Spring Onion Atelier Co-founder Jammy Zhu Speaks at CreativeMornings Rotterdam: “Nomad”
Rotterdam, August 30, 2025 —
This August, Jammy Zhu, co-founder of Spring Onion Atelier, was invited as the featured speaker at CreativeMornings Rotterdam, where she shared her reflections on the theme “Nomad.”
In her talk, Jammy deconstructed the concept of nomadism beyond the romanticized image of mobility and freedom, exploring it instead through three intertwined lenses — space, time, and identity. She described the nomad as an evolving condition that moves not only across geography, but also through personal histories, cultural identities, and even artistic expression.
Redefine Nomadism
“Nomadism,” Jammy reflected, “is not just about movement — it’s about exchange. It’s about how we inhabit a place, what we bring with us, and what we leave behind.”
Through three projects, Jammy illustrated how the idea of the nomad manifests across formats — from fiction to installation to participatory workshops:
1. Urban Nomad Farm — Fiction as Expression
A speculative design imagining a mobile farm that travels through the city like a London bus, creating temporary interfaces with the urban landscape. The project positions the nomad as independent yet interconnected, symbolizing the exchange of resources, energy, and stories between individuals and their surroundings.
2. Follow the Smell — Installation as Expression
A public installation created for RAUM Utrecht, this project uses spices and herbs as metaphors for the values and memories that migrants bring to new places. Much like the Urban Nomad Farm, it celebrates how movement and migration enrich local societies through sensory and cultural contributions.
🔗 Explore the project →
3. Migrating Flavours — Workshop as Expression
A series of community-based workshops under the umbrella of Next Stop, Chinatown, part of Rotterdam’s Chinatown transformation initiative. These workshops blend urban design and social dialogue, inviting participants to explore belonging, identity, and shared futures through the language of food.
🔗 Learn more →
Jammy’s talk resonated widely with the audience, sparking thoughtful conversations about identity, belonging, public infrastructure, and the politics embedded in everyday spaces — themes she has previously explored in her writing “Toilet is Politics.”
By framing nomadism as both a personal and collective condition, Jammy invited listeners to rethink what it means to belong, to move, and to contribute to the evolving fabric of urban life.
🎥 Watch the full talk on CreativeMornings →
Heated Discussion
Creative Mornings