Loom

Re-light District: Breathing Space for the Red Light by Studio Ard Hoksbergen one of the four Opwallen proposals for filling in gaps in Amsterdam’s historic urban fabric. Here’s a preview. Studio Ard Hoksbergen develops a new methodology for urban infill architecture based on a locally produced timber-construction system. The prefabricated elements can be installed in a single weekend by Amsterdam craftspeople and trainees. The first location will be a woodworking workshop for future infill projects. The transparent architecture brings light, air, and new life to underused places. Studio Ard Hoksbergen: “Timber as the primary material, bridges tradition and innovation. It references Amsterdam’s historic timber-frame buildings, reimagined through contemporary timber construction techniques. A woodworking workshop becomes the beating heart where residents, craftspeople, and designers prepare modules together. Here, old production methods are revived in new form. The architecture breathes transparency: semi-permeable façades, voids, and skylights introduce air into dark alleys. Flexible volumes grow along with the neighbourhood—from micro-apartments to community rooms.” All four proposals can be viewed in full at the Opwallen exhibition from December 12-14 in Amsterdam. Opening December 12 at 17:00h at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136. @studioardhoksbergen @mareschut @lucasvanderspek

WIP by Studio Anna Torres and studio ventura is one of the four Opwallen proposals for filling in gaps in Amsterdam’s historic urban fabric. Here’s a preview. Studio Anna Torres and studio ventura introduce a temporary structure that, in dialogue with the neighbourhood, addresses urgent needs and tests long-term solutions. A scaffold-like construction with softening materials offers spaciousness, while hanging cocoons create room for new uses such as public toilets, mini-gardens, temporary childcare, sex-work spaces, or community kitchens. Studio Anna Torres and studio ventura: “WIP is a mobile system full of life— a body that moves and walks from gap to gap. It arrives where needed and moves on once its work is done. The system functions as research, both in use and in architectural form, helping to shape a future, more permanent interpretation. It also offers numerous possible configurations, enabling different programmes through the use of cocoons.” All four proposals can be viewed in full at the Opwallen exhibition from December 12-14 in Amsterdam. Opening December 12 at 17:00h at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136.

HOH Architecten’s “Behind the Door, Behind the Window” is one of the four Opwallen proposals for filling in gaps in Amsterdam’s historic urban fabric. Here’s a preview. In their proposal, HOH Architecten places bold new architecture slightly set back on the plot. This keeps the streetscape unchanged while creating a forecourt that provides urban breathing room or space for other uses on the boundary between street and building. By shifting the volume backwards, daylight access to the street remains unaffected even when additional storeys are added. Seen this way, building higher within the city’s historic fabric becomes entirely plausible. HOH Architecten: “Behind the Door, Behind the Window starts from the value of emptiness in the city. Just as spaces make a sentence readable, the 22 gaps in the Red Light District give its streets and alleys identity. Empty space once had purpose, as with the old theatre gate on the Keizersgracht (now a hotel), where the space between gate and theatre served as a gathering place and moment of rest in the middle of the city The Japanese Zen Buddhist concept of ma (間) is precisely about the value of the ‘in-between’: empty space does not signify absence, but the presence of possibilities. This idea forms the basis of our proposal.” All four proposals can be viewed in full at the Opwallen exhibition from December 12-14 in Amsterdam. Opening December 12 at 17:00h at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136. @hoh_architecten @jarrik_ouburg @bramvangrinsven @freykehartemink

Introducing Bureau LADA’s Better Living Puzzle, one of the four Opwallen proposals for filling gaps in Amsterdam’s historic urban fabric. Bureau LADA demonstrates how clever micro-dwellings within a small building plot can create room for shared spaces for neighbourhood communities. Better Living Puzzle combines architectural ingenuity and precision with collective richness. The proposal shows that luxurious amenities are most attainable for the greatest number of people when they are shared. How much space do you truly need, and what becomes possible when you reduce your private living area? Bureau LADA: “Inspired by both modernist welfare state housing models and contemporary forms of collective living, Better Living Puzzle introduces a new, transformative typology: compact residential cores that open directly onto shared, semi-public spaces that could be described as ‘salons’. These living cores reinterpret the traditional box-bed as the basis for a contemporary housing unit. The ‘salons’ form clusters of shared and partly public functions, ranging from kitchens and workspaces to gardens.” All four proposals can be viewed in full at the Opwallen exhibition from December 12-14 in Amsterdam. Opening December 12 at 17:00h at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136. @hrsak_lada @natali.aguirre.mo @igorkokosic

From 12 to 14 December, Loom presents proposals by four Amsterdam architecture offices in a pop-up exhibition, showing how unused residual spaces in the historic city centre can be developed. With this Opwallen project, supported by the City of Amsterdam, the initiators demonstrate that there is room in the Wallen area to realise 100 compact homes and add high-quality amenities. In the first phase of the Opwallen project, 26 unused gaps were mapped, which together yield around 4,200 m² of development space – enough to create, for example, 100 compact homes. In autumn 2025, four selected Amsterdam design offices (Bureau LADA, HOH Architecten, Studio Anna Torres + Studio Ventura, and Studio Ard Hoksbergen) explored possible ways to fill in the gaps. Their proposals and visualisations offer an equally imaginative and realistic spectrum of ideas. In the week ahead, previews of the proposals will be released. The Opwallen exhibition opens to the public on Friday 12 December at 17:00 at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136 in Amsterdam. We hope to see you there! A publication will accompany the exhibition. Photos by @annaodulinska @gemeenteamsterdam @stadsdeel.centrum.amsterdam @lotteterwel @amelie_strens @hrsak_lada @hoh_architecten @studio.anna.torres @_studio_ventura_ @studioardhoksbergen @rene_boer_ @michielviersel @markminkjan

Samen met het @brabants_landschap is het plan ontwikkeld om de oude boerderij Out Herlaer en het gebied eromheen om te toveren als kunstlandschap. Out Herlaer wordt een nieuwe, ecologische museumzaal voor artistiek veldonderzoek! @loom.ooo @hetnoordbrabantsmuseum @radna @charlottehoitsma @michielviersel @arjen_simons @hoogeboomjoris @tonnelissen @evavanwolf

اللغة العربية انظر اول تعليق CLUSTER is pleased to announce the conclusion of a four-day workshop from September 14th-18th on “Empowering the Informal City”. CLUSTER organized the workshop in collaboration with @school_for_the_city and @_appluse : Practice for Architecture & Research in the Netherlands/Ireland, as well as @loom.ooo : Practice for cultural transformation in the Netherlands. This research-design-build workshop was an extension to the ongoing research around the same topic, which studied and tested the solar chimney as a potential passive solution to be used in the typical housing units within informal settlements in Cairo, especially with the given rising temperatures. The workshop included 10 local and international participants having both academic and professional backgrounds to investigate possible solutions to improve indoor thermal comfort levels in such housing and climate conditions. Participants grouped to design and build prototypes for 3 different alternatives: 1) a solar chimney enhanced according to the previous research and testing done, 2) a windcatcher, and 3) an evaporative cooling method. The workshop took place at our creative lab in Ard al-Liwa, with the help of our team there as well as the local craftspeople in Ard al-Liwa.

📅 30 September ⏱️ 14.30 - 17.00 audio tour starting at Veemkade 1208 ⏱️ 17.30 - 19.00 presentation at @buurtwerkplaats_noorderhof In the audio tour 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙮 𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙨 - 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘼𝙢𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙙𝙖𝙢’𝙨 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨, seven practitioners individually welcome us to a water-related place in Amsterdam, and explain what this place tells us about water when we listen, look, and think carefully. These recordings can be found on our website and in your podcast app. They can be experienced onsite, or wherever you find yourself, with a moment to slow down and listen. This audio tour is made by Loom for their artistic research project ‘Rhine river rehearsal – reimagining a river’. The Art & Spatial Praxis research group welcomed Loom as a residency partner in the past academic year. On September 30, we will do a collective tour and follow Loom’s audio tour. After that, we will hear more from their past year of research and residency. 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 1: 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙧 14:30: Gathering at starting point Veemkade 1208 14:30 - 17.30 audio tour by bike with several stops; we end at Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 2: 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 & 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 17:30: Walk-in Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof (President Allendelaan 3, Amsterdam) 17:45: Welcome by Art & Spatial Praxis and presentation by Loom 18:15: Responses 19:00: Drinks and snacks by Lila Bullen-Smith You are welcome to attend part 1 or part 2 of the programme, or both parts. More info & registration via our link in bio

Loom published a new cahier: Rhine River Rehearsal. Over the past year, we followed the Rhine — walking its floodplains, crossing its meanders, tracing its industrial edges — to explore how we might live with water in an age of climate crisis. The river became our guide, test site, and mirror, revealing not only its own shifting currents but also how land, water, people, and stories are deeply entangled. This publication gathers five distinct perspectives — The Ubiquitous, Unruly, Resounding, Regenerative, and Embodied River — in a confluence of essays, images, field notes, and encounters. Together, they form a rehearsal: a collective exercise in reimagining the river beyond control and containment, towards fluid, more-than-human futures. From walking flooded islands and abandoned brickworks to listening at open-pit mines and queering the river’s myths, Rhine River Rehearsal invites you to drift between stories, sediments, and timescales. Rhine River Rehearsal is out now. You can ask for a download of the PDF or buy a copy for €15 via [email protected] Editors: Michiel van Iersel, René Boer, Katía Truijen, Mark Minkjan, Radna Rumping Guest reflections: Dirk Sijmons and Zahra Malkani Photography and visual material: Loom, unless otherwise credited Proofreading: Inte Gloerich and gervaise alexis savvias Graphic design: Karoline Świeżyński Printing and binding: Drukkerij Kaboem en Binderij Hennink, Amsterdam. Published by Loom – practice for cultural transformation Rhine River Rehearsal is an initiative of Loom in close collaboration with the Lectorate Art & Spatial Praxis at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Goethe-Institut Niederlande, Borderland Residencies and Campingplatz Grietherort. Join us for our end of residency event at the Lectorate Art & Spatial Praxis on September 30, consisting of two parts: a collective listening route following our podcast “Leaky Turns: Stories from Amsterdam’s Waterlands” and a conversation afterwards. Sign up via research.rietveldsandberg.nl

What becomes of water when we look at it through the lens of different artists and researchers? And how might it assist us in looking at the world differently? In the audio tour 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙮 𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙨 - 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘼𝙢𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙙𝙖𝙢’𝙨 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨, seven practitioners individually welcome us to a water-related place in Amsterdam, and explain what this place tells us about water when we listen, look, and think carefully. Each interview is preceded by a listening exercise; intimately connected to their chosen location. These recordings can be found on our website (link in bio) and in your podcast app. They can be experienced onsite, or wherever you find yourself, with a moment to spare. This audio tour is made by Loom: Practice for Cultural Transformation for their artistic research project Rhine river rehearsal – reimagining a river. The Art & Spatial Praxis research group welcomed Loom as a residency partner in the past academic year. Save the date: On September 30, we will do a collective walk and follow Loom’s audio tour Leaky Turns - Stories from Amsterdam’s Waterlands. After that, we will hear more from their past year of research and residency. 𝘼𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙨 💧Leaky Turns 1 exercise & interview Veemkade 1208, Amsterdam Michiel van Iersel @michielviersel 💧Leaky Turns 2 exercise & interview Marineterrein, gebouw 001, Kattenburgerstraat 5, Amsterdam Katía Truijen @katiatruijen 💧Leaky Turns 3 exercise & interview Oude Waal 21, Amsterdam Mark Minkjan @markminkjan 💧Leaky Turns 4 exercise & interview Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, Amsterdam René Boer @rene_boer_ 💧Leaky Turns 5 exercise & interview Overhaalsgang 44, Amsterdam Radna Rumping @radna 💧Leaky Turns 6 exercise & interview Veemkade 1226, Amsterdam Anne Dessing @annedessing 💧Leaky Turns 7 exercise & interview President Allendelaan 3, Amsterdam Müge Yılmaz @mugeyilma Visuals: @j_________________________h

What to do with monumental farmhouses that have lost their agricultural function? All around the Netherlands, the countryside is confronted with a coalescence of crises. The municipality of Oldambt in the province of Groningen, in the most northeastern part of the country, on the Dutch-German border, which is affected very severely by this polycrisis. The region, once known as the ‘Granary of Europe’, is now an area struggling with the consequences of (man-made) earthquakes, drought, subsidence, salinization and poverty.  Numerous stately, monumental farmhouses remind us of the glory days of grain production. As silent witnesses, they still stand proudly in the vast, desolate landscape. However, the grain mountains are gone, and the capital once earned has evaporated. Today, many are in disrepair, and owners struggle with costly maintenance. There’s a need to rethink their purpose..  What to do with (agri)cultural heritage that has outlived its original purpose? This was the question posed to us by the Board of Government Advisors (CRa) and the national Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) of the Netherlands. Together with ANA ROCHA architecture and Studio Anne Dessing, and in close collaboration with local authorities, farm owners and various experts, we developed a number of spatial and functional scenarios.  Starting from a real-life situation - a farm that is largely in ruins - we worked with the owners and others to create new imaginaries and pathways that allow for a more agile and low-cost approach, instead of the typical restoration project. This intense collaboration resulted in various new design tools, including a role play, a large-scale interactive model, and a guide, titled ‘Voorbij Monomentaliteit” (Beyond Monomentality).  The guide advocates for a shift in perspective regarding the historic Oldambtster farms. Instead of clinging to the idea of preserving these farms purely as monofunctional and monumental relics (what we call the burden of “monomentality”), it promotes adaptive reuse, functional diversity, and phased development rooted in social, ecological, and economic sustainability.

Meet the weavers of the day: Michiel, Katía, Mark, and René from LOOM. 
With calm energy and thoughtful questions, they guided us through every talk and pause,  keeping things flowing and grounded. 
They’ve sparked big ideas from Venice to Cairo, and at Bread & Heart, they made space for something rare: real conversation.