Kick-off Co/Lab: Silent wisdom as a foundation for tomorrow

Sustainability in monumental buildings can sometimes seem to encounter a tension: between preservation and adaptation, between comfort and character. Yet these buildings contain a wealth of knowledge, from intelligent design principles to circular logics and rituals that have worked for centuries. In this Co/Lab, we revalue that knowledge and translate it into practical steps towards comfort, health and energy savings. Not through more technology, but by better understanding what is already there.

Rosalie Apituley and Tessa Steenkamp work together as a complementary duo. With their different areas of expertise – from artistic and social design to spatial and technical design – they bring together two perspectives that strengthen one another. In the coming months, they will delve into the silent wisdom of heritage to translate it into new insights, applications and imaginations that can support monument owners and users.

Below, the RCE and designers Rosalie Apituley and Tessa Steenkamp share their expectations and hopes for this Co/Lab.

Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands:

In this new Co/Lab, a different perspective takes centre stage: not the technology, but the lived use of a monument. Based on the research question ‘What if sustainability starts with stories, not solutions?’, the team explores how the stories and silent knowledge embedded in monuments can contribute to comfortable, healthy and energy-aware living. The Co/Lab is an experiment in which designers develop a concept that invites residents to listen more closely to their building. The final outcome could take any form: from a podcast to a campaign, training or game.

The call proved exceptionally popular: 71 design studios applied, from both the Netherlands and abroad. After a careful selection process, the combined proposal by Rosalie Apituley and Tessa Steenkamp of Bits of Space was chosen. During the kick-off, they were immersed in the world of the Cultural Heritage Agency. The group included various representatives from the Heritage & Sustainability programme, architecture historians and building experts. The day ended energetically under the designers’ guidance. Wanting to understand who they were working with, they invited the RCE team to take a position on several statements. Who are the realists, and who are the romantics? This offered playful and valuable insights into living behaviours, comfort preferences and visions on sustainability.

The Co/Lab kick-off took place on Wednesday 26 November, so the journey has now begun.

Rosalie Apituley:

For Rosalie Apituley, the call for this Co/Lab immediately aligned with her practice. Themes such as ancient wisdom, energy-aware building and moving with the seasons come together in her ongoing research project It Giet Oan!. In this work, she explores what our society might look like if we once again attuned our energy use to sun, wind and seasonal logic – by ice-skating in summer. The central question of this Co/Lab feels like a natural deepening of that work: connecting historical rituals and heritage knowledge with contemporary design and sustainability challenges.

Rosalie sees her collaboration with Tessa Steenkamp of Bits of Space as a major strength. Their practices overlap in themes and design principles, while their specialisms complement one another. Tessa contributes technical and socio-spatial expertise; Rosalie brings artistic research, storytelling and social design. “I am looking forward to exploring this case with curiosity and an open mind together with Tessa,” she says.

In recent years, Rosalie has worked on projects that reveal how culture, behaviour and energy are intertwined. With It Giet Oan! she turned a speculative scenario into an urgent research project, supported by network operator Alliander and presented at Dutch Design Week. Commissioned by the municipality of Deventer, she developed an insulation competition, Wie bouwt de heetste keet?, in which she helped residents of Bathmen understand the power of insulation through a playful participatory project. In her work she investigates how we can revalue old logics – such as living with the rhythm of seasons and scarcity – in a time dominated by comfort, abundance and speed.

Within this Co/Lab, Rosalie looks forward to immersing herself in the world of monuments and the expertise of the RCE. She appreciates the combination of a clear framework and ample creative freedom. “It is reassuring that the path is outlined, yet still open enough for us to shape it in our own way.”

Rosalie sees the power of design as a key element in the energy transition: not only as technological innovation, but equally as social innovation. Behavioural change begins with imagination – with showing possible and stimulating futures, and making new rhythms, choices and rituals accessible. According to her, social design offers both insight and agency, inviting people to look, think and act differently. Designers, she says, can open doors that are sometimes closed to institutions.

Bits of Space:

For Tessa Steenkamp, from Bits of Space, this Co/Lab closely aligns with the core of her studio Bits of Space: shaping the relationships between people, places and technology. She believes that in social challenges all these elements must be addressed in order to enable sustainable change. That is precisely why the theme of this Co/Lab resonates with her. The energy transition often focuses on technological efficiency, but as Jevons Paradox shows, this can unintentionally lead to increased consumption. By looking at monuments through a socio-spatial lens, Bits of Space aims to explore how the spatial design and social use of old buildings once worked together to support sustainability and energy efficiency. She is curious whether silent wisdom is embedded in these buildings that could play a more prominent role in today’s energy transition.

Over the past two years, Tessa has worked on Inkijkjes in de Energietransitie, a series of installations in Amsterdam-Noord that brings the invisible infrastructure of heat and electricity back into public space. The neighbourhood of Buiksloterham is a natural gas-free testing ground, yet many of the innovative energy systems remain hidden beneath pavements and behind façades. By making these systems visible through viewing tubes, animations and painted interventions on the street, space is created for conversation, curiosity and recognition. The project allows residents to experience how new energy systems work and teaches passers-by how to ‘read’ energy-efficient buildings.

Within this Co/Lab, Tessa looks forward to collaborating with the Cultural Heritage Agency. Their expertise in the stories, logics and design principles embedded in monuments provides a rich foundation for designing new, experiential forms. She hopes to explore how generations of old wisdom can be reactivated to make sustainable choices concrete, comprehensible and tangible.

She also sees the collaboration with Rosalie Apituley as a valuable addition. Both share the ambition to make our interaction with energy more tangible. They come from different design disciplines and reference frameworks: Rosalie is trained as a critical artist, and Tessa as a designer with a technical background. This difference, she believes, creates opportunities to enrich one another and develop new perspectives together.

For Tessa, the power of design lies in sketching and stretching our collective imagination. The energy transition affects many groups: residents, building owners, policymakers, installers, energy companies and others. In this diversity of voices, a shared vision of the future is essential. Design can help make that vision clear and inviting, and build bridges between perspectives that might otherwise move past one another.