This Design Dialogue looked critically at the role of locality in the context of design, bringing together practitioners who are based outside of their city of origin and thus have the opportunity to analyse their designer identity as a construct traversing national borders, cultures and histories. With artist/designer Silvio Lorusso, architect/researcher Mohamed Elshahed and designer Rachel Jenkins.

The Algerian Revolution (1954–1962), the war to gain independence from the French colonisation, was particularly hard fought. Architect Samia Henni turned to a lesser known facet of this war, namely the architectural strategies executed by the French civil and military authorities to prolong its colonial presence and oversee the Algerian Revolution and populations.

What's the role of designers in creating food? A 3D printed Christmas turkey, leather from fruit pulp, molds to use as fabric for raincoats? Hans Tak took a series of photos of this event.

Architectes discussed the practice of architects who have embraced a broader definition of their roles as designers. Merve Bedir (L+CC), Edwin Gardner (Monnik), Alison Killing (Killing Architects) and Jarrik Ouburg (HOH Architecten) joined the discussion to address the international position of the Dutch architect. 

The forefront, the newcomers, the starters, fresh blood! This BNO IMG LAB evening presented innovative insights from keen designers who left the art academies last year with surprising graduation projects. With presentations by Eline Benjaminsen, Dominica Chen, Ekaterina Galetski, Roos Groothuizen, Devi Heller, Funs Janssen, Kevin Osepa, Djillie Roes, Anouk Smith and Sam Tollenaar. Hans Tak took a series of photos of the event.

A meeting in the context of the exhibition The Other Architect, in cooperation with Volume magazine. Caro van Dijk, André Kempe, Kristian Koreman/ZUS, Lada Hrsak and Piet Vollaard discussed the practice of architects who have embraced a broader definition of their roles as designers. Moderated by Arjen Oosterman of ArchisVolume.

Philosopher, curator and transgender activist Paul B. Preciado gave the 2017 Benno Premsela Lecture. One of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexual politics, Preciado addresses architecture as a technology of subject production.

This Design Dialogue brought together a group of practitioners whose practices engage creatively or critically with Instagram. With Steyn Bergs, Floriane Misslin and Michel Poldervaart.

You were invited to an Evening of Awesome to celebrate the opening of the new season, featuring a magazine and an architecture centre and hundreds of objects which competed for your attention. Conversations with Giovanna Borasi and Mirko Zardini (CCA), Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven (MacGuffin), Lionel Devlieger (Rotor) en Jurgen Bey (Studio Makkink & Bey).

On 13 July 2017 the last Thursday Night Live! before the summer break celebrated past activities of Het Nieuwe Instituut with a Cocktail Dînatoire for old and new friends. It was an inspirational summer evening that featured food, conversations with design studio OK-RM, Monadnock, live mural painting by artist Thomas Trum, pedalos in the pond, pop-in expo 100 years De Stijl stamps and music.

Het Nieuwe Instituut ventured outside the architectural collection by inviting artist Rafaël Rozendaal and data designer Jan Willem Tulp to share their visions and experiences regarding the digital archive. Rozendaal did so on the basis of his own digital-art archive, Jan Willem Tulp drawed on his expertise to suggest ways of improving access to physical and digital archives through visualisations.

This Bot Club evening focussed on Critical Bots. With presentations by media artist Julian Oliver, digital culture researcher Anne Helmond, and the bots themselves.

Artist and technopolitical strategist Simona Levi talked about her multidisciplinary practice in which she strives for free culture, e-democracy and the strategic use of digital tools for collective organisation, communication and action.

Thursday Night Live! on 18 May 2017 was about screensavers, anonymous digital artefacts that began as the solution to a problem and developed in to a space for experimentation, before disappearing without a sound from our digital lives. Rafael Rozendaal in conversation with co-maker of the After Dark screensaver series Bill Stewart and Dutch media artist Jan Robert Leegte.

On 17 May 2017 Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley gave a lecture and book presentation on the question: Are we Human? Moderator was Dirk van den Heuvel (Jaap Bakema Study Centre).

Making up Mars on 11 May 2017 was about the interplay between cultural, scientific and technical ideas related to living on Mars. Agata Kołodziejczyk (European Space Agency, ESA), artist Ivan Henriques and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Het Nieuwe Instituut) gave lectures on their perspective on the Red Planet. Moderator was Aldje van Meer (Willem de Kooning Academy).

On 3 March 2017 Design duo Formafantasma presented their research into global ore flows, from overground mining to e-waste. In conversation with curator Natasha Hoare, they investigated the relationship of designers and institutions in highlighting the landscape of mining and manufacture. This dialogue questioned the “immateriality” in digital design enabled by metal ores. Curator Natasha Hoare and artist Giuseppe Licare joined the discussion.

On 20 April 2017 Game designer Paolo Pedercini, founder of Molleindustria, talked about the role of gaming in making better citizens and better cities. This lecture was part of the Games for Cities Conference.

This performative evening was about the perceived identity of the moving body in today's networked space of outward appearance. Explored through a series of acting exercises for motion capture technology performed by Gareth Taylor, in which the audience was encouraged to participate. Simone Niquille gave a lecture about Gait Analysis and afterwards took photo's with an infrared camera.

On 6 April 2017 Thursday Night Live! was about feminisms in architecture and a manifestation of work by women that is included in the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. With the TU Delft Feminists, architect Afaina de Jong and urban planner Riek Bakker.

Fashion is a means of expressing our identity. It has a strong tradition of male and female stereotypes and is often heavily loaded with social and cultural signifiers. In this talk show Sylvana Simons spoke with the new generation fashion designers about designing for a gender-fluid and culturally diverse reality. With MAISON the FAUX, Kaho To, Lisa Konno and Samira Algoe.

Game Night featured a preview of the game competition Dutch College League and a discussion about the significance of this new form of sport. E-sport - competitive gaming at a professional level - is like other sports in many respects: there are rules, spectators, commentators, and permissible and forbidden substances. There are tournaments around the world in which multimillion-dollar prizes are no exception. It is no surprise that e-sports attract tens of thousands of people and can fill stadiums. 

‘The big challenge for the twenty-first century is the promotion of freedom of thought. The destructive mechanism of the crisis has ensured that exuberance, radicalism and even the longing for utopia have been demolished among architects. I believe these are precisely the qualities we now need in order to innovate.’ Interview with Floris Alkemade, the Chief Government Architect, ArchiNed, 29 March 2016.

On the eve of Rotterdam’s Opera Days festival (20-29 May) our guest was theatre and opera director Johan Simons. Wilfried de Jong talked with him about (music) theatre as gesamtkunstwerk and the role of the director and the stage designer. 

This Reading Room, led by Cooking Sections, combined a performative dinner with a critical reading of the food system. What impact do our food choices have on climate and ecology in particular?

In this Reading Room, drawing on her recent book Outlaw Territories, Felicity D. Scott addressed the growing unrest about human existence on earth in the United States in the seventies. Adrian Lahoud, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London, took part in this evening as a respondent.

She felt just like a matryoshka doll, lying in a special anti-mosquito sleeping bag, under a mosquito net, in a tent inside another tent within the secure enclosure of the UN military base in Mali. On 7 April 2016, Malkit Shoshan, curator of the Dutch Pavilion at the forthcoming Venice Architecture Biennale presented a report of her recent research trip to Mali. 

In 1970 an abandoned military barracks in the Danish capital Copenhagen was squatted. The film Christiania: 40 Years of Occupation combines historical footage from the early days of the commune with interviews with the current residents. It paints a striking picture of the sometimes-explosive relationship between the residents and the government, and the resulting architecture.

Fashion exists not only in the physical domain but can also create new realities through animation and virtual reality. Fashion designer and animator Jacob Kok enjoys working in both realms. During this evening he showed his favourite new films and virtual reality fragments. Earlier this year Kok made the documentary See the Light about the influence of digital developments on human identity. 

Het Nieuwe Instituut has invited Santiago Borja to build an observatory on the roof of Sonneveld House. This space for quiet reflection is devoted to Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society. This event took place at the Sonneveld House. Speakers were professor Marco Pasi, artist Santiago Borja and theosophist Herman C. Vermeulen. 

The aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008 can still be felt in the Netherlands. Architecture and the construction industry have still not fully recovered from the crisis. Economist Bas Jacobs talked about the roots of this extraordinary state of affairs: like most Western economies, the Dutch economy has been caught in a liquidity trap for some years. Architect and partner of OMA Reinier de Graaf took part in this evening as a respondent.

Choreographer and filmmaker Celia Rowlson-Hall’s remarkable feature film debut explores gender issues and questions role patterns. Rowlson-Hall plays the leading role in her modern-day vision of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage. In a visual language full of dance and movement, her journey crosses the scorched landscape of the American Southwest. Rowlson-Hall was present for a Q&A session, moderated by former IFFR-director Rutger Wolfson.

This wasn't just one thing after another, on an endless loop. We dove into the wonderful world of endless patterns and explore the hypnotic, addictive effects and beauty of fractals, patterns, formulas and algorythms. Say that again!

The guest for the first Reading Room of 2016 was curator Chus Martínez. Her work explores how changes in art can enrich public life, with an emphasis on questioning the role of the museum. Martínez is head of the Institute of Art at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel. The director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam Beatrix Ruf took part in the evening as a respondent.

On 7 January Het Nieuwe Instituut kicked off the new year’s season of Thursday Nights with a talk show in which architect Mathis J. Bout, fashion designer and photographer Florine van Rees and designer Gert Franke shared with the public the things that fascinate and inspire them, and perhaps the things that irritate them too. With music selected by Radna Rumping.