Steffie de Gaetano is a dutch-italian interdisciplinary researcher currently based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Her condition of ‘inbetweenness’ predisposes her positioning as an outside-insider, a standpoint she utilizes for bridging the modern with the demodern. Her work is situated at the intersection of architecture, landscape, art, and anthropology, disciplines she critically unbuilds by uncovering the colonial entanglements and the ramifications of Modernity. After graduating in Architecture at the TU Eindhoven in 2016, she recently graduated from two postgraduates programs: Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm, and Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at the KU in Leuven. Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral research at Hasselt University, under the title 'Geologic Architecture and its Landscapes of Extraction'. Her works have been exhibited during Archiprix NL, the Dutch Design Week and by SEARTgroup.

Studio Ditch, is an artistic research practice focused on bridging environmental degradation to colonial legacies through the traces left by material flows, organic matter, and beyond-human indices.

 

The Ditch is where it all started, and where it all returns. It is my place of choice to inhabit, it is my adopted perspective upon the world. The Ditch is the drain of the leaked essence of our western inhabitation on Earth. Trickling down from cities, to industries, to agricultures, our terraforming industriousness melts down in the reckoning of the Ditch. The Ditch is where the ooze of our dreaded actions becomes exposed.

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CONTACT

degaetano.steffie[at]gmail.com

CV

EDUCATION

 

2020-ongoing - Royal Institute of Art - KKH (SE)

DAAS (Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies)

Postgraduate degree on 'Modernism and Demodernization'

Permeance Project: ongoing

 

2020-ongoing - KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (BE)

CADES (Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies)

Master thesis: ongoing

 

2014-2016 - TEChNICAl UNIvERSITy Of EINDhOvEN (Nl)

Master degree in Architecture, Building and Planning

Specialization: Architecture

Master thesis: ‘A brickyard deconstruction: the redevelopment of brickyard Elden and the Meinerswijk landscape’

Final grade: 9/10

Nomination: Archiprix Nederland

 

2011-2014 - TEChNICAl UNIvERSITy Of EINDhOvEN (Nl)

Bachelor degree in architecture, building and planning

 

2006-2011 - SECONDARy SChOOl, ‘G. MARCONI’ (IT)

Scientific lyceum diploma

Final grade: 100/100

 

 

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

 

2022 - doctoral research, UHASSELT (BE)

PhD at Factulty of Architecture and Arts, research group Arck.

‘Geologic Architecture and Landscapes of Extraction’

 

2021 - STUDIO DITCH (NL)

Founder and artistic researcher

 

2017- 2019 - AIDARCHITECTEN (BE)

Junior architect - Orde van Architecten Vlaamse Raad

 

2017 - ALFIO BARABANI ARCHITECTS (IT)

Architectural internship

 

2015- 2016 - TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF EINDHOVEN (NL)

Student-assistant academic research ‘Industrial heritage Philips, Eindhoven’

 

2014- 2016 - TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF EINDHOVEN (NL)

Student-assistant freehand-drawing

 

 

WORKSHOPS  |  courses

 

2022 - dieDAS FELLOWSHIP (DE)

‘Designing Metabolic Relations’, Design Academy Saaleck

 

2021 | 2022 - DIFFICULT HERITAGE SUMMER SCHOOL (IT)

KKH & University of Basel

 

2020 - DECOLONIAL SUMMER SCHOOL (NL)

‘The Communal, the Museum and the End of the Contemporary’

University College Roosevelt

 

2019 - ADVANCED RAMMED EARTH WORKSHOP (BE)

BC-as and Case Design

 

2019 - EARTH CONSTRUCTION WORKSHOP (BE)

Hasselt University and BC-as

 

 

competitions  |  GRANTS

 

2021 -  Architecture scholarship, Royal Institute of Art (SE)

 

2016 - fINAlIST NOMINATION fOR ARChIpRIx NEDERLAND 2017

‘A brickyard deconstruction: the redevelopment of brickyard `Elden´ and  the Meinerswijk landscape’

 

 

EXHIBITIONS  |  RESIDENCIES  |  PUBLIC PROGRAMS

 

2022 - in(UN)becoming

Kazerne, Dutch Design Week 2022, Eindhoven (exhibition)

Design Academy Saaleck (exhibition)

 

2021 - 2023 ‘permeance’

WARP #07, SEA Foundation (solo exhibition)

Dutch Design Week 2022, Eindhoven (exhibition)

‘St(r)ay’, Ground, Stockholm (residency and exhibition)

‘IN MOTION’, curated by SEART group at Superellipsen in Sergels Torg, Stockholm (exhibition)

‘St(r)ay’, KKH Studio, Berlin (residency)

Rundgång, Royal Institute of Art (KKH), Stockholm (exhibition)

Dutch Design Week 2021,, Eindhoven (exhibition)

‘St(r)ay’, Casa Punto Croce, Venice (residency & exhibition)

 

2021 | ongoing - ‘CINEFORUM’

curated film program and collective discussions, in collaboration with Silvia Susanna and Alice Pontiggia

 

2019 - ‘THE CRAFT OF COLLABORATION’

Case Design & BC materials, Brussels (BE)

 

2017 - ‘ARCHIPRIX NEDERLAND 2017’ Best Dutch graduation projects: (NL)

Award ceremony Archiprix, Koepelgevangenis Haarlem

BK-EXPO TU Delft

Plaza Vertigo TU Eindhoven

 

 

PUBLICATIONS & VIDEOS

 

2022 - ‘RE.SOURCE’

Co-Author, The Sustainable Darkroom

 

2021 | 2022 - ‘PERMEANCE’

Video essay, in collaboration with Tine There

Artistic research independent zine publication

‘Photopocene’ podcast, ep. 18 on Spotify

 

2021 - ‘WHAT DOES IT MEAN “TO DECOLONIZE”? 3: MODERNISM AND DEMODERNIZATION’

Co-Author, DAAS, KKH

 

2017 - ‘A BRICKYARD DECONSTRUCTION’

Article featured on the ‘ArchiNed’ platform and in the ‘Blauwe Kamer’ magazine

 

2017 - 'ARCHIPRIX 2017: THE BEST DUTCH GRADUATION PROJECTS’

Co-author of Archiprix Nederland 2017

 

 

ACTIVISM  |  VOLUNTEERING

 

2020 - VAN ABBEMUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART

Hostess

 

2020 - GENNEPER HOEVE, biodynamic circular farming

Volunteer

 

2019 - STUDENTS+ FOR CLIMATE EINDHOVEN

Activist