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 is currently enrolled in two postgraduates programs: the second year of DAAS at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm, and Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at the KU in Leuven. 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.
unbuilding
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
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
2021 - 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
2022 - 'KKH Studio'
Berlin - residency (DE)
2022 - ‘IN MOTION’
SEART group at Ellipsen in Sergels Torg, Stockholm - exhibition (SE)
2021 - ‘PERMEANCE’
Rundgång, Royal Institute of Art (KKH), Stockholm - exhibition (SE)
Dutch Design Week 2021, Eindhoven - exhibition (NL)
Casa Punto Croce, Venice - residency & exhibition (IT)
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
2021 - ‘PERMEANCE’
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
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© Steffie de Gaetano 2021