Designing the SocialDesigning the Social

In the 1920s, a group of idealists laid the foundations for De Ploeg, a weaving mill in the agricultural colony of  Best, Brabant. Some were inspired by religion, others by socialism, anarchism or pacifism; or even a mixture of them all. 

Since the first one opened in Amsterdam at the end of the 19th century, the community centre has assumed various forms and names.  The designs reveal how architects sought specific spatial solutions in order to combine various social functions.

The fundamental right to affordable housing is under pressure worldwide. In addition to squatting communities' tactics of collective resistance, the focus is on other groups fighting in their own way for affordable and non-normative forms of housing.

For a long time, the (his)story of architecture, urban planning and design seemed to be a matter for white men. Other voices, such as those of women ‘herstories’ remained grossly underexposed. During the second feminist wave (1968-89) countless networks and initiatives had formed in the Netherlands that fought this distorted image.