Designing the SocialDesigning the Social

Since the first one opened in Amsterdam at the end of the 19th century, the community centre has assumed various forms and names.  Its founder, the housing association  Ons Huis, ideally hoped to emancipate the emerging working class. With lectures, classes, clubs and a reading room, it functioned as a place for relaxation and education. Similar places soon sprang up in other neighbourhoods and cities.

The State Archives for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning contains countless examples, both from those early years and from later periods. The designs reveal how architects sought specific spatial solutions in order to combine various social functions. Over time, the buildings had to meet new forms of communal use and different social priorities. The community centres designed by architect Frank van  Klingeren, for example, reflect the ideal of collectivity that typified the spirit of the 1970s. 

The community centre has continued to adapt and remains as important today as it was in its early years. In addition to its recreational and educational programmes, it is also regularly a focus for neighbourhood protests and social action. It is a place where people who have recently fled their homeland and those who have lived in the neighbourhood for a long time meet, and where,  even  while society becomes increasingly individualised,  the practical work of community building is done. The physical public space of the community centre is a stage for meeting and exchange. Despite significant budget cuts in recent decades, community centres continue to play a role as catalysts for social change.

The archival material used for this exhbition can be consulted in the archives of Van Klingeren, who designed three projects relevant for the exhbition: Agora in Dronten (later called 'De Meerpaal'), Agora in Leleystad and 't Karregaat in Eindhoven. You can consult these materials yourself, in the Collection's search portal.

Concept, research and design: Uta Eisenreich, Johanna Himmelsbach