Opening
On 16 September, the VAi and DE SINGEL will open the exhibition Tamed Nature. Eva Pfannes, co-founder and director of OOZE architects & urbanists, will give a lecture in which she shares their specific approach to taming.
We will festively open the exhibition Tamed Nature in the Blue Hall of DE SINGEL.
On 16 September at 20:00, we’ll take you into the story of the exhibition through an opening speech and an inspiring lecture by Eva Pfannes, co-founder of OOZE. Afterwards you can have a drink and explore the exhibition.
Programma:
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
The talk will be about how OOZE's practice embodies this philosophy of urban transformation through care and how their methodology deploys natural processes not as abstract systems but as foundations for creating ties, for friendship and understanding. OOZE projects have a specific approach to taming: participatory designs that involve communities in shaping their environments, educational components that reveal ecological workings and entanglements, maintenance and monitoring protocols that are set-up to sustain relationships over time in order to then offer a multitude of benefits to their caretakers. In their projects, residents are meant to understand their role in the system, neighbourhoods are meant to take ownership. Their projects are not anonymous green spaces but set-up to become cherished partners in urban life.
When the fox in Le Petit Prince speaks of taming, he describes not domination but intimacy. "It means to establish ties," he says. This wisdom holds profound truth for our cities: we must move beyond seeing urban nature as generic infrastructure to forming genuine bonds with the living beings around us. When urban dwellers form bonds with specific trees, particular streams, beloved gardens, these connections multiply across the city. Nature is no longer a burden that needs to be “maintained” but a partner to care and be responsible for. Taking this responsibility of taming happily, in other words becoming stewards, can eventually be our pathway to rewilding and freedom from the dominance of concrete and grey infrastructure, towards a rewilding through taming. (text by Eva Pfannes)
Eva Pfannes co-founded OOZE architects & urbanists with her partner Sylvain Hartenberg in Rotterdam. Eva specializes in urban strategies, blue-green infrastructure and bankable concept developments that mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts with Nature-based and Culture-based solutions. For the Dutch Water as Leverage programme, she is the team lead for the CITY OF 1000 TANKS alliance in Chennai, developing a water balance model across the city to make the most inclusive, efficient and economic use of water locally. Água Carioca, an urban circulatory system for Brazil, received the Holcim Prize for Sustainable Development in 2017. As co-curator and lead designer for the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (IABR) in 2020/ 2021 Eva and her team developed a neighbourhood energy transition model prioritizing community ownership, multi-scalar benefits, and actionable implementation frameworks. Eva and Sylvain frequently work with artist Marjetica Potrč on public art works that create living laboratories exploring humanity’s relationship with nature and making ecological processes tangible, such as Future Island – an evolving 100-year micro-ecosystem artwork at Stockholm’s Albano Campus, Time of Stone – for the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale and of Soil and Water: The Kings Cross Pond Club.
Tamed Nature explores the layered history of urban greenery through the lens of the city of Antwerp. From the first city parks in the nineteenth century to the rise of climate activism in the latter half of the twentieth century, Antwerp’s transformation reflects global shifts in power dynamics, spatial and social ideals, and our relationship with nature and ecology.
The exhibition uncovers hidden and overlooked stories from the history of urban green spaces. Contemporary artistic and architectural interventions challenge conventional ideas of urban nature and offer a glimpse into a more inclusive, layered, and resilient urban future.
16.09.2025
20:00h
The opening programme is partly in Dutch and partly in English.
Free, upon registration.
The exhibition can be visited from 19:00h onwards (no ticket needed)
DE SINGEL (Blue Hall)
Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerp
Bart Tritsmans
Hülya Ertas and Dennis Pohl (Flanders Architecture Institute)
Aslı Çiçek
Flanders Architecture Institute and DE SINGEL
The Government of Flanders
There are spaces reserved for wheelchair users in all halls of DE SINGEL. Please contact us in advance at tickets@desingel.be so that we can reserve a space for you. You can use an elevator to reach the halls. Enter through the main entrance of DE SINGEL and make your way down the ramp to the left of the stairs to take the lift. Read more about the accessibility
You can store your coat, handbag or backpack in the free lockers available at DE SINGEL. These are located in two places: in the locker area under the stairs at the main entrance via Desguinlei, and at the Theatre Square in Beel Laag. Instructions on how to use the lockers can be found on the side of the locker column.
In 2024-2026, the architecture programme of the Flanders Archtecture Institute is all about what we share.
How do shared spaces influence our way of life? In 2024-2026, the architecture program of the Flanders Architecture Institute will focus on what we share. In our exhibitions, lectures, debates, workshops and publications we investigate the different aspects of cohabitation and living together.
