Forum Groningen: New Views on Public Space

In collaboration with Gemeente Groningen and nai010 publishers, Cityscapes Foundation and NL Architects present their recent publication on the Forum in Groningen. Through various presentations by the architects of the building and the designers of the book, the building will be examined in light of modern architecture and its possible public functions. Invited critics give their personal view on the Forum Groningen project. In conversation with the public, the panel will debate the meaning of the Forum as building and public space.

About the speakers

Pieter Bannenberg and Kamiel Klaasse work at the Amsterdam based office NL Architects. Together with Walter van Dijk they officially opened practice in January 1997, but had shared workspace already since the early nineties. All were educated at the Technical University in Delft. NL Architects aspires to catalyze urban life. The office is on a constant hunt to find alternatives for the way we live and work. How can we intensify human interaction?

Toon Koehorst and Jannetje in ’t Veld form a hybrid design practice (Koehorst in ’t Veld) that concerns itself with the representation of knowledge. They produce books, exhibitions, concepts and research for museums, publishers and other cultural institutes. Their interest in history, place, and the mechanics of display are a driving force behind their work. They have curated and designed several exhibitions at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, among which Wood, Glass, Designing the Surface and Atelier Theo & Nelly Van Doesburg, as well as the permanent exhibition and several temporary shows at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg. Clients include Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Mauritshuis, Prinsenhof, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, nai010 publishers and Walther König Verlag. They have been teaching at MA Information Design since 2014 and are regular visiting lecturers at diverse academies.

Aric Chen is General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut, the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture, in Rotterdam. American-born, Chen previously served as Professor and founding Director of the Curatorial Lab at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University in Shanghai; Curatorial Director of the Design Miami fairs in Miami Beach and Basel; Creative Director of Beijing Design Week; and Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, Hong Kong, where he oversaw the formation of that new museum’s design and architecture collection and program.

Kirsten Hannema is architecture critic and journalist. After her architecture studies she started working as an architect, but in 2005 made a switch to writing . She worked for de Volkskrant and was editor in chief of the Jaarboek Architectuur in Nederland from 2016 until 2021, for which she selected excelling projects and described the major developments in architecture.

Dirk van Weelden (moderator) studied philosophy and made his debut in 1987 together with Martin Bril with Arbeidsvitaminen. Het ABC van Bril & Van Weelden. Since then he wrote several novels and collections of essays and stories, amongst which: Tegenwoordigheid van geest (1989), Mobilhome (1991, Multatuliprijs 92), Oase (1994), Orville (1996) Looptijd (2003) Straatsofa (2005) and Het Middel (2006). His most recent title is Het voorbeeld van hun liefde (2023). Van Weelden writes about visual arts, photography, architecture and literature. He has been editor of De Gids since 1999.