FUNGI: Anarchist Designers
While FUNGI: Anarchist Designers is on display, the Nieuwe Instituut is organising a variety of activities. Like an underground fungal network, the project connects new and existing events, forges new partnerships and evolves over time, emerging at both expected and unexpected moments. For instance, in early 2026 both Museumnacht 010 (Rotterdam Museum Night) and the Graphic Design Fair will focus on fungi. You will be able to join a mushroom workshop or enjoy a special multi-sensory fungal experience at various Rotterdam restaurants and cafés!
Learn to identify mushrooms at the Fungi Tools workshop
Most people probably don’t get much further than the terms ‘mushroom’ and maybe ‘fly agaric,’ but with a little help, there’s a whole world of fungi to discover and identify. On Thursday 5 February and Thursday 16 April 2026, you can learn to identify various local species of mushroom under the guidance of Saskia Boer, a foraging instructor from the Outsiders collective. You will be given the tools needed to safely and responsibly harvest them ‘in the wild’ – in other words, in Rotterdam’s urban landscape. You will learn how to distinguish between edible and poisonous mushrooms based on their habitat, and the shape and colour of their stalks, caps and undersides. You will also find out how we can enjoy the fruits of the fungal world without disturbing the ecological balance. Bring a magnifying glass, notebook and photos of your favourite wild mushroom or bolete from all angles and with a visible background.
- Language: Dutch, admission: €15, start: 19:00
Special menu at the Nieuwe Café
The team at the Nieuwe Café in the Nieuwe Instituut, led by chef Manuela Gonçalves Tavares, serves up colourful, mainly plant-based and seasonal dishes. For the FUNGI specials, the team has created a mushroom soup of the week that changes regularly, as well as a Fungi Burger with a vegan patty, fried shiitake mushrooms, rocket, onion chutney, jalapeño and coriander. This is topped with creamy miso-mushroom mayonnaise and served in a brioche bun. Read more about the café.
Special menu at Bar Bocht
Bar Bocht, located on the Goudsesingel in Rotterdam, is a coffee, wine and food bar run by the team behind the neighbouring Restaurant Rotonde. The two establishments share a philosophy: “We want a world where there’s enough food for everyone, without harming animals, people or the planet.” The food is sometimes plant-based, sometimes locally grown or farmed, and often both. For its FUNGI special, Bar Bocht has created a buckwheat and flaxseed tostada with salsa verde, mushrooms and pumpkin, which can be enjoyed with a homemade kombucha or a koji-based cocktail. Koji-kin is another name for the fungus Aspergillus oryzae, which is also used in the fermentation of sake, miso and soy sauce.
A pop-up exhibition on fungi as uncontrollable designers
While the FUNGI special is available, Bar Bocht is displaying two reproductions of drawings selected for the exhibition. These architectural drawings are part of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. For a change, the pieces on display here are not being exhibited for what they teach us about human solutions to housing and urban challenges, as they would be in a traditional architecture exhibition. They were selected because they reveal evidence of a different kind of architecture.
The irregular colour spots that you can see are not ink or coloured pencil marks, but the remains of fungi that once inhabited the paper. In one drawing, a spot has become a breeding ground for a fungus – a close relative of the Aspergillus found in soy sauce and cocktails! – which has spread through the fibres of the folded sheet. There, it has created a landscape of destruction, overtaking the clean lines.
Across the surface of the other drawing, a fungus has formed a fine net of mycelium. This unintentional white haze interacts with the architect’s precise pen strokes.
