Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime? Revisiting The Any Conferences (1991-2000)

In this lecture, Cathelijne Nuijsink offers a critical reassessment of the Any Conferences series (1991–2000), an ambitious and itinerant initiative that sought to broaden access to architectural discourse through the promise to include “anyone,” go “anywhere,” and speak “anytime.” Nuijsink explores how the series’ cross-cultural and multidisciplinary ambitions reshaped the production and circulation of architectural theory in the 1990s. At the same time, she interrogates the tensions between the conferences’ rhetoric of openness and the conceptual looseness embedded in their thematic framing under the umbrella of “any.” The lecture reflects on both the possibilities and limitations of this model and considers its implications for contemporary forms of architectural knowledge exchange today. The event will feature responses by Nazli Tümerdem and Oxana Gourinovitch, a research opportunity pitch by Jean Souviron and an apéro.