Gianna
Bottema
Between Light and Land:
The House of Bread and Egg
Architect in Residence, Mas Palou, Barcelona, Spain
During an 11-day residency at Mas Palou — a 500-year-old family-run vineyard in the hills of Barcelona — this project documents the changing environment and layered history of the site through pinhole photography. It explores the relationship between landscape, architecture, and cycles of production. An old wine barrel was converted into a camera obscura, producing long-exposure images of the surrounding landscape and architecture. Developed in a temporary darkroom within the wine cellar, the photographs were compiled into a hand stitched publication — a material reflection on time and place. The project was realised in collaboration with designer Olivier de Gruijter and Mas Palou (2026).
Adaptive (Re)use of Housing in Japan
Architect in Residence, Space Department Nara, Japan
During a period of two months, the residence Space Department Nara formed a platform to collectively draw, reflect and discuss the potential of adaptive reuse as a strategy to redesign existing neighborhoods in Japan. With a rising ageing population and the global climate crisis, the existing housing stock has become increasingly important.This project challenges mass-produced housing by drawing inspiration from recent case-study projects in Japan that argue for adaptive reuse of ordinary dwelling environments. Spaces that weren’t designed to be beautiful, but become meaningful through use and the layering of space, objects and narratives. The publication and exhibition is funded by Creative Industries Fund NL (2024).
Home Atlas
Feminist Perspectives on Post-war Housing in the Netherlands
The research project and publication Home Atlas: Feminist Perspectives on Post-war Housing provides an insight into the history of post-war housing policies, and illustrates the influence of feminist design ideas, projects and writings on housing during the seventies and eighties. The project forms a critique on housing programmes focussed on single-family life, and identifies key concepts that today still influence design, such as the public-private divide, gender identity and sexual citizenship. The book proposes feminist design principles as a guideline to differentiate, transform and rethink post-war architecture. The publication is the result of a two year research funded by Stimuleringsfonds / Creative Fund NL (2021/2023). Exhibition in Arcam Amsterdam (June 2023).