about HoA
Spitalfields; where the east end meets the city of London has for centuries been a site of friction for the tectonic forces of capital and human life, a historic site of organising and people trying new things. In amongst this history sits
25 Princelet St, a large and beautiful Huguenot house built in 1705 that for the past 40 years has held an extraordinary story.
In 1980 Annetta Pedretti came to live in the house, inhabiting it as a space for her experimental way of learning and organising community resistance. Annetta’s special area of interest and exploration was cybernetics, the study of self-regulating systems. Annetta was working with cybernetics in her beekeeping, publishing, art-making, political activism and day-to-day conversation.
In 1980 Annetta Pedretti came to live in the house, inhabiting it as a space for her experimental way of learning and organising community resistance. Annetta’s special area of interest and exploration was cybernetics, the study of self-regulating systems. Annetta was working with cybernetics in her beekeeping, publishing, art-making, political activism and day-to-day conversation.
At her death in 2018, Annetta’s house was gifted by her family to the Edith Maryon Foundation in Switzerland who appointed the architectural collective Assemble to develop a future for the semi-renovated building. Assemble initiated the project House of Annetta to develop a centre for research, arts and solidarity work towards transformative systems change.
Today the house is continuing the threads Annetta wove, exploring approaches and ideas for the ways we reproduce the world through our daily lives.
House of Annetta aims to benefit individuals, groups, and organisations committed to spatial justice for all, especially those negatively impacted by systemic inequalities - for example by class and/or race. This includes communities fighting for access to housing, or public space, those negatively affected by the financialisation of land and property; as well as organisers, artists, activists, researchers and educators creating life-affirming work.
Our aim is to provide affordable access to space, resources, and platforms - for connection, building knowledges and taking action. We work on imaginaries and practical organisation.
who’s involved
At her death in 2018, Annetta’s house was gifted by her family to the Edith Maryon Foundation in Switzerland who appointed the architectural collective Assemble to develop a future for the semi-renovated building. Assemble initiated the project House of Annetta to develop a centre for research, arts and solidarity work towards transformative systems change.
Today the house is continuing the threads Annetta wove, exploring approaches and ideas for the ways we reproduce the world through our daily lives.
House of Annetta aims to benefit individuals, groups, and organisations committed to spatial justice for all, especially those negatively impacted by systemic inequalities - for example by class and/or race. This includes communities fighting for access to housing, or public space, those negatively affected by the financialisation of land and property; as well as organisers, artists, activists, researchers and educators creating life-affirming work. Our aim is to provide affordable access to space, resources, and platforms - for connection, building knowledges and taking action. We work on imaginaries and practical organisation.
Today the house is continuing the threads Annetta wove, exploring approaches and ideas for the ways we reproduce the world through our daily lives.
House of Annetta aims to benefit individuals, groups, and organisations committed to spatial justice for all, especially those negatively impacted by systemic inequalities - for example by class and/or race. This includes communities fighting for access to housing, or public space, those negatively affected by the financialisation of land and property; as well as organisers, artists, activists, researchers and educators creating life-affirming work. Our aim is to provide affordable access to space, resources, and platforms - for connection, building knowledges and taking action. We work on imaginaries and practical organisation.
who’s involved
ab__
An action research network, members of which are leading on the operation and stewardship of the house.wyo
assemble
Assemble is a multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art. Founded in 2010, Assemble has delivered a diverse and award-winning body of work, retaining a democratic and co-operative working method that enables built, social and research based work at a variety of scales.
Annetta Pedretti
Annetta used the house to create a powerful collection of theoretical, architectural and artistic projects. Stewards of the house did not know her in her lifetime but are developing the project in response to our ongoing learning from her work.
edith maryon foundation
This is the first UK project by SEM. the nonprofit foundation sees its mission as removing, in dialogue with owners and users, land and properties from the stream of commerce and inheritance in such a way that they are no longer objects of speculation but instead made available,permanently but flexibly, to new projects that serve society. in each of their projects - of which there are over 100, the primarygoal in each case is to enduringly secure socially responsible places of residence and work. the foundation strives to a create a situation of
transparency in regard to questions of land use, and is committed to high-density and mixed-use development, to biodynamic agriculture, and to green building methods.
to find out more, use the space or be involved please get in touch