Open Call Festival Centre RA Month June ’25
The organisers of Rotterdam Architecture Month cordially invite designers, design educators and other stakeholders in spatial development to submit projects for the exhibition to be held at RA Month 2025’s festival centre. The exhibition will be on show for the entire month of June at the Schiehavenhallen in Schiemond. Projects can be submitted until Monday 10 March 2025.
Rotterdam Architecture Month has developed into the largest architecture festival in the Netherlands on the future of urbanism. Every June, RA Month celebrates architecture’s innovation and quality in collaboration with well over 100 partners from the design, education and business sectors as well as many initiators who help organise more than 125 activities at over 40 venues.
Festival centre in Schiemond
This year, the festival’s centre will be in Schiemond, a post-war urban district in the west of Rotterdam where history and innovation mingle. The older part consists of social housing while modern new homes have been built along the Lloydkade. Schiehaven-Noord, currently still characterised by makers, culture and commerce, is being developed into a sustainable ‘Paris Proof’ housing area which will link the aforementioned areas.
During RA Month we want to co-urbanise in Schiemond. What does Paris Proof area development entail for Rotterdam? How do you collaborate to create a sustainable city? At the ‘de kade’ [quayside] area surrounding the Schiehavenhallen we will be programming a number of spatial interventions in cooperation with new and established inhabitants. The exhibition will be held both at the Schiehavenhallen and on the quayside.
Main theme: Summer in Schiemond
On sustainable living & construction: now and in the future
Take part
RA Month invites the design sector to submit projects that innovatively respond to at least one of the Summer in Schiemond (Zomer in Schiemond) themes for the exhibition. Do you have an existing project, installation or model aligned with the themes? If so, submit it to the RA Month website before 10 March 2025 at the latest. This page provides more information on the themes, selection criteria, conditions and guidelines or download the pdf.
This year, the exhibition will be organised by AIR and the Klimaat Academie. The organisers eagerly await all the entries.
The exhibition’s four themes:
1. Towards a sustainable construction culture
Sustainable construction is already possible, yet still isn’t the norm. Schiehaven-Noord provides room to experiment with timber buildings, biobased materials and circular construction. The new SAWA building on the Lloydpier proves that timber construction isn’t just environmentally friendly, but can also be architecturally appealing and future-proof. Nevertheless, the construction sector often relies on more traditional methods. How can this reliance on tradition be broken, ensuring innovative construction techniques are widely implemented? How can we draw attention to the fact that sustainable construction is not only crucial, but also practical, aesthetic and economically feasible?
What we are looking for
RA Month seeks inspiring examples that demonstrate how sustainable construction solutions work in practice, not as exceptions, but as the new normal. Think, for instance, of projects that are regenerative, passive, circular or built from timber.
2. Everyday sustainability
Inhabitants make cities more sustainable on a daily basis. Initiatives such as the Delfshaven Coöperatie and the Huis van de Toekomst prove how neighbourhoods can save energy together, share facilities and create spaces for social, sustainable solutions. This often occurs without much recognition even though it is precisely the more deprived neighbourhoods that give rise to innovative, accessible ideas everyone benefits from. How can we strengthen and draw attention to this everyday sustainability? Which support do inhabitants need to make sustainable choices? Which measures help scale-up existing initiatives, making sustainable living feasible for everyone?
What we are looking for
RA Month seeks projects that demonstrate how neighbourhood inhabitants, initiatives and city makers not only work towards a sustainable city, but also towards a fair, inclusive future.
3. Mobility
A city with fewer cars has more room for people i.e. cycling and walking are safer, air quality improves, and public spaces are pleasant to be in. In Schiehaven-Noord a study is being conducted into how mobility can be more intelligently substantiated so that walking, cycling and public transport become appealing, affordable options. How do we ensure that this transition works for everyone including people currently still very dependent on their cars? How do we combine smart mobility solutions with a compact, accessible city in which living, working and recreation are situated in close proximity?
What we are looking for
RA Month is looking for ideas and examples that demonstrate how city liveability can be improved with no one feeling left out as well as examples of projects (globally) that highlight the opportunities presented by the various forms of mobility.
4. Future area development
How can area development constitute more than mere construction? After all, a neighbourhood is more than just a collection of structures. It is the people who live, work and gather in the area that bring it to life. Nevertheless, area plans are often drawn up top-down, while inhabitants and local initiatives are only allowed to co-conceptualise later on in the process. How can this be reversed?
How do you create a flexible, future-proof neighbourhood that builds on existing structures and offers sufficient space to inhabitants’ initiatives? How do we ensure that new developments genuinely align with communities’ identities and needs?
What we are looking for
RA Month seeks examples in which participation is not merely auxiliary, but controls development from the start. We are looking for inspiring projects that demonstrate how to jointly shape area development.
Doe mee!
Submissions
Submissions can made until March 10 2025 via www.rotterdamarchitectuurmaand.nl. Make sure you submit the following:
- A fully completed registration form including pitching your exhibition proposal
- A maximum of six pages A4 as a PDF (max. 5MB) with interest-arousing conceptualisations such as 1:1 scale mock ups, models or 3D objects, drawings, photographs or moving images that support your exhibition proposal. Ensure your story or message has a clear progression/structure with a brief explanation of what the image(s) depict. Please note: only suggest copyright-free images for use in the exhibition
- Any questions you may have can be emailed to Jamie Hornis: j.hornis@airrotterdam.eu. until Thursday 6 March 2025.
Selection criteria
A selection committee will select some 20 projects from all the entries submitted to participate in the exhibition at the heart of the festival for RA Month. The committee will assess all the entries using the following criteria:
- The project provides a valuable contribution to RA Month’s main theme
- The project is presented in an accessible, comprehensible manner to a wide (and not solely professional) audience
- The project inspires and generates interest for architecture and spatial development among the RA Month’s audience
- The project suits RA Month’s overarching concept and is aligned with at least one of the four themes.
Submission conditions:
- The exhibition’s scenography will develop on the basis of the available space, the themes defined and the projects submitted after the open call.
- All designers, design students, educational programmes, (landscape)architects, urban planners, commissioning parties, policymakers, neighbourhood initiatives and other groups or individuals involved in concretising plans in the spatial domain are welcome to submit their project(s).
- Both existing projects as well as plans, visions or imaginings may be submitted.
- The entry to the exhibition should have no commercial intent.
- Proposals may only be submitted by completing the registration form which can be found on the RA Month website.
- Alongside the fully completed registration form, a complete entry consists of a PDF with renderings that support the exhibition proposal to a maximum of six pages A4 (max. 5MB). Provide correct, factual information for the images such as captions, credits and (in the case of models or 3D objects) dimensions.
- You may enter multiple projects simultaneously. In that case you should submit a separate and comprehensive entry for each project to the RA Month website.
- Entrants must supply copyright-free information, illustrations, drawings, models and other materials so that the latter can possibly be used for various online and offline communication objectives.
Conditions for the projects selected:
- RA Month’s main exhibition will open on 1 June 2025 and will be on show until 30 June.
- The exhibition is bilingual (NL and ENG). RA Month’s organisers will be responsible for writing, editing and translating the texts for the exhibition or having the latter edited, but will ask that entrants submit basic texts (project introduction and captions).
- The exhibition will take place in public spaces. Entrants will be responsible for making the object(s) and/or model(s) vandal proof or having this done as well as for the resulting costs.
- At the selection committee’s recommendation, an entrant may be asked to augment their entry with additional or alternate images or, conversely, to make a selection from the images submitted. For the benefit of the exhibition’s concept a selected entrant may also be asked to submit the project in a manner other than initially proposed.
- The exhibition’s graphic design will be handled by Studio de Ronners. In the event of a 2D exhibition proposal, the selected entrant will be asked to convert the entry to the format specially developed for the exhibition.
- The entrant is responsible (also financially) for the substantive development and the creation of the images selected for the exhibition.
- RA Month’s organisers are responsible for printing and will cover the costs of printing the selected images, the exhibition texts and the setting up/installation of all the projects in the framework of the exhibition unless agreed otherwise.
- RA Month’s organisers are responsible for setting up the exhibition and will cover the costs of exhibition bearers, AV and lighting.
- RA Month’s organisers are responsible for the objects loaned to them during the setting up, duration and tearing down of the exhibition and has insured itself to this end.
- Entrants are responsible for (insuring) the transport of objects/models selected for the exhibition.
- In the event of complex presentations, the selected participants may be asked to aid in the installation of the object to be exhibited. This also applies to tear-down afterwards.
- The selected entrants should submit copyright-free materials that can be used in the exhibition as well as for various online and offline publications.
Tijdlijn februari – juli 2025
| 17 February | Open call RA Month 2025 festival centre exhibition |
| 10 March | Open call closing date |
| 26 March | Selection announcement |
| 15 May | Exhibition set-up starts |
| 1 June | Opening RA Month |
| 1 – 29 June | Rotterdam Architecture Month |
| 1 – 4 July | Exhibition tear down |