Speaker
Description
Title
A Community Out of the Box: Understanding Flexibility and Justice through Self-organised Housing in the Netherlands
Introduction
The concept of flexibility, generally associated with the customisation of dwellings, has shifted to a more restrictive meaning, particularly in the context of housing emergencies. Temporary, mobile, modular, containerised, and prefab have become synonyms with flexible. In the Netherlands, flexwoningen (flexible housing) are primarily designed to accommodate migrant workers and are often characterised by containerised and temporary nature. These housing solutions, driven by efficiency criteria, allow employment agencies to exert control over workers’ lives, regulating behaviour through inspections and warnings, while organizing shifts and transportation via algorithms. These practices reveal the oppressive nature of workers’ housing, where hyper-rationalised layouts amplify workers’ stress. The study examines the Roma community at De Witte Plas campsite, North Brabant, as an emblematic case of self-designed housing, which subverts corporate planning models in the Rotterdam- Venlo logistics corridor.
Sustained Thesis
The thesis explores the Roma community’s practices within broader theoretical debates on flexible housing and spatial justice emphasising their relevance to reimagine contemporary urban forms. Through practices such as self-planning, recycling and sourcing building materials, and negotiating labour conditions, the community challenges rigid models of workers’ housing imposed by agencies, actively reshaping the logistical systems that govern their lives. The community embodies Adrian Forty’s concept of ‘flexibility as a political tactic,’ where architectural flexibility becomes a means of resisting the capitalist control of space, enabling emancipatory forms of living. Rejecting the compartmentalisation of life into rigid functions typical of flexwoningen designed to optimise profit and control labour, the community’s approach shows how workers’ housing can be reconfigured into adaptable, circular, ecological, and participatory frameworks that serve the inhabitants’ needs.
Outcomes and Conclusions
The findings show the Roma community’s ability to negotiate autonomy within global logistics and racialized labour systems, offering a tangible example of marginalised groups asserting control over their living conditions and proposing urban planning frameworks centred on community agency, flexibility, ecology and justice.
References
Forty, A. (2000) Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson.
Buitelaar, E. (2020) Maximaal, Gelijk, Voldoende, Vrij: Vier perspectieven op de rechtvaardige stad [Maximum, Equal, Sufficient, Free: Four Perspectives on the Just City]. The Hague: Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving.
Lyster, C. (2016) Learning from Logistics: How Networks Change Our Cities. Basel and Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Moroni, S. (2019) ‘The just city. Three background issues: Institutional justice and spatial justice, social justice and distributive justice, concept of justice and conceptions of justice’, Planning Theory, 19(3), pp. 251–267.
Scalbert, I. (2011) ‘The Architect as Bricoleur’, Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge, (04), July.
Toscano, A. (2014) ‘Lineaments of the Logistical State’, Viewpoint Magazine, Issue 4.
| Keywords | flexibility; spatial justice; self-design; workers’ housing |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
