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The art of living (all) together
A laboratory for conviviality and radical animism
2026
Zaandam - NL
Academie van bouwkunst Amsterdam
Program: Landscape architecture master's studio
Status: Pedagogy
Beyond the Anthropocene
Humanity has become a geological force, marking our entry into the Anthropocene and leaving the stable climate of the Holocene behind. Driven by a capitalist dream of growth and industrialization, this era is characterized by a "metabolic rift", a disturbance of natural cycles and a separation of human connection to nature. In Western societies, this nature-culture opposition has been heavily influenced by a naturalist ontology that creates a clear mental division and hierarchy between humans and non-humans.
This studio poses a critical question: can the design practice reimagine the way we act, think and behave toward the non-human world?
Conviviality and radical animism
As spatial designers, the practice has the power to challenge how society conceives of and acts toward the rest of the living world. This studio uses 'conviviality' as its spatial design framework.
Drawing on the theories of anthropologist Philippe Descola and landscape architect Martin Prominski, the studio challenges conventional naturalistic divisions and advocates for an ontological shift toward animism, toward a design practice that treats humans and non-humans as inhabiting a shared world on equal terms.
Three design principles structure the students' work: Symmetry (rejecting human supremacy to treat humans and non-humans as equals), Entanglement (dissolving the division between human and non-human scales to create interdependency at every stage of the project), and Resonance (designing spaces that trigger transformative encounters — moments where the relationship between humans and the living world becomes perceptible).
The Achtersluispolder as laboratory
The testing ground for these radical concepts is the Achtersluispolder in Zaandam. Originally a rich peat landscape, it witnessed drastic anthropisation throughout the 20th century.
Today, it is a monospecific, concrete island dedicated to heavy industry, burdened with polluted grounds and low air quality. This highly anthropized and challenging enclave serves as the perfect laboratory to test interventions of radical animism.
Designing for interdependency
Conviviality is a spatial commitment. The studio asks students to move from deep anthropological and ecological research to a concrete spatial proposition: from the scale of the territory to the detail, each design decision tested against the question of whether it expands or contracts the conditions for non-human life. The research culminates in a spatial manifesto for the Achtersluispolder. The goal is a vision rigorous and specific enough to be challenged, a genuine design argument for a more entangled future.
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