Hello, and welcome!

You are reading the first edition of Bnieuws of the coming academic year. We are the independent periodical of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, or, Bouwkunde. As a periodical, we publish a thematic booklet once a month, and aim to be a platform upon which all people related to the faculty can find their voice and let it be heard by the rest of our community. As such, we believe Bnieuws to be a kind of bridge connecting disparate parts of our faculty. This allows you to have insight into what the other corner of our building is busy with as well as letting us know what you’re up to! And so, we also work together with student associations such as Stylos, BouT, Argus, Polis, (and the many others), as well as the Berlage, and other Public Programme organisers to bring to you a small taste of the large, and at times, disconnected group of people that passionately devote themselves to the workings of this intricate machine we call BK.

The theme of this particular edition is a bit of a puzzle, because it is actually a collection of works that are being republished. Unfortunately, due to corona, the previous three editions could not be printed hard-copy. However! Today we are once again able to print, and decorate the faculty with our collective knowledge and insights. And so, it is with great joy that we are able to present to you the efforts of many talented people from the editions of March: Exodus, May: Home, and June: Fiction. In this curated edition you will find the crème de la crème as it were of the aforementioned editions. As such, the theme of this edition is Retrospective; it is a kind of tapestry made of the fabrics our former selves were experiencing as we entered the pandemic. Beginning with Exodus, published just as faculty closed, the notions of thresholds, departure, and abandonment are discussed. This is followed by Home, a place with which we are now all too familiar, where we took a closer look at arguably the most intimate space. And lastly, Fiction provided some respite, asking questions about the role of the unreal in the realm of the tangible.

We hope that this edition gives you an insight into what we aim to accomplish as a publication. In your hands you hold a small collection of essays, interviews, and poems written by people just like you and me. Perhaps you are studying, be it in your bachelors, or you might be in The Why Factory of the Masters programme… Maybe you’re a Berlage student, a professor, or perhaps a guest lecturer, or have some other faculty related business. You are simultaneously our target audience, as well as our author, because your voice is our voice. So, please, if you are interested in collaborating with us as a story teller, photographer, illustrator, or as the one who knows how to ask the right questions to the right people, we would love to get in touch.

We hope to hear from you, and until then, happy reading.