A digital creation by ©Creative Desk, tested on curiosity and strong wifi
In Rotterdam South, a century-old monastery is being reborn. Once a cloistered school, the building on the Putselaan is turning into a hub where residents, students, artists, and researchers work side by side on the future of their neighbourhood. From climate-adaptation workshops to classes co-taught by local cooperatives, it’s a place where community and knowledge collide. At the heart of this initiative are three women: Amanda Brandellero, Academic Lead and Principal Investigator; Janna Michael, who leads the research and co-develops educational activities with Amanda; and Frauke Timmermans, responsible for finance and organisation. Together, they shape Cultuur & Campus Putselaan, one of only six European Lighthouse Projects of the New European Bauhaus—the EU’s effort to make the green transition not just sustainable, but also inclusive and beautiful.
Why Here, Why Now
Rotterdam South is one of the most diverse districts in the Netherlands, and one of the most fragile. Unemployment, health inequalities, and housing pressures stack up here in sharper relief than across the river. For the European Commission, that makes Zuid the right place to build towards what the future of sustainable, inclusive cities could look like.
Amanda puts it simply: “Today’s challenges are too complex for any one group to solve. We need heads, hearts, and hands together. That means universities and artists, but also residents, cooperatives, and schools. Transdisciplinarity isn’t just about disciplines, it’s about people.”
What It Stands For
So what does that mean in practice? Step inside, and the dream is tangible. A child from the neighbourhood learns about plants next to a university student. A cooperative from Afrikaanderwijk helps co-design a minor at Erasmus. An artist stages a performance that sparks debate about gentrification.
“This is not just a building,” says Janna. “It’s a hub for mutual learning where something new emerges—insights that would never exist if everyone stayed in their own lane.” The building itself reinforces that message. Its renovation is ecological—gas-free, using recycled materials—while the historic façade remains. Amanda adds: “Sustainability is visible in the bricks. But it’s also about sustaining relationships. If we don’t build trust with the neighbourhood, we’ll be just another project that came and went.”
How it works
That trust is built through coalition. Erasmus University works alongside Codarts, Willem de Kooning Academy, Hogeschool Rotterdam, the municipality, and local groups such as the Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative. It’s a patchwork of institutions and neighbourhood initiatives that together weave the fabric of the campus.
“We’ve secured funding until 2031, which is essential,” says Frauke. “But more important is how we got here. Listening is 80% of the work. Innovation means different things to different partners. For one it’s reinventing the wheel; for another it’s just small adjustments. If you don’t take the time to align those meanings, you lose trust before you’ve even started.” Janna agrees but adds a caution: “Three years of funding is very short to build trust and real communities. We’re fortunate to continue until 2031, but even then the challenge is how to make relationships last beyond projects.”
Already, that philosophy is shaping new forms of education: sustainable crafts workshops open to all, lifelong learning programmes, and a climate-adaptation dashboard co-created with residents. “It’s about recognising expertise that usually goes unheard,” Janna explains. “The mother who knows which streets flood first, the teenager who makes music in the park—all of that is knowledge.”
Full Professor of Culture and Sustainability at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Amanda explores how crafts, creativity, and cultural economies can drive regenerative urban development and inclusive, future-proof societies.
Assistant Professor of Urban Cultures and Sustainability at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Janna studies how everyday practices shape social transitions, revealing the human dimension behind sustainability and inequality.
As Project Manager at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Frauke builds bridges between research, policy, and society, coordinating major initiatives like Cultuur & Campus Putselaan and regional innovation partnerships.
The Hardest Value
But ambition also meets resistance. If “beautiful” and “sustainable” are challenging, “inclusive” is hardest of all. “It’s tempting to want to be everything for everybody,” Frauke admits. “But you can’t. What we can do is keep our doors open, offer a coherent programme, and accept that not every activity will suit everyone. That’s okay.”
Residents are right to be cautious. Many have seen projects come and go. Janna acknowledges the risk: “There’s a danger of being perceived as an experiment on people’s lives. We want to avoid that at all costs. Inclusion means not just inviting people in, but being willing to change ourselves.”
Sometimes, that willingness takes surprising forms. Last year, the campus staged Issue Wrestling: The Dark Side of Placemaking, a theatrical wrestling event conceived by artist Natasha Taylor and organised together with the Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative, where performers and residents grappled—literally—with questions of gentrification. Playful, messy, and deeply serious, it turned abstract policy debates into lived experience.
European Lighthouse
What happens here resonates far beyond Rotterdam.
As one of six New European Bauhaus Lighthouse Projects, Cultuur & Campus Putselaan is closely watched in Brussels. “We’re expected to build a legacy,” Amanda explains. “This isn’t just about Rotterdam—it’s about showing how sustainability, inclusion, and beauty can reinforce each other in practice.”
While other Lighthouse Projects focus on temporary design or art interventions, Putselaan is building a long-term hub. “Three years of funding is not enough to transform a neighbourhood,” Frauke says. “That’s
why securing support until 2031 matters so much.
It shows residents we’re not just a passing project.”
Dreaming Forward
So what does the future hold? Amanda imagines open lectures where residents and students sit side by side, credited equally for their contributions. Janna hopes bureaucratic rules will bend so a neighbourhood entrepreneur can co-teach a class. Frauke sees children playing in the monastery garden, proud that this place belongs to them.
“This building has stood for a hundred years,” Amanda reflects. “Our responsibility is to make sure it stands for the next hundred—not just in bricks, but in the community it houses. If we succeed, the Putselaan will be living proof that sustainability, inclusion, and beauty aren’t competing values. They are what makes a city resilient.”
A digital creation by ©Creative Desk, tested on curiosity and strong wifi