Hopecast is a series of five hopeful summer podcasts on how architecture can contribute to social change. In each episode, de Architect editor-in-chief Merel Pit and Nature of Hope curator Catherine Koekoek will speak with a guest from the design world about how their work fosters hopeful change and about the challenges and opportunities they encounter along the way. The Hopecast podcast series is a production of de Architect in collaboration with the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.
All of the guests blend a social and societal perspective with a practical emphasis on sustainability and materiality in their work. The talks are inspired by the meetings that take place at the Practice Place during the IABR 2024 exhibition with the goal of building alliances for the transformation of the practice of architecture.
#4 – How to Not Build a Building, with Tim Vekemans https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rMuZDwb9A1HDMAhtVb2Ue
One of the smallest contributions to the Nature of Hope exhibition is The First Stone for Not Building by Flemish design and research practice RE-ST. In the Hopecast podcast series, Merel and Catherine speak with Tim Vekemans, architect and co-founder of RE-ST. After winning a tender to extend a school without actually expanding the building, Vekemans specialized in non-building. He established RE-ST to radically transform the construction industry by making better use of existing resources. According to Vekemans, the Netherlands does not need to build more to address the housing demand. There’s no shortage, there’s a surplus.
