1.Lectures Nick Newman Protest Architecture: Structures of Civil Resistance
How can architectural design contribute to systemic transition in times of climate crisis?
In 2025 and 2026, Arcam, in collaboration with the Academy of Architecture, will host a new series of 1Lectures focused on the annual program An Optimistic Contingency Plan.
Nick Newman's Protest Architecture
In Protest Architecture: Structures of Civil Resistance (RIBA Publishing), architect Nick Newman examines the interplay between the built environment and protest culture. Which spatial strategies underpin acts of civil resistance? Drawing on case studies and design analyses, he demonstrates how temporary structures – from barricades to banners – operate as spatial interventions.
Within this 1.Lectures event, Newman positions protest architecture as a design typology carrying political, logistical and symbolic significance. His lecture exposes how tactics such as appropriation and occupation recalibrate design knowledge, and how these strategies relate to the architectural canon, from Buckminster Fuller to Lebbeus Woods. He further explores how design disciplines and activism may influence one another, and which design principles are essential for effectiveness, reproducibility and visibility within protest movements.
Visitor Info
Nick Newman Protest Architecture: Structures of Civil Resistance
Date: Thursday 30 October 2025
Time: 7.50pm doors | 8pm Start lecture | 9.15pm End
Location: Academy of Architecture
Address: Waterlooplein 211-213, 1011 PG Amsterdam
Tickets: Regulier € 9,-
Students (also other that the Academy of Architecture) – free (via Ticket button)
Emplyees Academy of Architecture – free (via Ticket button)
NB: English spoken lecture
Workshop / Masterclass
Architecture has a long history of architects using their design skills to address social injustices, yet the fields of architecture and activism are just as often seen as contradictory. For Nick Newman, linking architecture to (climate) activism is an essential part of his practice as an architect—not only as a personal, political conviction, but also as a business model. The latter is difficult for many designers to imagine: what could activism as a source of income look like within an architectural practice?
Subject to sufficient interest, Nick Newman and Noortje Weenink will host a workshop for designers on October 30, preceding his lecture at the Academy of Architecture at 8:00 PM. Register now, and if there are specific topics you are interested in, please mention them when signing up.
Date: October 30, 2025
Time: 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Location: Arcam
Language: English
Admission: Free
Calendar
1.Lectures by designers from home and abroad:
- 18 September 2025 BC Architects
- 29 September 2025 Renovate, don’t speculate | HouseEurope! — Arcam
- 30 October 2025 Nick Newman
- 4 December 2025
- 26 February 2026
- 9 April 2026
- 7 May 2026