Radical autonomy

Designing and building differently, with Arquitetura na Periferia and Time To Access.

Architecture in the Netherlands is under pressure. Construction is highly industrialised, projects grow ever more complex, and buildings are increasingly treated as financial assets, all of which narrows what we can design and build. Architects find themselves fighting to keep their decision-making power and to protect the principles and qualities of their work. This event will bring together spatial practitioners and researchers from Brazil and the Netherlands to discuss going radical as the way to regain our collective autonomy as designers, builders, and inhabitants of the city. What does it mean to do justice to architecture as a collective project? How can we practice in ways that confront the roots of our current crises, rather than just their symptoms? Across two geographies, in open dialogue, we will discover what architecture is still capable of when we radically rethink the economy, politics, hierarchies, and types of knowledge that shape our projects.

Together with Carina Guedes Architect and Urban Planner | Founder of Arquitetura na Periferia and President of IAMÍ Institute [https://arquiteturanaperiferia.org.br] Mariana Borel Architect and Urban Planner | Co-founder and Institutional Strategy Manager at IAMÍ [https://arquiteturanaperiferia.org.br/institucional/] Mira Nekova Architect/Partner bij Time to Access [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-nekova-74827741/] Alina Paias Researcher at TU Delft, writer and curator [https://alinapaias.com]

SPEAKERS

Carina Guedes and Mariana Borel are Brazilian architects and urban planners who lead Arquitetura na Periferia (Architecture in the Peripheries), an initiative that works with women in peripheral communities in Brazil. Their practice connects architecture, gender and self-management, creating participatory processes through which women develop the knowledge and autonomy to transform their own homes and territories. By bringing together technical knowledge and local experience, their work explores architecture as a tool for women’s autonomy, collective action and the right to the city.

Mira Nekova is an architect and partner at Time to Access, which she founded in 2021 together with Andrea Verdecchia. Time to Access is an Amsterdam-based practice dedicated to the development of radical architecture. Their projects include the De Nieuwe Meent housing cooperative and the CPO Bakstayn. Nekova obtained her Master’s degree in Architecture from Delft University of Technology and worked as an architect and project manager before founding Time to Access. In 2021, she was nominated for the ARC21 Young Talent Award and, in 2023, she was included by Financieel Dagblad in its list of fifty entrepreneurial talents under the age of 35.

Alina Paias is a 2025-26 recipient of the Talent Development Grant by the Creative Industries Fund NL and is currently a researcher at the Delft University of Technology. Her work…