AFFR x Utopian Hours 2026 | Rotterdam
Till: Friday 29 May 2026
Location: GHG Rotterdam
Utopian Hours, the international festival of city making, is coming to Rotterdam – and AFFR is taking part! For two days, the Groothandelsgebouw will be the place to be for urban planners, architects, developers and other professionals in the field, offering a programme packed with keynotes, field trips, talks and films.
Building on our partnership during the last edition of Utopian Hours in Turin, AFFR will present two programmes with short films and documentaries that explore the themes of the festival, selected especially for this tenth-anniversary edition of Utopian Hours in Rotterdam:
Stories of Rising Water
Thursday 28 May, 14:30, Studio/7th floor
Water is both a threat and a blessing. The films in this programme expose the growing impact of flooding, leading to loss and displacement for communities, but also suggest practical ways of designing with rather than against rising water, within an increasingly uncertain climate. This programme is made possible in part by the Klimaat Academie Rotterdam/Municipality of Rotterdam.
With the films:
Belle River
As spring flooding in the Mississippi becomes uncontrollable, the residents of Pierre-Part face an uncertain future.
Washed Away
The Canadian government has taken a radical decision: it is demolishing homes at high risk of flooding. A family will lose their home.
Aurora – The street that wanted to be a river
Aurora is a sad and lonely street of a big city. On a rainy day, she remembers her trajectory and dreams about the future asking herself: is it possible for a street to die?
Building Visions
City and nature are sometimes seen as each other’s opposites. In this documentary, design office De Urbanisten and experts from the Natural History Museum Rotterdam and Bureau Stadsnatuur, offer another perspective: the city as a natural habitat for flora and fauna.
Unsafe by Design
Friday 29 May, 14:30, Studio/7th floor
From city streets, to nightclubs and even shared housing, the shorts in this programme expose and question the politics embedded in design, revealing how urban spaces can be spaces of exclusion and vulnerability but also of emancipation and resistance.
With the fIlms:
Once Upon Three Femisites
A virtual monument to the final spaces, Alexa Luciano, a black trans woman in Puerto Rico, visited before being murdered. Combining poetic storytelling and spatial analysis, the film exposes how physical and digital environments enable violence, urging us to confront architecture’s complicity and the urgent need to remember and resist.
4.6 KM
Six strangers set out on a 4.6 km walk through Brussels. Through their experiences, we are invited to reflect on the city as a landscape of constantly shifting visibility and question how public space influences the way we act and shapes queer lives.
Movement
Nightlife is where we choose who we want to be. Free from social pressure, the dancefloor is a space for freedom, difference and human connection. Movement is a vibrant manifesto for the power of nightlife.
The Southern Thruway
Due to the housing crisis, living with many people is often the only option. Yet in this togetherness lies the potential for something beautiful. Artist Susanna Tomassini explores the possibilities of collective living, especially the sharing of work, belongings and each other.
About Utopian Hours
Utopian Hours centres on the ideas, projects and places that are improving life in the world’s cities. For two days the festival gives voice to the protagonists of these changes: city makers and innovators share their experience, stimulating new visions and reflections on urban evolution.
Interested in attending? Read all about the programme, festival passes and more:
Images: courtesy Utopian Hours; photo GHG: Paul Starink