Join us for a roundtable on collectivity, critical practices and reclaiming space in a closing event of the “Dissident Publics” programme (2022–2023), also a part of ROM’s UKE 35 academic festival. From public space to the art institution, we will discuss how to create alternative futures for society through political engagement, civil participation, queerness, and dissidence. Looking so much forward to this discussion with Itziar González Virós and Nora-Swantje Almes, moderated by Victoria Bugge Øye, which we co-organized with Maike Statz and Danja Burchard.

It was 18 months ago when we started our curatorial residency, and even longer since the day we met the lovely people behind ROM for kunst og arkitektur. As our time at ROM is coming to an end, we want to put it out there one more time: Thank you all so much—Gjertrud, Solveig, Enrique, Ahmed, Helena, Steinar, Michelle, Marco, Ingrid, Malin, and Anders—for the amazing experience we’ve had together, for believing in us and for being the best colleagues we could ask for 💚

As part of the carefully curated “Hosting Space” summer public program by Maike Statz at Hordaland Kunstsenter in Bergen, we’re very honored to co-host the workshop “Scoring Space” with NOGOODS (Maike Statz and Danja Burchard). We will question the role and space of the art institution. By means of mapping, performative, and design exercises, we will look at the social spaces of HKS and formulate claims and new imaginaries for rethinking the art center, more accessible and inclusive. Thank you to the whole team at HKS for making this possible. (Graphic design by Francesca Lucchitta)

After months of planning, we are finally meeting our wonderful team of 17 bachelor students at TU Darmstadt's Department of Architecture Theory and Science for the block seminar “Artefacts of Assembly.” During three days, we investigate collectively the formal and informal spaces of assembly of the architecture school. Finding inspiration from social movements, we will formulate claims and develop alternative futures for the school—a space for liberatory and emancipatory pedagogies. Thank you to Bea Engelmann, Valerie Kramer and others for the warm welcome.

After 18 months at ROM for kunst og arkitektur, our curatorial residency is coming to an end. The opening of the collective installation “Dissident Publics: Future Artefacts of Queer Methodologies” marks the last leg of a fantastic project initiated together with co-curators Maike and Danja, in co-creation with Mahé, Léa, Jan, Lexie and Liene. After thinking, making, and building together a common vision for an alternative public space, it is the time to invite others to join and live with us. The space will now be activated with a busy public programme. We couldn’t be happier to have met and worked with such amazing humans 💛 On show until the 11 June, come join us!

Very happy to see the full “Queer Practices in Architecture: New Views from Stockholm, Brussels, and Paris” article series for the Canadian Centre for Architecture up online. In this final episode, we discussed queer spatialities in Paris and Beirut with Jean Makhlouta and collective practices with Mahé Cordier-Jouanne. Have a read in French and English here. That’s all for now! 😊

As part of an artistic research project funded by the city of Oslo’s Council for Cultural Affairs, Son made a public bench dubbed “Confident,” and took it out in the street for a literary performance. Joined by our dear collaborators Maike Statz and Danja Burchard, we wrote down and shared some of our intimate emotions in public space, surrounded by friends and passersby. Thanks to all of you who came to share this moment of rage and transgression as well as our hopes and dreams for a different public space with us.

Today we met with our students at the Department of Architecture, Science and Theory (ATW) at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Faculty of Architecture. For the Summer semester 2023, we’re joining the faculty here to teach a Bachelor block seminar titled “Artefacts of Assembly.” We’re looking forward to the end of May when we’ll meet the students in person to conduct the course and question the institutional framework of the architecture school through emancipatory spatial experiments. Special thanks to Anna-Maria Meister for the invitation, and to Victoria Bugge Øye for the recommendation.

Proud to see Safe Space Zine included in the 2023 edition of Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival titled “Radical Empathy.” Thank you to Ethel Baraona Pohl for the invitation and for making us part of the beautiful temporary Llibres Model library, curated by dpr-barcelona, on view until 30 April. Also glad to be featured next to the fantastic first issue of bias: bodies in architectures and structures on Empathy, by the one and only NOGOODS duo = Maike Statz + Danja Burchard.

We, together with Armelle Breuil, had an online talk and exchange with students from the Faculté d'Architecture La Cambre Horta in Brussels about our creative process with the Safe Space Zine, the genesis of the project as well as what we learned from it. The session was part of a series of activities organized by Accattone’s Carlo Menon and Sophie Dars for the Semaine d’Innovation Pédagogique. Thanks Carlo for the warm invitation.

The saga continues as the second article of our series “Queer Practices in Architecture: New Views from Stockholm, Brussels, and Paris” for the CCA is out! This month, we look back at our conversation with Léa Brami and Alexander Auris recorded in March 2022. Thanks again to Andrew Scheinman and Anna Tonkin for the edit, and Albert and Anaïs for the support. Read here, in French and English, “Brussels: Struggles, Memories of Shared Experiences, and Queer Tactics of Resistance”.

After nearly a year of collaboration between Son and the Oslo-based Australian artist Martin White, the exhibition “Big Science: Volume 01” finally opened its doors at the Young Artists’ Society (UKS). On this occasion, Martin presents a printed volume of his serialized artist’s book that is a deep dive into the non-consensual experiments of Norwegian psychiatrist Wilhelm Sem-Jacobsen on patients at Gaustad Hospital in the 1950s–70s. Rendez-vous from 25 March to 7 May 2023 at Keysers gate 1, Oslo. A huge warm hug to Martin for this beautiful adventure, and congratulations on the amazing work!

Very proud to see our first research paper “Designing Collectivity: Not-for-Profit Housing in Oslo” published this month in the 5th issue of Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur titled “At bygge sammen” from the Royal Danish Academy. This double-blind peer-reviewed article was the opportunity to reflect on the DCDP Studio we taught with Hanna Birkeland Bergh last Spring at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Here we discuss the current housing crisis in Oslo and debate the agency of the architect, through political engagement and design projects, to reform housing policy and planning in the Norwegian capital city. Thank you to the editor Morten Birk Jørgensen for including us, and to our former students for their work which is central to the writing of this piece.

We’re super chuffed to have been invited for a panel discussion organized by Queer Community Club (QCC) at Internasjonalen in Oslo about queer(ing) architecture and zine making to mark the launch of QCC’s first zine. Thank you to Mathias Sagvik for the invitation! (Photo by QCC)

After one long year, the day has come. Today we received the newsletter of the Canadian Centre for Architecture announcing that our long-awaited first article of a web series of 3 was finally published. We’re utterly excited (and a bit relieved) to share with you the work we’ve been doing, visiting 3 cities and talking to 5 inspiring voices about queerness in architectural practice. It started in Stockholm back in Spring 2022 with artist, architect and researcher Katarina Bonnevier, representing MYCKET. Thank you to Andrew Scheinman and the CCA staff, especially Albert and Isadora, for your guidance throughout this journey. Read here (in French and English) “Stockholm: The Excess of Meaning and the Labour of Joy in a Queer Practice of Architecture”.

Happy Tet! Chuc mung nam moi! Exutoire are setting up office in Vietnam for a while to recharge from a busy 2022. Between some much needed family time, we keep busy with site visits, contractor meetings, material sourcing, office location scouting, research and writing, and all sorts of celebration of course. We wish you all the best for Quy Mao 2023, the year of the cat!

Son wrote a piece for the German architecture magazine Bauwelt on behalf of Safe Space Collective. "Keine Zeit für Gleichgültigkeit" was published in Stadtbauwelt 26.2022: Stadt und Rassismus last December. It acted as an epilogue for the Safe Space project. Red the English version, "No Time to Not Care: Refuturing Architecture," here.

A full semester of public programming at AHO came to an end with the last discussion of the OAT Academy series, which included lectures and roundtables with researchers and practitioners about architecture in relation to material circularity as well as curatorial and editorial practices. Thanks to Céline, Patricia, César, Denes, Emmanuelle & Philibert, Emile, Andrea, Teresa, Ophélie, James, Afaina, Victoria, Tatiana, Sophie & Carlo, Leonard, and Mari for their incredible contributions. You all made it one of the most memorable moments of the year for us. The recordings can be viewed here. (Photo by Jan Khür)

We’re doing a second week-long workshop with the Dissident Publics group of artists, in Bergen this time. It was hosted at our collaborators NOGOODS’ space (co-curators of the project) and included an evening lecture “On Performative Spatialities” by Nagy Makhlouf, in collaboration with the Bergen School of Architecture (BAS). Over 7 days, informed by queer methodologies, we spent time learning about the group members’ diverse practices through workshops and discussions to then establish a collective language/agenda. And as always, thanks to everyone and ROM for the collective effort!

Thanks to a gracious invitation from Adrià Carbonell, we were lucky to join this year’s National Meeting on Equality and Urban Justice organized by the Applied Urban Design research group at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture in Stockholm. It’s always a pleasure to share insights on the genesis and findings of Safe Space. Thank you also to Alejandra for the visit of the school and for letting us work in the faculty’s meeting room.

We’re so thrilled to receive a Silver prize at Årets vakreste Bøker for the Safe Space Zine in the Series category. We want to thank Grafill and this year’s jury for this award. We’re touched by how the jury had recognized the “unmistakable” concept and character of the fanzine series that manifested through a “rough yet well-composed design” to convey political messages. Go have a look at the exhibition of this year’s winners at Grafill in Oslo, 3–20 November. Cheers to more wholehearted projects like this one, and more just representation of marginalized voices and discourses. (Video still courtesy of Grafill)

We celebrated the end of a fantastic workshop week for the OAT Academy with a magical evening! We were proud to see such an event in an architecture school, bringing in some much needed queerness and joy. A heartfelt thank you to Tine Semb, the Karmaklubb* team and all the performers and artists for such a memorable night! Thank you to the students and the faculty members: María, Rosie, Patricia, Biljana, Ole, Adrià, Alejandra, Nikola, and Nuria; and to the workshop guests: Jack, Nico, Jos, Anna Ulrikke, Matthew, Sareh, Armelle, Son, Marie, and Benjamin. Special thanks also to the student assistants: Karoline, Changkun, Celine and others; and to the photographers Jan and Julie.

We’re honored to have been invited to moderate a discussion on queer architecture with Joel Sanders (architect, writer and professor at the Yale School of Architecture) following his lecture at the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo. This event is part of the live program for the exhibition “Coming Into Community” connected to the Queer Cultural Year and the Oslo Architecture Triennale. A warm thank you to Victoria Bugge Øye, Charlotte McInnes and Karianne Ommundsen for this very special invitation and a very timely exhibition. Watch the recording here. (Video still courtesy of Nasjonalmuseet)

Finally, the Academy has started! After 9 months of preparation, students from all over Europe just arrived at AHO for the Oslo Architecture Triennale OAT Academy 2022 titled “(RE)acting/(EN)acting”. The program of this year’s edition is curated and coordinated by Paul-Antoine Lucas. The main week-long workshop-based event gathered more than 100 students and faculty members from 7 architecture schools across Europe (Sandberg Instituut, KU Leuven, TU Graz, NTNU, AHO, KTH, Aarhus School of Architecture) and many Oslo-based activists, designers and architects around the theme of "Collective Dissidence: Reclaiming the Neighborhood". Visual concept and design by Bui Quy Son.

We’re excited for the launch of the AHO Guest Lecture Series Fall 2022, starting with a talk from Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop. The Fall program was organized by Paul-Antoine Lucas and Hanna Birkeland Bergh. It features discussion sessions curated by Paul-Antoine for the OAT Academy 2022, and wonderful graphic identity and poster designs by the one and only Bui Quy Son! Watch the recording of the first lecture here.

Son designed a big poster (70x100cm) for the Oslo Architects’ Association’s Fall 2022 program of activities. The full program of lectures, workshops and film screenings was revealed during a lovely launch evening at Arkitektenes hus, followed by a presentation of young emerging practices in Oslo. Thank you to the program coordinator Espen Heggertveit for this cute invitation!

As part of our guest curator residency at ROM in Oslo, we officially launched our co-curation and co-creation project "Dissident Publics: Future Artefacts of Queer Methodologies'' last week. It was amazing to meet with our wonderful collaborators over 5 days of workshop. Shout-outs to the wonderful ROM director Gjertrud Steinsvåg, to our co-curators Maike Statz and Danja Burchard, and to the collaborating artists and architects Mahé Cordier-Jouanne, Léa Brami, Jan Trinh, Liene Pavlovska, and Lexie Owen. Thank you to the generous guests that intervened throughout the week: María Mazzanti, Jean Makhlouta, Alexander Auris, Eliot Moleba, Saúl García-López, and Teo Ala-Ruona.

Kicking off another semester at AHO! The 8th edition of the In Transit Studio focuses on Bucharest as a key transit and reception place in Europe within the current Ukrainian refugee crisis. For the next 4 months, a group of 17 students will draw proposals for collective centers in the Romanian capital. The course is taught by Håvard Breivik-Khan and Paul-Antoine Lucas.

After a hectic, busy and exciting start of the year, we took some well-deserved work-cation time in Vietnam. It was an opportunity to conduct some research, meet with fellow practitioners, but also to be with family and to disconnect ♡

It’s a wrap! Congratulations and sincere thanks to our brilliant students and co-teacher Hanna Birkeland Bergh this semester. We’re proud of you and grateful for our time together. AHO Works exhibition is open until June 12! (Photo by Jonas Løland)

Our final review for "Designing Collectivity, Designing Politically" with guests Meriem Chabani (New South), Dominique Hauderowicz (dominique+serena), and Tanja Lie (Lie Øyen arkitekter) is coming up this Friday 3 June. We hereby express our gratitude towards all the guests and contributors of the studio throughout the past 5 months: Daniel Abraha (Atelier Abraha Achermann), Miguel Hernández Quintanilla, Olaf Grawert (b+), Sam Chermayeff, and Claudio Schneider (Schneider Türtscher).

Exutoire went to Brussels to lecture at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture. The talk "(De)Constructing Exutoire" focused on the genesis and functioning of Exutoire as a queer practice of architecture. Thanks Alexander Auris for inviting us to take part in your research and elective course "Altering Practices for Urban Inclusion". (Photo by Alexander Auris)

Son held a lecture and partook in teaching a workshop on the perspectival illustration with diploma students of the MA Spatial Design programme at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The lecture titled "Representation in Representation" tackled different meanings of representation in architecture, from media of visualisation to sociopolitical representation enabled by the built environment. Shoutouts to Nicholas Thomas Lee for this wonderful invitation.

Welcome to the public lecture series linked to the Master's studio "Designing Collectivity, Designing Politically" we're organizing at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Between January and March, we will host 5 conversations with European architects, researchers and activists around the questions of cooperative housing and urban inclusivity: Irina Davidovici, Clara Triviño Massó (Sostre Cívic), Cristina Gamboa (Lacol), Ole Pedersen and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. The lectures will be hybrid (online/in person); Zoom links to follow.

We started teaching our own Master's studio with fellow architect and teacher Hanna Birkeland Bergh at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design—woohoo! Together with 15 students and an exciting line-up of guests, we are delving into not-for-profit housing and new forms of collective living. Looking so much forward to sharing with you the progress of this collective investigation.

We’re utterly excited to become Guest Curators in Residence at ROM for kunst og arkitektur for a 2-year period 2022–2023. Our research project on "a queer practice of architecture" started with Safe Space (2020–2021). Thanks to ROM's director Gjertrud Steinsvåg's initiative and the support of the Arts Council Norway through the Gjesteopphold grant, we will now have a platform to expand on the themes of queer and queering architecture and public space. (Photo by Solène Moscato)

We just finished teaching a 2-week workshop on physical model making as a tool of design and representation for master's students in Architecture and Landscape Architecture at AHO's In Transit Studio. We worked with 12 students, guiding them toward creating model pictures that speak for the intended material, textural and atmospheric qualities of their projects. The workshop was led by Bui Quy Son, together with Paul-Antoine Lucas and Håvard Breivik-Khan.

Safe Space Collective couldn't be happier to release the Safe Space Zine series which we started working on in May this year. It gathered a total number of 48 contributors (texts, illustrations, conversations) around 6 issues expanding the views on diversity and representation in architecture. Son and Paul-Antoine, together with Armelle Breuil, edited and designed the publications. Warmest thanks to everyone who participated and who came to celebrate with us during the Launch Party at ROM for kunst og arkitektur! (Photo by Franz Holtschlag)

8 episodes of the Safe Space podcast series have all been released and are now available on all podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and others. Paul-Antoine and Son took part in curating, moderating and editing the conversations, including "The vocabulary of representation", "The right to housing" and "A queer practice of architecture". Thanks to our host ROM for kunst og arkitektur, our sound engineer Xavier Guinois, musicians Fleur bleu.e who created Safe Space's beautifully hopeful jingle, the 20 speakers as well as the people and institutions who supported us during the making of the podcast. Headphones on!

We were pleased to present a new publication for the In Transit Studio which we co-edited (with Håvard Breivik-Khan and Tone Selmer-Olsen) and designed in Spring 2021, among a small crowd of students and teachers at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

Paul-Antoine is part of the teaching team at AHO as Assistant Professor this semester for the In Transit Studio VII titled "The Neighborhood Project" together with Håvard Breivik-Khan and Tone Selmer-Olsen. The studio is part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022 program. Stay tuned!

Our curatorial proposal "A Queer Practice of Architecture" was one of the three finalists of the Emerging Curator Residency Program 2021-2022 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. We were selected and guided by the CCA’s curatorial team during this Spring-Summer, and have now completed the mentorship phase. More soon!

"Even if queerness is not a location, it is still directly linked to the experience of space. So how do we go about queering space?"—Son and Paul-Antoine, as part of Safe Space Collective, joined Pride Art curator Frederick Nathanael and Martine Johansen from MELK and Et skeivt kultursenter (project for a queer art and culture center in Oslo) to talk about the possibilities of a queer architecture. (Video still courtesy of et skeivt kultursenter)

Safe Space Collective (Bui Quy Son, Paul-Antoine Lucas and Armelle Breuil) start their five-week residency and exhibition at the Oslo gallery ROM for kunst og arkitektur. During this period of time, they will record eight conversations which will then be released as a podcast series in Fall 2021, while continuing to conduct their exploratory research on the meaning of diversity and representation in the field of architecture in Norway. The exhibition is set to close on June 6, 2021.

Paul-Antoine and Son gave a lecture titled "Models, models, models – The practice of making – A practice in the making" for third-year architecture students at the "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest. We're extremely grateful for the invitation and warm welcome from Silvia Diaconu, Prof. Mihaela Pelteacu and all the students.

Son and Paul-Antoine, as part of the Safe Space Collective, signed a contract with ROM for kunst og arkitektur for a podcast series, a residency and an exhibition, set to take place at the gallery from May 3 to June 6, 2021. We're truly looking forward to this opportunity.

Kick-off of the Spring 2021 semester studio "Out of House - Nationaltheatret" at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape (AHO). Paul-Antoine is teaching with Johanne Borthne and Gro Bonesmo. Read the brief here.

Paul-Antoine started to teach at AHO as Assistant Professor for the In Transit Studio titled "Contingency City" together with Håvard Breivik and Tone Selmer-Olsen. Have a look at the students' work at the AHO Works Exhibition.