![\"raum-club-queer-amsterdam_2\"](\"https:\/\/www.amsterdamnow.com\/app\/uploads\/raum-club-queer-amsterdam_2.jpeg\" "\\"raum-club-queer-amsterdam_2\\"")
<\/p>\nThe two faces behind RAUM are Sven Bijma and Diego Meijers. They started in 2017 with SPIELRAUM, a queer techno party without a permanent venue. For six years they moved from location to location until they found the former bookbinder's shop on the corner of Humberweg and Basisweg in 2023. Initial talks with the municipality began as early as 2021, but a combination of noise standards and other objections pushed the opening further and further away. Finally, the doors opened in 2024. On the program for the RAUM 24HRS are Nick H\u00f6ppner, Delano Legito, Doudou MD and Polly F, among others. All of them names that carry weight in the queer and techno world.<\/p>\n
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The building has two floors. On the first floor is the maindancefloor, upstairs is the Studio. That upstairs space has something you won't soon forget: the floor still contains the original staples of the bookbinding shop. Architects Joaquin Valdes and Bram van Grinsven designed the interior explicitly around the philosophical concept of heterotopia, a term coined by thinker Michel Foucault for spaces that challenge social norms. Specifically, this means alternatives to narrow corridors, thoughtful routing, an environment that also works for people with less mainstream bodies. The sound and lighting team deliberately consists of FLINTA and queer technicians.<\/p>\n
Three times a year, a new round of the artist-in-residency program begins, for three months each time, for queer creatives from across the city.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What also sets RAUM apart from other clubs is what happens during the day. Three times a year a new round of the artist-in-residency program starts, for three months each time. Writers, designers, visual artists and researchers from the queer community are given space to work there. Each round concludes with a SPIELRAUM evening. RAUM calls itself the first officially recognized night cultural incubator of its kind in the Netherlands. That sounds big, but when you see the building and the program, it's just an accurate description.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"