TIAFF 2025: Vanuit den gezichtshoek der bruikbaarheid

This film depicts a personal story of a woman who wants to change the world and to do so she seizes what she has at hand: architecture. Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891 - 1966) was the first female architect in the Netherlands. Her villas in Bergen and Richard Roland Holst's studio in Zundert are of exceptional beauty. Her work also contributed to changing the position of women within pre-war family life. In her housing projects, in the style of the Amsterdam School of architecture, she paid emphatic attention to an efficient kitchen to minimise housework. Margaret Staal-Kropholler's finely detailed architectural drawings are mesmerising. In addition, the architect speaks through her own texts. Her daughters and (great) granddaughters complement, as do three architects who have restored and renovated her housing projects.

The film will be introduced by a lecture by Janneke Bierman. Janneke is an architect and the director and owner of BiermanHenket since 2005. She is the chair of the Rietveld Schröder House Foundation and the Rietveld Schröder Archive. Janneke serves on various juries and has supervised graduates at TU Delft. Through her firm, she focuses on the restoration, transformation, and expansion of existing, often monumental buildings, as well as new constructions that align with their use and surroundings. Projects include the renovation of the Dutch Parliament complex and the renovation and sustainability upgrades of Museum Prinsenhof in Delft. BiermanHenket aims to create buildings where people can move comfortably, that encourage interaction, and leave room for adaptation.