View of On Residence exhibition, Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016, Oslo, Norway. Photo: Istvan Virag. Courtesy of Oslo Architecture Triennale.
After Belonging designs the new objects, spaces, and territories for transforming our condition of belonging. This transformation concerns both our attachment to places—where do we belong?, as well as our relation to the objects we own, share, and exchange—how do we manage our belongings? The global circulation of people, information, and goods has accelerated that transformation, and has consequently destabilized what we understand by residence, undermining spatial permanence, property, and identity. Circulation brings greater accessibility to remote territories and more diverse goods. But circulation simultaneously promotes growing inequalities for large groups, which are kept in precarious transit. Being at home has a different definition nowadays, both within domestic settings and in the spaces defined by national boundaries under global regimes of circulation. How can architects imagine spaces for contemporary states of residence? How can architects practice in a world After Belonging?
The After Belonging Agency is a group of architects, curators, and scholars based in New York and Rotterdam, composed of Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, Ignacio González Galán, Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, Alejandra Navarrete Llopis, and Marina Otero Verzier. They have practiced in Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States. They hold curatorial and academic positions at Princeton University’s School of Architecture (SOA), Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Studio-X Global Network, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Het Nieuwe Instituut. They have curated exhibitions, installations, and seminars at major architectural venues, including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, and the Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale, among other endeavors—including assistant curatorship of the US Pavilion, curatorship of the installation Cinecittà Occupata, and cocuratorship of the exhibition Radical Pedagogies at the 2014 Venice Biennale; cocuratorship of the exhibition Retreat at the Second Istanbul Design Biennial; and cocuratorship of the exhibition Being at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Their work aims to create a conversation on architecture's state-of-the-art crossing of different disciplines and media, from the built environment to printed matter.
Lluís Alexandre Casanovas is a New York and Barcelona-based architect, historian, and educator. He is the chief curator of the OAT (2016) with the After Belonging Agency. He graduated from ETSA Barcelona in 2010, after studying at the Edinburgh College of Art. As a La Caixa Fellowship grantee, he continued to study at Columbia University’s GSAPP, where he earned an MS in advanced architectural design (his distinctions included the Honor Award for Excellence in Design, the Lowenfish Memorial Prize, and the 2012 Kinne Fellow Traveling Prize), as well as an advanced architectural research certificate. He has taught at Barnard College, Princeton University, ETSA Barcelona, and ESARQ-UIC, and has been a guest juror and lecturer at Columbia University’s GSAPP, Washington University, and Iowa State University, among others. He has also collaborated with offices and research institutions, such as the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture and the GSAPP’s Global Africa Lab. His work explores the role of architecture in the definition of homelessness, as well as the interactions between legislation and city. He is currently pursuing his PhD in the history and theory of architecture at Princeton University.
Ignacio G. Galán is a New York-based architect, historian, and educator. He is the chief cocurator of the OAT (2016) with the After Belonging Agency. His research has been published in different journals and books, and resulted in the design of the installation Cinecittà Occupata at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. He currently teaches studios and seminars as an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s GSAPP. He collaborates on the research project Radical Pedagogies, led by Beatriz Colomina, and has cocurated its exhibition at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. Additionally, he is the principal of [igg - office for architecture]. His designs have been awarded in international competitions, including first prize for the construction of the New Velodrome in Medellín. He studied architecture at ETSA Madrid and obtained his MArch at Harvard’s GSD as a Fulbright Scholar. He has been a Fellow at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome and is currently a PhD Candidate at Princeton University.
Carlos Mínguez Carrasco is a New York-based architect and curator. He is chief cocurator of the OAT (2016), along with the After Belonging Agency. He is also associate curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Trained as an architect in Spain and the Netherlands, he graduated in 2012 with an MS in critical, curatorial, and conceptual practices in architecture from Columbia University, where he received the Program Award. In 2006, he cofounded PKMN, an architects, collective that has been awarded, published, and exhibited widely. After joining Storefront in 2012, he organized a wide range of exhibitions, events, competitions, and publications, including BEING, Storefront’s thirtieth anniversary project, cocurated with Eva Franch i Gilabert. He was assistant curator of the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, and edited the forthcoming book OfficeUS Manual, on the protocols, procedures, and standardization of the US architecture office. He will be teaching a seminar in Fall 2015 as an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s GSAPP. He has lectured throughout Europe and the United States, at institutions such as Princeton’s SoA, Harvard’s GSD, Columbia’s GSAPP, and RISD.
Alejandra Navarrete Llopis is a New York-based architect and researcher. She is the chief cocurator of the OAT (2016), along with the After Belonging Agency. She received her MS in advanced architectural design from Columbia University, where she will be teaching a seminar in Fall 2015 as an adjunct assistant professor. Trained as an architect in ETSA Madrid and IUAV di Venezia, she worked with Solid Arquitectura (Soto & Maroto Arquitectos) in Madrid for two years as a design architect, where her awards and commissions included first prize from the Performing Arts Center International Competition in Seoul and the Aguila-Alcatel Apartment Building in Madrid, completed in 2012, and selected to be part of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2006, she co-founded PKMN, an architects’ collective based on research surrounding art, architecture, and the citizen, focused on the use of actions and exhibitions that has been awarded, published, and exhibited widely. She is currently working on the exhibition design for the Museo de Arte Iberoamericano de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares with her own firm, NaMi Arquitectura.
Marina Otero Verzier is an architect based in Rotterdam. She is chief cocurator of the OAT (2016), along with the After Belonging Agency, and head of research at the Het Nieuwe Instituut. Previously, she was director of Global Network Programming at Studio-X, Columbia University. She was trained at TU Delft and ETSAM, where she is currently a PhD candidate. In 2013, as a Fulbright Scholar, she graduated with an MS in critical, curatorial, and conceptual practices in architecture at Columbia University, where she received the Program Award. She has taught seminars and studios at ETSAM, Barnard College, and the GSAPP, and lectured in Europe and North America. Her work, recently supported by the Graham Foundation and Fundación Arquia, has been published in books and journals, including SQM: The Quantified Home, El País, Arquitectura Viva, Domus, and Quaderns. Otero is coeditor of Promiscuous Encounters and Unmanned, and has curated exhibitions at the Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale (2013) and the Istanbul Design Biennial (2014). Her current research is concerned with how changing notions of privacy and safety, and their articulation with global circulatory regimes, affect our contemporary spaces of residence.
Hanna Dencik Petersson, director of OAT, has extensive experience producing architectural and urban planning events, such as the OAT (2013), Arkitekturfestivalen, and Europan Norway. She trained as an architect at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
Alexandra Cruz, program manager at OAT, has worked as a project manager and adviser for architectural and cultural institutions in Norway and internationally, such as the Architecture and Design Department of the Portuguese Arts Institute, the Office for Contemporary Art in Norway, the Oslo Architecture Triennale (2007), and Visueltfestivalen (2014). She is trained as an architect and holds an MA from Central Saint Martins, London.
Kaia Hødnebø Nelson, communications manager for OAT, has worked as a communications adviser at JKL Oslo/MSL Group, as well as practiced as a journalist and PR professional in London. She holds a journalism degree from the University of the Arts London and a BA in marketing from the Norwegian Business School, BI.
Elisabeth Cavallini Fevik, financial manager for OAT, is head of the financial and administrative department at the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway, and a business economist from the Norwegian Business School, BI.
Ingrid Dobloug Roede is a recently graduated architect from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. She has previously worked with communication of and research on architecture with several institutions, and has interned for Snøhetta Architects, Lund Hagem arkitekter, and Erik Langdalen arkitektkontor.
Hege Maria Eriksson, strategic adviser, is department director at Statsbygg. Previously, she has worked as an architect, consultant, founder, and columnist, and has held positions at the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture, the National Association of Norwegian Architects, and Galleri ROM, among others. Eriksson trained as an architect at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
The Oslo Architecture Triennale (OAT) is the Nordic region's biggest architecture festival, held every third year in Oslo since 2000. Through exhibitions, conferences, debates, competitions, publications, and events in different formats and media, the OAT seeks to challenge the field of architecture; engage the public; and inspire local, Nordic, and international debates around architecture and urbanism. Target groups include the citizens and users of the city, professionals, decision makers, international guests, and media.