Transferring Otherwise: Building Feminist Knowledge in Architecture

The Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Dutch museum for architecture, design, and digital cultures, is actively working to bring overlooked actors and forgotten stories into the discourse. The focus is on examining the role archives play in shaping urban history and challenging institutional memory and dominant historiography. Since 2020, the Collecting Otherwise project has aimed to reveal and expand understanding of the National Collection of Architecture and Urban Planning in relation to contemporary societal issues. This collaborative effort, including the Cherchez la femme! project (2021-2023), explores how these initiatives have reshaped institutional practices in archiving, collecting, and curating. By engaging with unacknowledged agents, the process has led to new heritage practices and informed collection decisions. This paper discusses the implications of these choices from various perspectives in the archival process—curator, researcher, activist, and donor. Rather than viewing heritage as a neutral legacy, the approach highlights new forms of knowledge production and transfer during and beyond the archival process, presenting new forms of collecting, producing, and transferring knowledge during, meanwhile and after the process of archival collection starts.