The End of Sitting is an installation created by RAAF (Rietveld Architecture-Art Affordances) in collaboration with Lauriergracht 60 (Soraya Notoadikusumo and Nadine Snijders), a new space for art and science in Amsterdam. The installation is created to repair one of contemporary society’s biggest problems – the health conditions generated by the fact that everything around us is created for sitting positions. The installations is a work that melts the boundaries between art, architecture, philosophy and empirical science.
© Jan Kempenaers
It consists in an experimental work environment, where users are forced to explore different standing positions instead of sitting at a desk or in a chair. The End of Sitting is a follow-up for the mute animation “Sitting Kills”, which explores the same problem. In addition to being an unconventional spatial composition, the installation proposes a new type of aesthetic for traditional workplaces, but also a new type of interacting. By changing the space, it not only aims to resolve health problems, but to create new social paradigms.
Project info:
Architects: RAAF
Country: Netherlands, Groningen
Year: 2014
Photographs: Jan Kempenaers, Ricky Rijkenberg
Lidia Ratoi is a Romanian architect, educator, and researcher, currently serving as Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture. With a background in both architectural design and theory, her work explores the intersections of technology, media, and politics in the built environment. Ratoi’s research focuses on the aesthetics of power, surveillance, and virtuality, with a strong interest in critical and speculative design. She has practiced internationally and exhibited in venues across Europe and Asia. Passionate about challenging conventional narratives, Ratoi integrates digital tools with philosophical inquiry, encouraging experimental approaches to architecture. Her contributions continue to shape emerging discourses in design and architectural pedagogy.