Get off that roof? Two years of the Nieuwe Instituut zoöp Get off that roof? Two years of the Nieuwe Instituut zoöp

As the festival's slogan says, 'You can go on the roof!' – but not just like that. During the breeding season of our fellow residents and users such as the oystercatcher and crow, it is better to stay off the roof, at least in the places where they nest. Together, the institute and the festival are exploring how we can organise our roof as part of Rotterdam's entire rooftop landscape in such a way that it contributes to the urban ecosystem, rather than getting in its way.

A zoöp – a 'cooperative with all life' – is an alternative organisation model where human and non-human life works closely together, ensuring that non-human voices and interests are also part of decision-making and working methods. This is how the Nieuwe Instituut contributes with small and large interventions for a more liveable world in which people maintain a balanced and sustainable relationship with animals, plants and other life forms. This is done through trial and error and as transparently as possible. With the inauguration of three other zoöps earlier in 2024, the Nieuwe Instituut zoöp is no longer the only one in the world – we can finally speak of a 'movement'!

Read more about the Nieuwe Instituut zoöp on the project page and about all things zoöp on the separate website zoöp.earth.

On that special day in spring 2022, landscape architect Maike van Stiphout put her signature (and symbolic thumbprint in soil from the New Garden) on the contract that made her Speaker for the Living. Every organisation is part of a larger ecosystem in which, besides human employees, other life is an important factor, but traditional companies make decisions based only on what is spoken by humans in boardrooms. As a result, the needs and opportunities of collaborative partners are often missing without an audible voice. If you really want to listen to all life in an organisation, you need an intermediary, observer or spokesperson: you need a Speaker for the Living.

Every organisation that applies the zoöp model appoints such an official to represent the voices of bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, among others. 'Think of an ecologist who also understands how human organisations work or a designer or management expert with a feel for ecology,' says researcher and zoöp initiator Klaas Kuitenbrouwer. 'It's no coincidence that, like Maike, the Speakers for the Living of the new zoöps at De Ceuvel and Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen are landscape architects. In their work, they are always consciously concerned with how all kinds of human and non-human factors contribute to a healthy, balanced and preferably regenerative whole.' The Speaker for the Living regularly coordinates with the board, management, and a delegation from every department and team in an organisation so that the non-human interest is always considered in its policy and operations.

'When an organisation like the Nieuwe Instituut becomes a zoöp, of course you do not immediately do everything right. Becoming a zoöp means that, from then on, step by step, process by process, you start learning how to contribute to the health of the ecosystems you are part of,' explains Kuitenbrouwer. 'If we look at the Speaker's involvement in a couple of major building and exhibition projects over the past two years, you can see the shared learning process of the institute zoöp in it. When we were working on The Podium (1 June to 17 August 2022), for example, Maike was only involved in production at a very late stage. Concerns about bats and other life using the roof as a habitat were perhaps not yet seen as anything more than an afterthought.

When the solar panels were installed at the pond for The Energy Show (3 September 2022 to 5 March 2023), the ecological awareness of the entire project team was already much greater and the noise was addressed earlier in the process. Later, the floating pavilions of Water Cities Rotterdam. By Kunlé Adeyemi (13 May to 12 November 2023) consciously and actively included the voices and interests of fish, water birds and plants in the whole development process – it was a highlight of the first year as a zoöp. Now, in the development of our contribution to the Rotterdam Rooftop Days, the Speaker for the Living has been an important partner in the discussions right from the earliest project plan.'

Flora van Gaalen, head of programme at the Nieuwe Instituut, explains: 'In the run-up to this year's Rotterdam Rooftop Days, we sought information and advice from Maike van Stiphout, our Speaker for the Living, and artist Frank Bruggeman who has been working on the ecologically-conscious management and maintenance of the New Garden since 2015.'

'As you can imagine, neither of them, in their roles, are overly enthusiastic about hosting events on the roof and constructing a temporary installation. At the same time, the Nieuwe Instituut supports the thinking behind the Rooftop Days that, free from Le Corbusier's five rules for modern architecture, you can deliberately use a roof as an outdoor space to compensate a bit for the space your building occupies and the nature that's lost in the process. "The landscape of flat roofs is," the festival organisation says, "a continuation of and complement to the busy ground level."'

Co-director Nikki Kamps of Rotterdam Rooftop Days, herself a lover of urban nature and a passionate ornithologist, adds that this view of the festival does not mean that every roof surface should be for people or serve only human interests. 'Within our vision there should be room in the roofscape, as much as on ground level, for more biodiversity in a broad sense, specifically for birds. There are many bird species in the Netherlands such as oystercatchers and various gull species, some of which depend on a breeding habitat within built-up areas. Green roofs can play a nice role in encouraging this, and in the future, this may also apply to other species you don't yet see on roofs like blackbirds and house sparrows which thrive on a combination of greenery and buildings: a biotope that is increasingly rare in the Netherlands.'

'We are obviously very excited to continue researching with partners like the Nieuwe Instituut on how to create suitable nesting habitats on roofs in many more places in the city.'

'The institute's commitment to operating as a testing ground, within which we conduct practical research into the alternative world we imagine, is mirrored in the experimentation, vigour and ingenuity of the annual rooftop festival. From their more-than-human perspective, Maike and Frank helped think about the most appropriate way to reconcile our participation in the event with our values as a zoöp. 'No non-human life should be inconvenienced by the installation or its visitors.'

'It is not just about the duration of the festival,' explains Maike van Stiphout. 'There are three phases in which you could disturb breeding birds with this event – during construction, during the festival itself with groups of visitors, and during the take-down. You have to take these into account in your design and implementation: in construction, it's often the case that work is stopped throughout between February and August because nests are found and it is forbidden by law to disturb them.'

'It is good that the plans are now looked at months in advance with a more-than-human eye so we can still adjust designs, building plans, and the content of the festival if necessary.' This is sometimes in seemingly small but important things: 'In one of the trees on Rochussenstraat, from which point objects are hoisted up to the roof, there are crows nests, so we ask the crane operator to stay away from them.'

Van Gaalen: 'We therefore agreed with Rotterdam Rooftop Days that the installation shouldn't disturb nesting birds, and we are monitoring what lives on the roof of the collection building almost weekly. For example, we search among the pebbles for oystercatchers that might be nesting, and as soon as we see a nest, we coordinate with Maike and Frank – and with Bureau Stadsnatuur who also give valuable advice.'

Co-director and initiator of Rotterdam Rooftop Days, Léon van Geest, emphasises the close relationship the festival has maintained with Bureau Stadsnatuur for years: 'The pursuit of biodiversity is in our DNA. We ask experts to advise us on breeding birds on rooftops, and to research and report on the relationship between what we do as an organisation and a healthy and balanced rooftop landscape.'

'Groups like Bureau Stadsnatuur and Vogelbescherming can tell you exactly how disturbance-sensitive a crow or a pair of oystercatchers sleeping on the roof is,' says Van Stiphout. 'But,' she adds, 'a little urban bird living next to air and heat installations on a large building needs to be able to withstand some hassle in its habitat and still feel safe enough to stay.'

This is in-line with the holistic approach that Rotterdam Rooftop Days' management has in mind. Nikki Kamps explains that, in that vision, the city's roofs should be a whole 'where public human functions should be balanced with 'green' functions.' She continues, 'Currently, a lot of roof surface is still a big patch of grey or black bitumen where no insect, bird or mammal is really comfortable. The Nieuwe Instituut roof could be a great place to combine a public with the existing 'green' function for the benefit of education on urban biodiversity and nature-inclusive architecture.'

The Nieuwe Instituut zoöp celebrate its two-year anniversary on 22 April. From 17 to 26 May 2024, O festival for opera, music and theatre joins Rotterdam Rooftop Days to present Over de Bogen , a walking concert on the roof of the monumental Hofbogen. The institute also participates in BioBlitz010 on 22 May in order to better map what is going on in and around its building. Rotterdam Rooftop Days take place on 25 and 26 May.