From Academic to Activist in 50 days

Ana Pereira Roders

For over twenty years, I have worked towards bridging heritage and sustainability. My team and I have written about it, taught it, advised on it, served on panels, and chaired international debates. I hoped — with the patience (I do not have but) academia teaches — that ideas, evidence, and dialogue would eventually shape the world for the better, and that the gap between research and decision-making would, in time, close.

But somewhere along the way, I began to question the speed and ethics of change. The world is not waiting for peer-reviewed conclusions. Buildings are being lost faster than they can be studied. Communities are being displaced faster than they can be heard. And the value systems guiding these decisions remain deeply flawed and unjust, hidden by the best intentions.

That is why I started a second PhD last year — this time on the rights of buildings. Many considered it crazy, unsuitable for a professor, a diversion. I disagreed. SoZa was one of my main motivations. A building complex designed by Herman Hertzberger, completed in 1990, a 56,000 m² masterpiece of Dutch Structuralism — was suddenly facing demolition. Not because it was unsafe or could not be reused. But because, in the current value and legal system, demolition is acceptable. SoZa confirms that rights of buildings is not a theoretical exercise, but a real urgency.

So on 5 May 2026, I launched the international petition to save SoZa, together with Anneke, Floortje, Joop, and Laurie. Every day since, I have published one voice — architects, professors, ministers, journalists, students, neighbours — under the motto One voice a day keeps demolition away. Within fifty days, the petition reached over 4,600 signatures from more than 90 countries.

A dear colleague of mine, Dr. Irene Curulli, when she saw the petition, told me: "You have always been an activist." Maybe she is right. But I am and remain an academic, still hopeful for a better future, keen to help beyond SoZa - to help all buildings. Only, there are moments when knowledge demands action, and the last weeks were one of these moments.

This blog makes the petition booklet submitted to the House of Representatives and to the Ministers available to the public. It is currently in Dutch, but an English translation will be prepared after the summer. It's important for SoZa and our field as it presents the complete value system of all eight values to discuss heritage in its full complexity. Feel free to reach out if you want to continue this conversation.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you, Anneke, Floortje, Joop, and Laurie, for this remarkable experience!

260630_SoZa_Booklet_Final.pdf

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