The World Around In Focus: Precarity

Global architecture and design platform The World Around presents In Focus: Precarity, a day-long series of talks, films and conversations taking place live at Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI), the Netherlands’ national museum for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam. Speakers, including Hsieh Ying-chun, Lina Ghotmeh, Afaina de Jong, AAU Anastas, MASS Design Group and Assemble, will convene on Saturday, June 11, 2022, for a day of discussions centred on the theme of precarity. The event asks what, in our precarious, fractured and entangled world, can the role of design and architecture be in these crises, and how might these disciplines become agents of positive change now and in the future.

Hosted by and created in collaboration with HNI, In Focus: Precarity is the first of The World Around’s international partnerships and the second in its series of thematic In Focus events that offers a travelling counterpoint to its celebrated annual New York City Summit. 

Tickets are available to attend the event in Rotterdam, which will be also live-streamed in its entirety and archived on The World Around’s website.  

The day’s roster includes: 

AAU Anastas: Palestinian designers Josef and Elias Anastas whose commitment to a more sustainable world is evident through their many initiatives and platforms, from materials and craft innovations to a global radio station.

Afaina de Jong: Amsterdam-based architect, founder of AFARAI and educator inspiring change through social and spatial structures.

Alfred Marasigan: Artist and activist from the Philippines with a transmedial approach to crisis. 

Anupama Kundoo:  The renowned Indian designer transforming space and building knowledge through architecture.

Assemble: Turner Prize-winning London collective whose work occupies space between architecture, community, design, fabrication and public art.

Bangkok Project Studio: Thailand’s emerging architecture practice on its work pushing towards a non-human-centered architecture.

Etta Madete: Nairobi-based architect championing ecological design through writing, activism and affordable housing at BuildX Studio.

Hsieh Ying-chun: Eminent Taiwanese architect pioneering both technical and community-led innovations needed for effective disaster relief in the most challenging conditions.

Karrabing Film Collective: A grassroots Indigenous media group based in Australia’s Northern Territories presents a new film that engages with the cultural and environmental effects of settler colonialism from an Aboriginal perspective.

Lina Ghotmeh: Acclaimed Lebanese architect committed to creating an archaeology of the future.

Manuel Herz: German architect whose recent work in Senegal and Ukraine addresses the architecture and urbanism of migration.

MASS Design Group: The Boston-based non-profit organization that is researching, building and advocating for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity.

Philippe Rahm: Award-winning Parisian architect renowned for extending the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological.

ReStart Ukraine: A Ukrainian platform led by Alexander Shevchenko working to build a coalition of urbanists, activists and anthropologists to prepare to rebuild their country.

Rosario Hevia: A Chilean entrepreneur and founder of Ecocitex on her industrial solutions to egregious fast-fashion waste in Latin America.

Rotor: Belgian studio on their groundbreaking work on the ethical reuse of building materials in Europe. 

The World Around’s program is part of HNI’s A Weekend of Architecture, Now, Near Next, which includes an after-party co-hosted by PIN–UP and Volume magazines. The World Around In Focus: Precarity also takes place as HNI launches the MVRDV-designed Het Podium, a rooftop platform for talks, concerts, performances and other events and acts as the main host venue for Rotterdam Architecture Month throughout June. 

The World Around is a 501c3 registered non-profit institution founded by Diego Marroquin and Beatrice Galilee to enrich and empower architectural discourse around the world. Through a robust series of international events and broadcasts and its new Young Climate Prize initiative, the platform seeks to connect and create a diverse and global network of thinkers and makers today.  Catch up with The World Around’s archive of films here.

The World Around is made possible by its Global Partners Meta Open Arts and Amura Lab, its board of directors and the generosity of individual donations.

Support for this program was provided in part by the City of Rotterdam and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.