointed Chairwoman of the ‘Good Living’ Expert Committee in charge of the reform of Brussels Region’s building code. Olaf Grawert works as a partner at the collaborative architecture practice bplus.xyz (Berlin), as a lecturer at station.plus (Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich) and in spring as an Adjunct Professor at the Politecnico in Milan. In 2021, he was co-curator of 2038 - The New Serenity, the German Pavilion at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice. As part of HouseEurope! a non-profit organization, he is currently co-organizing an European Citizens' Initiative aimed at boosting the renovation of existing buildings, to stop their demolition driven by speculation. bplus.xyz is known for its adaptive reuse projects of building ruins and industrial facilities that have fallen out of use.

Claudia Chwalisz talks about deliberation, new democratic models, and commitment as a form of participation. Claudia Chwalisz is the Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext . Prior to that, Claudia served as the Innovative Citizen Participation Lead at the OECD, where she established and analysed around 600 examples of deliberative assemblies around the world, co-authored the " Catching the Deliberative Wave " report, and set standards for implementation and institutionalisation. She was involved in designing the world’s first permanent deliberative bodies made up of people drawn by a lottery in Ostbelgien, Paris, and Brussels. Claudia is an Obama Leader Europe 2023 .

Giovanna Borasi talks about the agency of architecture culture institutions, contemporary social concerns, scales, and the public. Giovanna Borasi is an architect, editor, and curator. She has been Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) since January 2020. Borasi’s work explores alternative ways of practicing and evaluating architecture, considering the impact of contemporary environmental, political, and social issues on the construction of the built environment. Portrait: © Richmond Lam

Keller Easterling talks about the medium of action for design, its interplays, and how to exploit problems instead of trying to fix them. Keller Easterling is a designer, writer and the Enid Storm Dwyer Professor of Architecture at Yale. Her books include, Medium Design (Verso 2021), Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space (Verso, 2014), Subtraction (Sternberg, 2014), Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades (MIT, 2005) and Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways and Houses in America (MIT, 1999). Easterling is also the co-author (with Richard Prelinger) of Call it Home a laserdisc/DVD history of US suburbia from 1934-1960. Easterling lectures and exhibits internationally. Her research and writing was included in the 2014 and 2018 Venice Biennales. Easterling is a 2019 United States Artist in Architecture and Design. © Portrait: Strelka

Gabu Heindl talks about activist practices, radical democracy, spatial policies, and the political dimension of planning. Gabu Heindl is an architect, urbanist and activist; her Vienna based practice GABU Heindl Architektur focuses on public space, collective housing and urban justice. Gabu Heindl holds a postgraduate masters in Architecture and Urbanism from Princeton University and wrote her PhD on radical democracy in architecture and urban planning at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. From 2018-2021 Gabu Heindl was Visiting Professor at Sheffield University, and since 2019 she co-runs a Diploma Unit at the AA in London. Since 2022 she is Professor and Chair of Building Economy and Project Development at the University Kassel where she is building up the teaching & research platform ARCHITECTURE CITIES ECONOMIES on design and political economy.

Finn Williams talks about architecture public practices and the role of local government in managing inclusive everyday places. Finn Williams is City Architect Malmø in Sweden. He is Co-founder of Public Practice, the social enterprise which is transforming the status of public service in the built environment sector. He previously worked for the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, Croydon Council and the Greater London Authority. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Innovation & Public Purpose at UCL, a Design Council Built Environment Expert, and was co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Ⓒ Images: Public Practice Portrait: UCL

Albena Yaneva discusses architectural ethnography and its importance behind the scenes of the architectural production. Albena Yaneva is Professor of Architectural Theory and Director of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG). She is the author of multiple monographs including Crafting History: Archiving and the Quest for Architectural Legacy (Cornell University Press, 2020) and Latour for Architects (Routledge, 2022).

Dennis Pohl architecture historian and researcher, discusses how architectural space both reflects and shapes institutions. Pohl is a postdoctoral researcher at Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture at TU Delft, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He is guest-editor of the ARCH+ issue "Europe: Infrastructures of Externalization," and the ATR issue "The Architecture of Global Governance."

Rahel Süß discusses citizens' assembly, democracy and provocation, and spaces deliberate democracy necessitates. Rahel Süß is a political theorist and a postdoctoral visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the founding director of the Data Politics Lab (Humboldt-University of Berlin) and the founder of the journal engagée.

Clémentine Deliss curator, cultural historian, and publisher discusses a Metabolic institution and the possibility of neighbourhood museums. In her role as Director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, Associate Curator of KW Berlin and Guest Professor at the Academy of Arts, Hamburg, she focuses on transdisciplinary and transcultural exchanges.