Amare
Amare, the new cultural centre in The Hague, is conceived as a multiverse—a dynamic space where multiple worlds converge. The building houses four major cultural institutions: the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), the Residentie Orkest, the Royal Conservatoire, and the Amare Foundation. Within its walls, Amare offers a diverse array of facilities, including four theatres, two restaurants, event halls, studios, classrooms, and a central interior public space. This public area serves as the connective heart of the complex, linking organizations and amenities in a shared cultural and social environment. Designed with streets, alleyways, and small squares, it encourages spontaneous encounters among diverse audiences. The space is not only used by Amare’s residents—such as theatre staff and conservatoire students—but is also open to other cultural institutions and the broader community of The Hague for performances and initiatives.

 

Since its opening in 2021, both residents and visitors of Amare have struggled to find a sense of belonging and shared responsibility within the space. Rather than becoming the inviting, diverse, and creative hub envisioned for the cultural heart of The Hague, the large interior public space has yet largely functioned as a transitory zone. Disorganized public furniture and unpleasant interactions between visitors and employees even led to the temporary closure of parts of the interior space. This situation reveals a core paradox of public space: when a space is open to all uses, it can end up feeling welcoming to none. A safe, vibrant, and creative environment only emerges when both residents and visitors feel invited to engage with and take ownership of the space in their own way. But when anything seems possible and behavioural expectations are unclear, shared ownership becomes difficult to achieve.

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In response to this challenge, Spacious collaborated with students from the Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague to activate the interior public space—aiming to foster a greater sense of welcome, belonging, and co-ownership among Amare’s residents and visitors.

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Dare to Care
This project builds on ongoing research by Spacious, in which we explore how compassion can be cultivated in the (built) environment through bodily engagement and collective play. It begins with an in-depth, sensorial, and participatory exploration of the Amare building complex. Together with students, we explore how Amare feels: how its atmospheres shift throughout the day, how different groups move through and behave within this multiverse. Starting from a literal practice of listening to, moving with, and breathing alongside the building, we arrive at the concept of the hug—or more specifically, hugging architecture—as a spatial and performative tactic to foster shared ownership and responsibility in public space. In a similar vein to Sylvia Lavin’s reflections on Kissing Architecture, hugging implies more than a one-sided gesture. It requires reciprocity in such a way that the architecture receives the hug and participates in return: that it hugs you back. Amare, in many ways, already embraces its inhabitants like a perfect servant. The building complex is a living machine that flawlessly supports the logistics of a vibrant cultural centre. As students flow to their classes, doors open automatically. As artists rehearse, trucks arrive at the loading docks and goods are transported by massive elevators to prepare the stages. Beer flows through an internal network of pipes to serve evening guests with ease.

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But hugging goes beyond seamless service. It activates radical care—a kind of affection that is intimate, generous, and disarming. In Lavin’s words, architecture’s responsibility is “not only to provide shelter and functionality, but even more so to contribute to the reinvention of experience—affective and political.” To hug is to bond, to protect, to hold close, to fit tightly, to cherish. It is an invitation to relate to architecture in ways that are playful, tender, even mischievous. We mimic the birds nesting in the building’s façade. We “see” through the building’s eyes by engaging with its security systems. We slowly roll down staircases, collectively sinking into the building. Through these unconventional, bodily encounters, we uncover new levels of intimacy, care, and radical affection—reshaping how we relate to and inhabit shared public space.