Europa Nostra endorses petition with 4500 signatories from 92 countries to save the SoZa building in The Hague from imminent demolition

On 23 June, the local activist team working to save SoZa, the former Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment building in The Hague, presented a published booklet of the legally-argued petition with over 4500 signatories from 92 countries to the Dutch Government, urging that SoZa be granted National Monument status (Rijksmonument) in order to save it from imminent demolition.

The former Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SoZa) in The Hague is at risk of demolition.

✍️ Join Europa Nostra’s SG @Sneska_EN and Executive President @hparzinger in signing the petition to save this iconic Structuralist building: https://t.co/g7CJlvIKXx

— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) May 6, 2026

Europa Nostra’s Executive President Prof. Dr. Hermann Parzinger and Secretary General Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović are among the signatories of the petition to preserve SoZA, an iconic example of late-20th-century Dutch structuralist architecture designed in 1979 by Herman Hertzberger. 

 

Using innovative methods and social media, the latest phase of the Save SoZa campaign, uses a light but serious tone, visuals as well as words, humour to accompany sharp legal arguments backed by specific articles of relevant laws.

 

The BEVRIJD SOZA petition spearheaded by Dr. Ana Pereira Roders (Professor in Heritage and Values at TUDelft, and UNESCO Chair on Heritage and the Reshaping of Urban Conservation for Sustainability), and supported by Anneke de Gouw (Erfgoedvereniging Heemschut, South Holland chair), Floortje Keizer (Editor of ‘De Architect’ journal), Laurie Neale (Member of the Advisory Panel of the 7 Most Endangered Programme), and Joop ten Velde (Architect and long-time campaigner for SoZa). The petition is addressed to the Ministers of Education, Culture and Science, of Climate and Green Growth, and of Housing and Spatial Planning, and presents 10 strong arguments why SoZa should be spared and how its destruction run counter to the country’s laws, signed European and International treaties and conventions.

 

This latest petition phase of the campaign to save SoZa, started on 8 April, after the ICOMOS Netherlands lecture given by Anneke de Gouw and Dr. Ana Pereira Roders, dedicated to the future of SoZa. The building is among the fourteen cases of heritage sites at risk in Europe for 2026, which were preselected last February by the Advisory Panel of the 7 Most Endangered Programme – a key civil society initiative led by Europa Nostra. 

The lecture was also the occasion of the launch of Ana Pereira Roders’ recent book “SOZA: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Building and the Pledged Fight for His Rights” (available on Amazon and Bol.com), in which SoZa is a sentient character in the story, and the author uses irony, humour and allegory to plead the case of SOZA’s rights to not be demolished. Each chapter of the book is entitled an Article of the UN Charter of Human Rights, and sets out to argue how the destruction of our built environment profoundly affects our human rights. 

Inspired, the audience at the ICOMOS lecture engaged in a lively discussion in support of the idea of the “Rights of Buildings” introduced by Ana Pereira Roders in the face of deliberate destruction of sound and useful buildings, and in the case of SoZa, of a building that is barely 35 years of age. 

 

Inspired by the audience commitment, Ana Pereira Roders, Anneke de Gouw, Floortje Keizer and Laurie Neale decided to relaunch and make European and international a previous petition organised by the journal ‘De Architect’, where 560 signatories of mainly Dutch architects and heritage professionals, was presented to the Dutch Lower Chamber (Tweede Kamer) to plead the case to save SoZa. It was ignored and the march towards demolition continued undeterred. 

The Bevrijd SoZa petition was coupled to Ana Pereira Roders’ blog where architect and heritage experts featured with a quote and photo almost daily during the 50 days of the petition campaign. 

The Bevrid SoZa petition currently is being considered by the office of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, the person and office on whose shoulders the decision weighs to grant official and protected National Monument Status. There is a precedent when in the 1990s, the then Minister Hedy d’Ancona saved the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam by Jan Wils from an Amsterdam administration pushing for it to be demolished to make way for housing.