Independent School for the City

For the 59th edition of School’s Out!, we had the pleasure of welcoming stylist and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek, who presented her work on the Exactitude projects. This project spanned more than three decades and showcases styles that unite in diversity. At its core, the project explores street fashion and how, willingly or unwillingly, people tend to long to be part of certain communities while still distinguishing themselves within them.

Ellie explained in her talk, how one of the motivations for starting the project, was the fact that major fashion news often focuses on stars or royals, leaving out the ordinary people around them. Ellie presented examples from the book and shared anecdotes from her work on it. She emphasised the importance of trust and the process behind the shoots, and reflected on how the collective movements and characteristics of a group can be perceived, even without any actual movement. The evening concluded with a conversation between Ellie and the audience, which continued with drinks at the bar.

Meanwhile behind the scenes we are preparing a research by photography workshop with Ellie. Stay tuned for more info!

In the first week of July, while (hopefully) the summer temperatures are coming to their peak, we are organising the unique studio: Harbours are for Swimming. During two days, we will dive into the potential of Rotterdam’s harbour basins as public space for swimming, through lectures, fieldwork, mapping, and design exercises.

Today, we would like to introduce to you Martina Germana, who is the co-innitiator and tutor of this studio.

Martina Germanà is an Italian urban designer and co-founder of FUGUE together with Riccardo De Vecchi. FUGUE is a collaborative platform that explores how environments are perceived, used, and contested. In addition she works at the urban design office PosadMaxwan, where she focuses on the transformation of urban areas and the design of public spaces that enhance human and environmental health. With roots in the Mediterranean, Martina has developed a strong interest in climate-adaptive design, particularly in relation to heat, water, and the reactivation of public space.

Harbours are for Swimming will take place on Fri. 3 & Sat. 4 July 2026. Register your spot for only 100 euro before 19 June 2026. Limited spots available. Get your tickets on our website, link in bio.

On Saturday 13 June 2026, we will be hosting a postponed lecture by architect, architectural historian and theorist Vikram Prakash about his father’s architecture in Chandigarh (India).
Aditya Prakash (1924), the father of Vikram, was one of the Indian architects who collaborated with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret to turn Chandigarh – the famous modernist new capital for the state of East Punjab (India) – into a reality. Although unknown to most, he and other Indian architects such as MN Sharma, BP Mathur and JK Choudhury, have played an important part in modern and contemporary Indian architecture. Vikram Prakash will speak about his father’s architecture in Chandigarh under the rubric of Non-Aligned Modernism, understanding modernism not as a Western idea but as an ongoing global project

The lecture will take place on Saturday 13 June 2026 at 17:00-19:00. Tickets are available for 5 euro here: https://www.schoolforthecity.nl/public-lecture-by-vikram-prakash/

As a part of the upcoming workshop Harbours are for Swimming, we are organising a public lecture by Paul Steinbrück from the Brussels based initiative Pool is Cool ( )

Paul is co-initiator of POOL IS COOL - a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2016 to campaign for the reintroduction of outdoor swimming in Brussels through actions, projects, research and debate.

One of their beautiful initiatives was Flow - the design and construction of a temporary outdoor swimming pool that they built in collaboration with Decoratelier Jozef Wouters. Located on a derelict industrial site in Anderlecht this pool was made out of reused materials. Local youth participated in the construction, creating a venue for various outdoor activities and community engagement. By fostering social cohesion and connecting urban dwellers with nature, FLOW showcased the positive impact of outdoor swimming and served as a prototype for future long-term projects.

Join the lecture on Friday 03 July, taking place at 19:00. Moreover, there are still some spots available for the Harbours are for Swimming workshop, happening 3 & 4 July. Register via our website.

Images: FLOW project in Brussels by POOL IS COOL & Decoratelier Jozef Wouters

On Monday 15 June, we will host a film screening and lecture by urbanist Rashiq Fataar, of Our Future Cities - a South African-based urbanism practice that operates at the intersection of policy, the public realm, and urban development.

The session questions the limits of design when facing deep social injustice, centring on a screening of Good Hood Stories Season 4 - a short film by Rashiq that tracks resident-led tactical urbanism in the historically marginalised, high-crime townships of Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchells Plain on Cape Town's periphery. Following the film, Fataar will deliver a short lecture titled "What Design Can’t Do" on global design trends, where tactical urbanism is so often driven by property developers and private funding, to focus on the everyday questions he and Our Future Cities have grappled with on the ground.

The film screening and lecture will take place on Monday 15 June, at 18:00-19:30. Participation in the event is free, but requires prior registration. More information available on our website, link in bio.

For the last School’s Out! before the summer break, we are doing something special! Together with Verso Books - we’re organising a duo talk on the politics of housing and homeliness, in the form of a book presentation and conversation with two authors: Holly Smith and Alva Gotby.

Holly and Alva have both recently published beautiful and incredibly timely books that explore domesticity as an experience that is both political and personal.

Holly Smith’s “Up in the Air: a History of High Rise Britain (2025)”, explores the slabs and towers of post war Britain, from the inside out. Through the experiences of the people who lived there, she traces how these new forms of housing reshaped everyday life, forcing residents to rethink family, community, and neighbourliness.

Alva Gotby’s “Feeling Home: Transforming the Politics of Housing (2026)”, uncovers an enormous amount of ideology, assumptions and mechanics of oppression and inequality hidden under the carpets and the flowery wallpaper of the ideal home. She does not allow us the illusion that if everyone is housed, then all will be well.

The lecture will take place on Friday 26 June, at 20:00-22:00. Get your 5 euro tickets on our website, link in bio.

As a part of our upcoming studio To See the World in a Soybean, we are organising a public lecture by Jago Van Bergen (Bergen van Kolpa Architecten) on Wednesday the 27th of May in the evening. Let us introduce Jago to you.

Jago van Bergen is an Architect and co-founder of Bergen Kolpa Architects - an office specialised in architecture for the horticultural and agrologistics sector. With over 20 years of experience they work on research and design projects for (rooftop) greenhouses, vertical farms, experience centers and office buildings. In addition he explores the architecture for fFood within academic institutions such as the Design Academy Eindhoven, the Berlage Institute, the AMS institute, the universities of Delft, Wageningen and Eindhoven and other universities worldwide.

The evening will focus on the longstanding relationship between food and the city, and shows how architecture can create space for food production, consumption, recreation, exhibition, and research.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday 27 May at 20:00. More information is available on our website, link in bio.

For the next School’s Out!, happening on Friday 29 May, we will welcome stylist and profiler ellie uyttenbroek to talk about her Exactitudes project - a research by photography project in which together with Ari Versluis she analyses the way identity manifests itself through dress codes and shared attitudes that on a wider stance points out to neatly differentiated social groups.

Ellie describes Exactitudes as “an inquiry on how the self is constructed in a highly volatile and complex social environment like ours. An environment in which a great number of opposing forces are continuously at play. Notions such as uniformity and individuality are at the core of our concern. How our desire to differentiate ourselves is also matched by a need to belong to a specific group. Identity, which has been described by many authors as an eminently fragile, fractured and problematic notion, operates on many levels”.

Join us on the evening of Friday 29th May, at 20:00. Get your 5 euro tickets, available on our website, link in bio.