Political Bodies

Architecture can be seen and understood both from an individual and societal perspective. This is the starting point for the first and second year students of the Architectural Design department at the Rietveld Academy who participated in Political Bodies - a project hosted by the design collective Traumnovelle in collaboration with the Holland Festival. They use the human body to explore matters of scale; what is the standard, what deviates from and what determines the norm? In cultural history, new ideals of the physical form are constantly appearing, as a reflection of social values. This then influences the scale, proportions and choice of materials within architecture. Architecture can be seen as a political act in the service of society. The students were encouraged to work critically: they first developed a manifesto and designed a portal, before going on to create a collective space, a stage for communal expression. The work of the students can be seen on the website political-bodies.xyz