Sidelined

It’s coming home! Following its premiere as the official contribution to the Venice 2025 Architecture Biennale, SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness opens in Rotterdam – the very city it was developed in. Curated by Amanda Pinatih and centring on the work of social designer Gabriel Fontana, SIDELINED transforms the Deck of the Nieuwe Instituut into an alternative sports bar – a space to play, question and belong.

How can architecture resist exclusionary social norms? And how can the way we design spaces encourage different ways of living and being together? SIDELINED explores these questions through the lens of sport, a phenomenon that both reflects and shapes the social dynamics of our society. While stadiums, sports fields and sports bars can foster unity and group identity, they can also lead to division and exclusion.

In SIDELINED, visitors enter an alternative sports bar built on the principles of fluidity, connection, togetherness and experimentation. At its heart is the work of social designer Gabriel Fontana, whose alternative team sports reflect on the social dynamics that shape our shared public spaces — and how those spaces influence us and our behaviour. By breaking open traditional norms and rigid social structures, and embracing diversity, empathy and solidarity, SIDELINED rewrites the rules of the game.

While SIDELINED is on display, you will be able to try out the alternative sports developed by Gabriel Fontana with your friends, your sports team, your school class, or others. More information will follow soon.