Water Night with Shrishtee BajpaiWater Night with Shrishtee Bajpai

Water issues including drought, flooding, lack of drinking water, declining biodiversity, and social inequality, pose significant global challenges. To address these issues, Water Night, Shrishtee Bajpai, will discuss her involvement in the Rights of Rivers South Asia movement that focus on the rights of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and we explore systemic alternatives for social justice and the rights of nature alongside conversations with stakeholders from the Netherlands and around the world to discuss possible ways to restore our relationship with nature and foster healthy, inclusive, and resilient cities and societies.

• Keynote presentation by Shrishtee Bajpai
• Conversation with Shrishtee Bajpai, Taneha K. Bacchin and Ziega van den Berk. This conversation is moderated by Saskia van Stein (director IABR).

Shrishtee Bajpai is a researcher, writer, and activist working on themes of environmental justice, systemic alternatives, Indigenous knowledge systems, more-than-human governance, and rights of nature. She is a member of the environmental action group Kalpavriksh in India. She is also part of networks such as Vikalp Sangam, Global Tapestry of Alternatives and Global Alliance for the rights of nature.

Taneha K. Bacchin is an architect, urban designer and researcher specialised in the integration of landscape architecture and territorial (water) ecology in urban design. She is Assistant Professor Urban Design Theory and Methods and Coordinator of Research Section of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology. In her projects and teaching, she investigates the nexus between space, ecology, culture, and politics in the design and planning of critical and highly dynamic landscapes. Her current work focuses on environmental fragility, extreme weather and resource scarcity in relation to processes of de-territorialization and re-territorialization, with projects in the North Sea, the Arctic, Brazil and India.

Ziega van den Berk graduated cum laude from the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam with her project: 'The Doggersland the nursery of the North Sea', a wind farm in which she approached the task from the existing landscape and marine life. She won with this project the 1st prize for the Archiprix of 2021 and the NVTL talent award 2022. She is part of the Embassy of the North Sea where, with a multidisciplinary team, she researches the human and more-than-human voices and interests surrounding the development of offshore wind farms. She is also part of the Wetenschappelijk Klankbord Commissie for developments around the North Sea and has been working as a landscape architect at MUST since 2013.

Prior to the evening programme Water Night, the day programme Water Day will take place. For more information about this closing event, please visit the website of IABR: website.

Water Day and Water Night is part of the closing event of Rotterdam Architecture Month organized together with IABR and Nieuwe Instituut. With tours, workshops and lectures, this progamme highlights urban, architectural, social, ecological and geological aspects of designing with water.

Rotterdam Architecture Month is the biggest architecture festival of the Netherlands about the future of the city. The floating festival heart in Maashaven is open for the public the whole month of June.

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) is the biennial international event on architecture and urbanism with a focus on the major challenges that the climate crisis and growing social inequality pose to designers and architects.