Mid-January sees the publication of A Sustainist Lexicon: Seven entries to recast the future – rethinking design and heritage by Michiel Schwarz, with field notes by Riemer Knoop and symbols by Joost Elffers. The book is published by Architectura & Natura Press and is a coproduction of the AHK faculties Reinwardt Academy and Academy of Architecture in cooperation with Sustainism Lab.
Heritage and space
Prior to this, Schwarz worked with the AHK academies as an artist in residence at the Heritage Lab of the Amsterdam Creative Industries Network. There, students and staff examined the reallocation of heritage from the perspective of sustainism, a new cultural approach to interfaces between heritage and space. The lexicon is a reflection on this programme. It explores what a socially sustainable approach to our living environment means for both the design world and the heritage domain. In this ‘lexicon for a new era’, Schwarz sketches a changing culture in seven key entries: Placemaking, Connectedness, Local, Commons, Circularity, Proportionality, Co-Design. Professor of Cultural Heritage Riemer Knoop has provided a field observation for each entry. Designer Joost Elffers, with whom Schwarz introduced the term ‘sustainism’ in 2010, encapsulated the entries in seven graphic symbols.
‘Words are our first tools for making sense of the world’ (Michiel Schwarz)
On Friday 15 January, the first copy of A Sustainist Lexicon will be presented to Aart Oxenaar, Director of the Monuments and Archaeology Bureau (BMA) of the City of Amsterdam; Madeleine Maaskant, Head of the Academy of Architecture; and Martijn de Waal, Researcher for Urban Media & Citizen Empowerment, UvA/HvA. The book will be taken as a source of inspiration during the first half of this year by Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam in the art and design programme ‘Europe by People’ organised under the Dutch EU Presidency.
Artist in Residency
The Artist in Residence programme (AIR), a cooperative effort between the various faculties of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, stimulates innovation and confrontation with current artistic impulses and offers an opportunity to bring actual practice into the academic world by inviting artists who can inspire the university’s educational and artistic policy. Special attention is given to new developments in an inter- and multidisciplinary context and to interaction with the international ‘state of the arts’.
Michiel Schwarz is an independent thinker, curator and consultant who specifically concentrates on shaping the future through culture and design. He is co-author of the manifesto Sustainism Is the New Modernism (with Joost Elffers) and the Sustainist Design Guide (with Diana Krabbendam & The Beach network).
A Sustainist Lexicon
Architectura & Natura Press, Amsterdam 2016 Architectura & Natura
ISBN: 9789461400529
156 pages (dimensions: 12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Design Mirte van Duppen
For more information or copies of reviews, please contact Pauline van der Pol, Communications Advisor, Reinwardt Academy, +31(0)6-42740001.