Opening lecture Estelle Barriol (Studio ACTE)Re-sourcing: Collective Shifts Toward a Post-Extractive Building Culture | June 3
- May 20
- 2 min read
The Rotterdam Architecture Month kicks off with a lecture by Estelle Barriol, founder of architecture office Studio ACTE and designer of the Test Site Material Depot in M4H. How can we build with reused materials, experiment with low-tech architecture and explore what a circular city could look like?
In 2026, Rotterdam Architecture Month takes place in M4H, an area currently undergoing transformation from a port and industrial zone into a mixed urban district. M4H has been designated by the municipality and the Port Authority as Rotterdam’s key circular development area, where innovative manufacturing, living, and working come together. This makes it the ideal location to test the challenges of circularity on a smaller scale.
The Test Site Material Depot, designed by Studio ACTE, will function as the central hub: a place where supply and demand for materials meet, and where residents, designers, and builders connect. It reveals how many links are needed to enable reuse. At the same time, it is a place of discovery, where materials are revalued. The construction of the depot itself also demonstrates what circular building can be: flexible and composed of reused elements.
Re-sourcing: Collective Shifts Toward a Post-Extractive Building Culture
In her lecture, Estelle Barriol will reflect on the process of designing and building the Test Site Material Depot and how she explores the possibilities of circular building methods in her architecture practice. Circularity is not an individual design gesture, but a collective condition shaped through the shared production and circulation of knowledge across the entire building ecosystem. If existing know-how, crafts, and materials are properly brought together, new building cultures can emerge. The infrastructure of reuse offers an opportunity to rethink the place of resources in our cities, as well as our collective capacity to share knowledge and experiment in order to design post-extractive architectures.
Programme
19:00 – Doors open
19:30 – Welcome by moderator Evita de Roode and Barbara Luns, director of AIR
19:35 – Lecture Estelle Barriol (Studio ACTE)
20:20 – Panel discussion
20:45 – Film preview
21:00 – Drinks
About Studio ACTE
Studio ACTE was founded by Estelle Barriol in Rotterdam in 2020, which she now runs together with Fanny Bordes. Their practice is dedicated to exploring resilient, regenerative architecture, prioritising a “design and build” methodology, placing craftsmanship, geo-sourced materials, and radical reuse at the centre of its process. By focusing on low-tech solutions and 1:1 experimentation, they challenge industrial standards through hands-on research and participatory building sites. Operating across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Studio ACTE aims to transform the construction industry, producing inclusive, high-quality spaces where aesthetics and sustainability coexist through innovative material assemblies and collective action.
