Spacious is an atelier working at the intersection between art and architecture. Balancing research and craftsmanship, we create dynamic environments that question and inspire social and ecological transformation. Between provocative poetics and playful pragmatism, our work invites you to tune in with the vital rhythms of the living earth.
Founded by Renske Maria van Dam, Spacious is initiated as an atelier for the integration between academic research and creative practice. Starting from collaborative, curiosity-driven experimentation we set a fertile ground for the exploration of alternative pathways and variant rhythms to existing spatial ideologies. With a focus on the way our moving bodies and landscapes mutually form and extend each other, we challenge Western traditions through the lenses of an enlivened—sensorial, compassionate, and animistic—practice.
This performative and relational approach to the built environment allows us to work beyond the boundaries of the design studio to set our own precedents. At the crossroad between academia and the creative industries, we engage in spatial projects, research, and programs to contribute to global architectural discourse, as well as to ground our work in the built environment through site-specific interventions.
ARCHITECTURE | RESEARCH | ATELIER
In the space ~spaciousness between the world as we know it and the world yet to come, we practice architecture as an invitation to step into new ways of being.
APPROACH
What We Do
Projects
The atelier's main interest lies in the creation of dynamic environments, for example spatial and performative installations, pavilions, playgrounds, unique living or working environments, and participatory public spaces. We closely collaborate with our clients, the local community, and the weather to let unique interventions emerge in correspondence with the social and ecological dynamics of the project site.
Research
We study the spatial experience artistically and scientifically, intersecting the field of architecture with insights and methods from cognitive and contemplative sciences as well as from other visual and performative arts. This creative approach to scholarship generates both peer-reviewed publications and non-traditional research output such as visual essays and exhibitions.
Programs
In collaboration with NGO’s, cultural and educational institutes, we initiate engaging programs among which lecture series, residencies, and architectural pedagogy. This aspect of our atelier allows us to be in conversation with and inspire the emerging field of transformative spatial practices, specifically slow, feminist, and post-western viewpoints.
SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS
Residendies
Funding
Spacious is generously supported by
APPROACH
How We Work
Collaboration and In-situ Experimentation
In our projects, research and programming we emphasize collaboration and in-situ experimentation. Architecture is often practiced and taught at a distance. Both in- and outside academia, architects are bound to their desks. In a globalized practice, this desk is almost always located miles away from the building site. We believe that working collectively, in contact with your environment, supports the development of socially and ecologically friendly habits and habitats. Therefore, we favor full-body immersion in and experimentation with the world. To promote collaboration and experimentation across traditions, disciplines and cultures and give rise to unheard voices, we open our creative process to the public in open ateliers, testing grounds, and spatial conversations.
Open Ateliers
In Open Ateliers we invite the public to participate in our spatial and performative explorations. Both for commissioned and self-initiated projects, Open Ateliers offer an active, experimental approach to co-creation and participatory design.
Testing Grounds
Testing Grounds are spatial installations such as mock-ups and re-enactments of existing or future environments that are built to study a specific aspect of the spatial experience. These real-life abstractions allow us to conduct sensorial fieldwork and thus to include embodied-enactive and affective experiences in the research process. In other words, Testing Grounds add a first-person ecology to the scientific third-person perspective that still prevails in academia.
Spatial Conversations
Spatial Conversations are creative conversations in which the spatial setting actively participates in answering collective questions. By literally moving through space and embodying different perspectives, spatial conversations support both personal and collective processes of transformation and changemaking.
We often exchange and combine these different formats, depending on the specific nature of the collaboration. Feel free to contact us for more information.
APPROACH
What We Value
Architecting otherwise calls for a shift in the way we conceive and construct the built environment, from a design practice focused on architectural objects to an architecture that foregrounds reciprocity. In this context:
Plural Practice
We advocate a plural, post-western practice guided by attuned architects, artists, and scientists who deeply listen, move, and breathe with the environment.
Ecologies of the In-between
We work with the in-between as a space of radical transformation. Starting from the awareness of interdependency, we forget our profession and surrender to a not-knowing.
Architectural Bodying
We critique dominant Modern and Western spatial ideologies for the way they presuppose identity and don’t ask much of the body. Through poetic provocations and playful interventions, we explore and propose alternative forms of bodily action and spatial movement.
Gap Work
We acknowledge the gap between enchanting stories of renewal and the mundane reality of a world in transformation. We value not only buildings, but also other forms of necessary gap-work such as artistic and critical strategies as important contributions to architectural intelligence and the construction of vital architectural life.
Building Relationships
Moving away from heroic narratives and experiential futures we focus on meaningful collaborations and compassionate actions in the here and now. Guided by awe and wonderment, we have formulated a movement practice for architects that includes exercises for attuning with and vitalizing dynamic environments. Together we have framed this spatial habitus as biotopological craftsmanship, a craftsmanship not of wood but of social and ecological relationships.
間 [Ma]
At heart this performative and relational approach to the built environment is inspired by dedicated research to the Japanese spatial practice of 間 [Ma]. In 2021 the Amsterdam-based curatorial platform Slow Research Lab invited us to set intentions for a 間 [Ma]-inspired atelier. You can read more about our early intuitions for this spacious practice in the Slow Spatial Reader.
SPACIOUS TEAM
Team
Spacious is founded by architect, artist, and researcher Renske Maria van Dam. She initiates and guides the projects, research, and programs in collaboration with a transdisciplinary constellation of cultural organizations, academic institutes, researchers, and creative pioneers across the globe.
Renske Maria van Dam
Partners
Dr. Ir. Renske Maria van Dam a Dutch architect, artist and academic. The cross-pollination between Asian and Western practices, from architecture and philosophy to intuitive bodywork, deeply shape her work and thinking. She obtained her PhD in Architecture from KU Leuven (2021) and earned both MSc and BSc in Architecture from TU Delft (2013, 2010). To develop her performative and relational approach to the built environment, van Dam has crossed cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Her work draws on her amateur background as theatrical performer, zookeeper, and yogi as much as it does on her professional engagement with Atelier Li Xiaodong (2011, CN) and architecture studio Herman Hertzberger (2008-2009, NL); her participation in artistic residencies such as AIRguiniguada (2022, SP); Senselab: Laboratory for Thought in Motion (2019, AUS and CA); and the Reversible Destiny Foundation (2018, JP and USA); and on her pedagogical involvement at TU Delft (since 2021) and the University of the Arts in The Hague (2013-2023). Her work is exhibited and published with support of academic as well as artistic funds among which FWO Flanders Research Foundation (2018, 2019) and The Hague Makers Grant (2022, 2024). Recent works include Matching & Meshing (2022) and Hugging Architecture (2023). Recent publications include contributions to the “Slow Spatial Reader” (Valiz, 2021); “Architectures of Life and Death” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021); and “Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century: After Arakawa and Madeline Gins” (Ratik, 2023). She is invited (guest) lecturer at diverse art and design institutes among which GSA Johannesburg (SA); Monash University (AUS); and Kansai University (JP). Parallel to guiding Spacious, she is program coordinator research and graduation at ArtEZ University of the Arts Master in Architecture.
Creative Team
Spacious is supported by artistic researcher Vivien Vuong and graphic designer Saskia Pouwels.
Since 2023, we are active member of the international platform Feminist Spatial Practices (FSP). This is a global collective that highlights, promotes, and shares feminist practices in art, design, architecture, and activism. FSP nurtures the diverse ways that creators work towards intersectional gender equity in the built environment by building an online platform that will offer an interactive visualization and searchable index of practitioners around the world who work towards intersectional gender equity. As co-chair of the community working group, we organize virtual and in-person events that celebrate feminist spatial practices.
Feminist Spatial Practices (New York, USA)
Since 2018, we are affiliated with the Architectural Body Research Group (SABRG) at Kansai University in Japan. Consisting of the researchers from various fields such as philosophy, psychology, education, health and wellbeing, religious studies and media studies, this research group promotes transdisciplinary research projects on Arakawa and Madeline Gins in close collaboration with Reversible Destiny Foundation (RDF) in New York and Arakawa and Gins Tokyo Office (AGTokyo). In the past years we worked on collaborative research projects, publications, and conferences.
Studies of the Architectural Body Research Group (Osaka, JP)
Slow Research Lab (Amsterdam, NL)
We are affiliated with Slow Research Lab as artistic researcher since 2015. Slow Research Lab is a curatorial platform which investigates slow-ness through critical reflection and creative experiment, led by Carolyn F. Strauss. This long-term collaboration has resulted in many small exchanges, a publication, and a podcast.
Architecture of Ecologies Research Group (Delft, NL)
We are affiliated with the Architecture of Ecologies Research Group (æ) at TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment since 2012. This neo-materialist research group of the Architecture Theory Chair promotes a non-reductionist and transdisciplinary approach to architecture by insisting on the entanglement and irreducibility of the three ecologies, namely the environment, the psyche and the collective. This long-term affiliation has resulted in many pedagogical and research exchanges as well as conferences and publications.
SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS
Exhibitions/ Projects
Titel
Publisher
Medium
Link | Download
Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now' (2022)
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now' (2022)
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
File Name
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
File Name
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
CONTACT
Get in Touch
The atelier is based in the lively, multicultural neighborhood Schilderswijk in The Hague, the Netherlands. Often, we work on-site and travel abroad to share our practice. Please contact us through your preferred digital platform.
Renske Maria van Dam
info[at]renskemaria.com
Visiting Adress
Jacob Marisstraat 117
2526 AS, The Hague
The Netherlands
Professional Information Business Registration Chambers of Commerce: 82802696 TAX-ID: NL003733024B68 Billing Information IBAN: NL15 RABO 0321001885 Swift: Rabo NL 2U Administrative Bodies Dutch Architects Registration Bureau: 1.131201.026 The Hague Artist: 79256
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SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS
Lectures/ Publications
Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now' (2022)
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now' (2022)
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
File Name
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
File Name
AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS
CONTACT
Get in Touch
The atelier is based in the lively, multicultural neighborhood Schilderswijk in The Hague, the Netherlands. Often, we work on-site and travel abroad to share our practice. Please contact us through your preferred digital platform.
Renske Maria van Dam
info[at]renskemaria.com
Visiting Adress
Jacob Marisstraat 117
2526 AS, The Hague
The Netherlands
Professional Information Business Registration Chambers of Commerce: 82802696 TAX-ID: NL003733024B68 Billing Information IBAN: NL15 RABO 0321001885 Swift: Rabo NL 2U Administrative Bodies Dutch Architects Registration Bureau: 1.131201.026 The Hague Artist: 79256
APPROACH
What We Value
Plural Practice
We advocate a plural, post-western practice guided by attuned We advocate a plural, post-western practice guided by attuned architects, artists, and scientists who deeply listen, move, and breathe with the built environment.
Ecologies of the In-between
Starting from the awareness of both our deep interconnectedness with all live and the importance of habits and habitats of co-existence, we call for a shift in the way we conceive and construct the built environment from an architecture of objects to an architecture of reciprocity. In our projects as well as in our research and programming, we attend to and work with in-between space as a space of radical transformation.
Architectural Bodying
We specifically critique dominant Modern and Western spatial ideologies for the way they presuppose identity and don’t ask much of the body. Through positive provocations and playful interventions, we explore and propose alternative forms of bodily action and spatial movement. Through projects such as Hugging Architecture and Matching & Meshing we aim to shift focus from the world as disenchanted to direct affective entanglement with the world.
Gap Work
We acknowledge the gap between enchanting stories of renewal and the mundane reality of a world in transformation. In this context we value not only buildings, but also other forms of necessary gap-work such as artistic and critical strategies as important contributions to architectural intelligence and the construction of vital architectural life.
Mindful Craftsmanship
Moving away from heroic narratives and experiential futures we focus on meaningful collaborations and compassionate actions in the here and now. Guided by awe and wonderment, we have formulated a movement practice for architects that includes exercises for attuning and vitalizing dynamic environments. Together we have framed this spatial habitus as biotopological craftsmanship, a craftsmanship not of wood but of social and ecological relationships.
間 [Ma]
At heart this performative and relational approach to the built environment is inspired by dedicated research to the Japanese spatial practice of 間 [Ma]. In 2021 the Amsterdam-based curatorial platform Slow Research Lab invited us to set intentions for a 間 [Ma]-inspired atelier. You can read more about our early intuitions for this spacious practice in the Slow Spatial Reader.
APPROACH
What We Value
Plural Practice
We advocate a plural, post-western practice guided by attuned We advocate a plural, post-western practice guided by attuned architects, artists, and scientists who deeply listen, move, and breathe with the built environment.
Ecologies of the In-between
Starting from the awareness of both our deep interconnectedness with all live and the importance of habits and habitats of co-existence, we call for a shift in the way we conceive and construct the built environment from an architecture of objects to an architecture of reciprocity. In our projects as well as in our research and programming, we attend to and work with in-between space as a space of radical transformation.
Architectural Bodying
We specifically critique dominant Modern and Western spatial ideologies for the way they presuppose identity and don’t ask much of the body. Through positive provocations and playful interventions, we explore and propose alternative forms of bodily action and spatial movement. Through projects such as Hugging Architecture and Matching & Meshing we aim to shift focus from the world as disenchanted to direct affective entanglement with the world.
Gap Work
We acknowledge the gap between enchanting stories of renewal and the mundane reality of a world in transformation. In this context we value not only buildings, but also other forms of necessary gap-work such as artistic and critical strategies as important contributions to architectural intelligence and the construction of vital architectural life.
Mindful Craftsmanship
Moving away from heroic narratives and experiential futures we focus on meaningful collaborations and compassionate actions in the here and now. Guided by awe and wonderment, we have formulated a movement practice for architects that includes exercises for attuning and vitalizing dynamic environments. Together we have framed this spatial habitus as biotopological craftsmanship, a craftsmanship not of wood but of social and ecological relationships.
APPROACH
間 [Ma]
Titel
Publisher
Medium
Link | Download
At heart this performative and relational approach to the built environment is inspired by dedicated research to the Japanese spatial practice of 間 [Ma]. In 2021 the Amsterdam-based curatorial platform Slow Research Lab invited us to set intentions for a 間 [Ma]-inspired atelier. You can read more about our early intuitions for this spacious practice in the Slow Spatial Reader.
SPACIOUS TEAM
Team
Spacious is founded by architect, artist, and researcher Renske Maria van Dam. She initiates and guides the projects, research, and programs in collaboration with a transdisciplinary constellation of cultural organizations, academic institutes, researchers, and creative pioneers across the globe.
Renske Maria van Dam
Partners
Dr. Ir. Renske Maria van Dam a Dutch architect, artist and academic. The cross-pollination between Asian and Western practices, from architecture and philosophy to intuitive bodywork, deeply shape her work and thinking. She obtained her PhD in Architecture from KU Leuven (2021) and earned both MSc and BSc in Architecture from TU Delft (2013, 2010). To develop her performative and relational approach to the built environment, van Dam has crossed cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Her work draws on her amateur background as theatrical performer, zookeeper, and yogi as much as it does on her professional engagement with architecture studio Herman Hertzberger (2008-2009, NL) and Atelier Li Xiaodong (2011, CN); on her participation in artistic residencies such as the Reversible Destiny Foundation (2018, JP and USA); Senselab: Laboratory for Thought in Motion (2019, AUS and CA); and AIRguiniguada (2022, SP); and on her pedagogical involvement at the University of the Arts in The Hague (2013-2023). Her work is exhibited and published with support of academic as well as artistic funds among which FWO Flanders Research Foundation (2018, 2019) and The Hague Makers Grant (2022, 2024). Recent works include Matching & Meshing (2022) and Hugging Architecture (2023). Recent publications include contributions to the “Slow Spatial Reader” (Valiz, 2021); “Architectures of Life and Death” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021); and “Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century: After Arakawa and Madeline Gins” (Ratik, 2023). She is invited (guest) lecturer at diverse art and design institutes among which TU Delft (NL); Rietveld Academy (NL); GSA Johannesburg (SA); KU Leuven (BE); Monash University (AUS); and Kansai University (JP). Parallel to guiding Spacious, she is program coordinator research and graduation at ArtEZ University of the Arts Master in Architecture.
Vivien Vuong
Creative Team
Saskia Pouwels; Jimmy Stegeman; ... Pouwels; Jimmy Stegeman; ... Saskia Pouwels; Jimmy Stegeman; ...
The cross-pollination between Asian and Western practices, from architecture and philosophy to intuitive bodywork, deeply shape her work and thinking. She holds a PhD in Architecture (KU Leuven, 2021, BE) for research to the Japanese architectural practice of ma in the context of the embodied-enactive approach to cognition. She obtained her BSc and MSc in Architecture (TU Delft, 2013, NL), with additional studies in Asian conceptions of space-time (TU Delft Honors Program) and in the philosophy, sociology, and anthropology of cities (Leiden University). Her work draws on her amateur background as theatrical performer, zookeeper, and yogi as much as it does on her professional engagement with architecture studio Herman Hertzberger in Amsterdam (2008-2009, NL) and Atelier Li Xiaodong in Beijing (2011, CN), and on her pedagogical involvement at TU Delft (since 2022, NL), and the University of the Arts The Hague (2013-2023 NL). Current affiliations with curatorial platform Slow Research Lab (since 2015, NL) and the Architectural Body Research Group at Kansai University (since 2018, JP) continue to inspire her work. Her work is internationally supported, exhibited, and published both in- and outside academia. Guided by these values, Spacious is envisioned as a dynamic atelier where architects, artists, and scientists collaborate with clients, local communities, and the weather towards a poetic recalibration of compassionate relationships with and in the built environment.
The cross-pollination between Asian and Western practices, from architecture and philosophy to intuitive bodywork, deeply shape her work and thinking. She holds a PhD in Architecture (KU Leuven, 2021, BE) for research to the Japanese architectural practice of ma in the context of the embodied-enactive approach to cognition. She obtained her BSc and MSc in Architecture (TU Delft, 2013, NL), with additional studies in Asian conceptions of space-time (TU Delft Honors Program) and in the philosophy, sociology, and anthropology of cities (Leiden University). Her work draws on her amateur background as theatrical performer, zookeeper, and yogi as much as it does on her professional engagement with architecture studio Herman Hertzberger in Amsterdam (2008-2009, NL) and Atelier Li Xiaodong in Beijing (2011, CN), and on her pedagogical involvement at TU Delft (since 2022, NL), and the University of the Arts The Hague (2013-2023 NL). Current affiliations with curatorial platform Slow Research Lab (since 2015, NL) and the Architectural Body Research Group at Kansai University (since 2018, JP) continue to inspire her work. Her work is internationally supported, exhibited, and published both in- and outside academia. Guided by these values, Spacious is envisioned as a dynamic atelier where architects, artists, and scientists collaborate with clients, local communities, and the weather towards a poetic recalibration of compassionate relationships with and in the built environment.
Vivien Vuong
Architect and Researcher Renske Maria van Dam challenges normative spatial paradigms with situated interventions that extend the sensorium and help our bodies access new realms of energy.
SPACIOUS TEAM
Partners
We are active member of the international platform Feminist Spatial Practices. This is a global collective that highlights, promotes, and shares feminist practices in art, design, architecture, and activism. We nurture the diverse ways that creators work towards intersectional gender equity in the built environment by building an online platform that will offer an interactive visualization and searchable index of practitioners around the world who work towards intersectional gender equity. As co-chair of the community working group, we contribute to the collective by organizing virtual and in-person events that celebrate feminist spatial practices.
Feminist Spatial Practices (New York, USA)
We are active member of the international platform Feminist Spatial Practices. This is a global collective that highlights, promotes, and shares feminist practices in art, design, architecture, and activism. We nurture the diverse ways that creators work towards intersectional gender equity in the built environment by building an online platform that will offer an interactive visualization and searchable index of practitioners around the world who work towards intersectional gender equity. As co-chair of the community working group, we contribute to the collective by organizing virtual and in-person events that celebrate feminist spatial practices.
Studies of the Architectural Body Research Group (Kansai University, JP)
SPACIOUS TEAM
Team
Spacious is founded by architect, artist, and researcher Renske Maria van Dam. She initiates and guides the projects, research, and programs in collaboration with a transdisciplinary constellation of cultural organizations, academic institutes, researchers, and creative pioneers across the globe.
Renske Maria van Dam
Dr. Ir. Renske Maria van Dam a Dutch architect, artist and academic. The cross-pollination between Asian and Western practices, from architecture and philosophy to intuitive bodywork, deeply shape her work and thinking. She obtained her PhD in Architecture from KU Leuven (2021) and earned both MSc and BSc in Architecture from TU Delft (2013, 2010). To develop her performative and relational approach to the built environment, van Dam has crossed cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Her work draws on her amateur background as theatrical performer, zookeeper, and yogi as much as it does on her professional engagement with architecture studio Herman Hertzberger (2008-2009, NL) and Atelier Li Xiaodong (2011, CN); on her participation in artistic residencies such as the Reversible Destiny Foundation (2018, JP and USA); Senselab: Laboratory for Thought in Motion (2019, AUS and CA); and AIRguiniguada (2022, SP); and on her pedagogical involvement at the University of the Arts in The Hague (2013-2023). Her work is exhibited and published with support of academic as well as artistic funds among which FWO Flanders Research Foundation (2018, 2019) and The Hague Makers Grant (2022, 2024). Recent works include Matching & Meshing (2022) and Hugging Architecture (2023). Recent publications include contributions to the “Slow Spatial Reader” (Valiz, 2021); “Architectures of Life and Death” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021); and “Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century: After Arakawa and Madeline Gins” (Ratik, 2023). She is invited (guest) lecturer at diverse art and design institutes among which TU Delft (NL); Rietveld Academy (NL); GSA Johannesburg (SA); KU Leuven (BE); Monash University (AUS); and Kansai University (JP). Parallel to guiding Spacious, she is program coordinator research and graduation at ArtEZ University of the Arts Master in Architecture.
Creative Team
Spacious is supported by artistic researcher Vivien Vuong and graphic designer Saskia Pouwels.