Hoba Hoba Spirit from Morocco on stage Berend van der Lans visited the Festival sur le Niger in Ségou for a contribution to a conference on the architecture of Ségou in the context of the festival. The Dutch national newspaper Volkskrant included his report on their Afrikablog in Dutch . Below you will find the text in English. More images and some videos to be found via this album on Facebook. In Ségou, nowadays a somewhat sleepy town on the banks of the Niger, history still

The symposium ‘Finding Stories :: The Role of Immaterial Culture in City Planning’ that took place in the Amstelkerk (Amsterdam) on 30 January attracted more participants than expected and certainly broadened perspectives and brought new ideas to the fore when it comes to how to include intangible heritage in urban planning. Soon we will give you more feedback on the outcomes and conclusions. We are grateful for the financial support of RVO, Stimuleringsfonds and Dutch Cultur

While the hall at Pakhuis De Zwijger was almost completely full for the presentation on Hifadhi Zanzibar today, we are already preparing for the next public event: the symposium Finding Stories :: The Role of Immaterial Culture in City Planning. Also for this event the amount of registrations has exceeded our expectations and we are happy to bring together at least 19 nationalities. You can now download the full programme. In case you are still interested to join, please send

We are happy to inform you that all speakers are known and apart from the contributions from Morocco, Benin, Chad and of course Zanzibar and Amsterdam, we are proud that we can introduce Mr. Karim Hendili from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Prof. Gabri van Tussenbroek from the University of Amsterdam to you as key note lecturers. The audience is growing steadily, but it is still possible to register until 27 January. Please check the updated announcement and follow the

On 30 January 2016, AAmatters together with its partners City of Amsterdam, Government of Zanzibar and Stadsherstel Amsterdam, organises the symposium ‘Finding Stories :: the role of immaterial culture in city planning’ (photo AforA architects) It seems obvious that culture and immaterial heritage are important components for regeneration plans in cities. However, it remains a challenge to find the often hidden stories representing the culture of the existing communities and