CRE55 Architecture City [07] Niegemans Lessons / Lessen van Niegeman - 18th April 2019

Culture Radio

The seventh episode of Architecture City is called Lessons from Johan Niegeman. Starting point of this show is the work of Dutch architect Johan Niegeman, one of the few Dutch teachers at Bauhaus who, together with Mart Stam, designed and build several social housing projects in the Soviet Union. Niegeman attempted to design a better quality of housing for the masses, specifically groups that lived in poor conditions, in particular working class citizens. He believed designers should always design for the most precarious citizens in society. The University of Applied Arts in Arnhem initiated a project in 2018 based on this idea. The project is called Designing for Precarious Citizens in which three contemporary designers took upon the challenge to translate Niegeman’s ideas to today’s society. Artist Giuditta Vendrame, interaction designer Klasien van de Zandschulp and speculative designer Frank Kolkman all developed an installation aimed at three completely different precarious groups. All three designers took completely different approaches. Kolkman researched the consequences of the platform economy for social housing tenants. Van de Zandschulp considered people at home, specially in the kitchen, as a growing precarious group as a consequence of the growing automatization of the home. And lastly, Vendrame looked at the precariousness of people residing on water as an unstable ground for living conditions in relation to citizenship. All three designers will talk about their project, just as professor of product-design and interiorarchitecture Jeroen van den Eijnde to talk about this project. www.operator-radio.com