Project title

As It Appears

Research question

How can the surtout de table serve as a medium to explore and question the structural foundations, aesthetics, and origin stories of contemporary institutions within their architectural contexts?

Project description

Cecilia Hendrikx’s research explores the relationship between architecture and the institutions it houses. Through the creation of a series of surtout de tables, she examines how architectural design both reflects and shapes the social, historical, and organisational dynamics within an institution.

By engaging with the community of fellows, staff, and facilitators, she seeks to uncover how the built environment influences institutional roles within the broader, evolving context of societal expectations. Her focus centres on the spaces we inhabit and their immediate surroundings, where appearances often veil more complex, underlying meanings.

Hendrikx aims to uncover how the moral values of the era in which these spaces were constructed are reflected visually, exploring the principles that shaped those environments at the time. She also investigates how shifting zeitgeists can alter or enhance our contemporary perceptions of these environments. The vantage point of this research is the architectural setting of the KNAW–NIAS community.

Her methodology integrates practical, theoretical, and phenomenological research, with each component continuously informing and shaping the other throughout the research process.

Selected publications

projects/events

  • 2024–2025 Souvenir, House Of Parliament The Hague (in progress)
  • 2022-2024 SHIFT, residency at House van Gelderen, assigned by Stadbouwmeester Enschede & HDK Asssociation

Exhibitions design (scenography)

  • 2024-2025 Bestemming bereikt, Archeon Alphen a.d. Rijn
  • 2024 Knights of the Golden Fleece- a myth unraveled, Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen

Exhibited works

  • 2020 Arti & Amicitiae, Amsterdam NL, Galvanize
  • 2019 Impossible Journeys, travelling group exhibition in Russia, The Netherlands and Iran

Selected Lectures & Workshops

  • 2024 Academy of Architecture, Groningen Wearable architecture(workshop & lecture)
  • 2023 Reinwardt Academy Greetings to Father catich (workshop & lecture)

Projects on location (with collective Pink Pont Express)

  • 2024 Vermiljoen, performance i.s.m. VHDG Leeuwarden
  • 2018/2022 De Tijden, Urk/Texel, NL lopend onderzoek naar de gevolgen van de Brexit voor de vissersgemeenschap op Urk en Texel

Publicity

  • 2023 Mr Motley / podcast
  • 2023 To own and to Understand, AHK publication

Photo of a concept of a surtout de table in Cecilia Hendrikx studio