MA Collaborative Project: THIRST
Students at DAE are contributing to the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) on the topic THIRST, with the results of a collaborative, trimester-long project bringing together the different programmes within the MA department.
For the last four months of the academic year 2022-2023, Design Academy Eindhoven’s first-year MA students have been participating in a collaborative project, exploring water and its relation to our bodies and our designed environments.
Curated by architect Lada Hršak and commissioned by International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (which is directed by Saskia van Stein, head of DAE's Critical Inquiry Lab), THIRST aims to critically reflect upon existing knowledges around water by positioning the role of design in-between technology, policies, science, and artistic practices.
Working across departments, students from all five of the MA programmes were divided into six transdisciplinary studios, led by seven tutors: Ameneh Solati, Anna Fink, Arthur Roeloffzen, Merve Bedir, Ruben Pater, Nadine Botha and Pete Fung. Each studio was articulated through one of six overarching topics: soaking, silent waters, thirst, immunity, voices from the mud, and hydro fiction.
During the final presentation on 2 June 2023, students questioned the role of design, looking beyond the modernist technological solutions to address our ecological crisis. Many choose to use design as a tool to facilitate and develop new conversations with, provocations to, and interventions around societal urgencies.
The results of the THIRST project can be viewed online. The website is designed by Lina von Jaruntowski with development by Lukas Siemoneit.
Ben Dusserre-Robinson (Geo–Design), Lucas Garvey (Social Design), Marine Bosi (Contextual Design) and Sophia Schullan (Social Design) presented a confronting scenario: what if eco-anxiety became a public health concern? Their proposed eco-therapy as part of a governmental programme reimagined individual agency over these seemingly out-of-reach environmental issues.
Taking a more local approach, Jamie van Duuren (Social Design), Elias Hintermayr (Information Design), Emma Lambaa-Bonde (Social Design) and Tonda Budszus (Geo-Design) reconnected the public with water as a form of energy through a series of mobile and easily-assemble water mills in the waterways around Eindhoven.
Zooming out to the global scale, ‘Stagiates - The Flow of Resistance’, created by Emma Bereau (Social Design), Hanchen Zhang (Geo-Design) and Niki Danai (Critical Inquiry Lab), is a platform that investigates water privatisation in Stagiates, Greece, and its potential impact on reinventing the commons through various social movements.
Moving from facts to fictions, Gordon Yip (Contextual Design), Sophie Chalman (Social Design) and Yichao Wang’s (Contextual Design) project ‘Sphagnum Futures’ takes the Dutch National Park of the Biesbosch as the context and repositions Sphagnum, a plant that was destroyed during industrialisation, as the renewed protagonist. Also exploring fiction is ‘Wetmark,’ the speculative project of Delia Rößer (Geo–Design), Elena Dagg (Contextual Design), Leidy Karina Gómez Montoya (Geo–Design), Marie Tirard (Critical Inquiry Lab) and Sofia Pereira Paz (Information Design) which looks into wetness itself as an indicator of wilderness.
Looking beyond material practicality, Joshua Woo (CD), Orestis Tilemachou (SD), Zuzana Pabisova (CIL) and Guanyan Wu's (SD) installation considers water as a symbol of the ongoing changes and adaptations of our planet. It evinces a cautionary tale of what the future might hold.
New models were tested, new infrastructures were sketched, and new rituals and languages were introduced. While none of the projects produced any definitive position, these alternative narratives provided a glimpse of what could be, in ways that challenge who we are and how we want to live – and even the question of who ‘we’ is in these contexts.
Collaborating partner: International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam Saskia van Stein, director
Knowledge partner: Waterschap De Dommel Annelies Balkema Joost van der Cruijsen Marnix van der Kruis Joost Ossevoort Rianne van der Steen
Education and research institute: Design Academy Eindhoven Afaina de Jong, head MA Contextual Design Lada Hršak, curator Ginevra Petrozzi, coordinator MA collaborative project Ilse Meulendijk, program manager MA Tessa Blokland, relation manager educational projects
Supervising tutors: Merve Bedir Nadine Botha Anna Fink Pete Fung Ruben Pater Arthur Roeloffzen Ameneh Solati Guest lecturers: Filipa Ramos PhD Mikki Stedler Matilde Stolfa
Student lecturers: Gabriele Nasole Project Raccogliere (Daniel Garber and Amalia Magril, Sigrid Schmeisser)
Guest critics: Yassine Ben Abdallah René Boer Abla el Bahrawy Raphael Coutin Toon Koehorst (Koehorst in ‘t Veld) Anna van Kuijk Shelley Long (West 8 Architects) Lesia Topolnyk
Participating MA-students: Giovanni Amerio Yannis Androulakis Alice Bardy Lioba Benold Emma Bereau Pauline Bernichan Anahat Bharaj Marco Blazevic Merel Bochove van Marine Bosi Carlo Bramanti Tonda Budszus Pablo Bustamante Hermida Sophie Chalmin Niki Chania Suzanne Craviari Elena Dagg Miriam Daxl Giulia Del Gobbo Quentin Delvaux Fileona Endoxa Dkhar Ben Dusserre-Robinson Jamie Duuren van Daniel Elkayam Dana Elmi Sarabi Anna Favaretto Eva Filipczak Poorvi Garag Lucas Garvey Lei Gómez Montoya Marco Guberti, a Lili Harather Hamutal Hayun Elias Hintermayr Daniel Holler Shao-Chun Hsu Shona Hunt Elise Jong de Boram Koh Sophia Kukuwitakis Emma Lambaa-Bonde Vincenzo Lapiccirella Tony Li Andres Lozano Ruiz Giuliana Mazzetta Zijian Miao Marija Mitic Arianna Molina Herbas Adam Morong Fabien Neisius Zuzana Pabisova Elena Parpinello Sofia Paz Niki Pielsticker Alessio Pinton Eva Pobeda Gioele Prette Anton Ripon Federico Rizzo Delia Rößer Claudio Della Schiava Piet Schmidt Sophia Schullan Doris Sisková Riko Tamekuni Ziqiao Tang Manami Taniuchi Orestis Tilemachou Marie Tirard Ieva Valule Matteo Volonterio Eleni Vrettakou Alice Wan Ella Wanendeya Yichao Wang Charlène Wang Joshua Woo Guanyan Wu Runbin Xiao Loren Xu Gordon Yip Sisi Zhang Hans Zhang Zijun (Junn) Zhou Weimin Zhu
The project is a non-commercial collaboration between the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam and knowledge partner Waterschap De Dommel, taking place from March to June 2023.