Designing the SocialDesigning the Social

A refugee collective squatted this office building in 2015, which was later legalised for four years through an innovative financial arrangement.

In October 2015, a section of the We Are Here refugee collective squatted an office building on a remote business park beside Amsterdam's ring road. We Are Here consisted of refugees and migrants whose application for official status in the Netherlands was initially rejected, and they could not return to their country of origin either. Consequently, they were not allowed to work or access regular housing. To highlight their plight, the group squatted an empty church building, dubbing it the Vluchtkerk (Refuge Church), in Amsterdam's Bos en Lommer neighbourhood in 2012. Since then, the group has occupied more than 50 buildings across the city.

The Vluchtmaat is the only building We Are Here squatted whose occupation was legalised shortly after. Volunteers involved with the group set up Stichting Noodzaak, a foundation to offer forms of "social management" for unoccupied buildings. The foundation signed a contract with the owner and, together with the refugee group, divided the two-storey building's largely open-plan offices into smaller spaces for the inhabitants. Creative entrepreneurs rented several spaces, and their financial contribution went to the owner to pay for utilities and insurance. In consultation with the owner, the building's occupants left the building at the end of 2019, and it has since been demolished.

Function: Housing for 40 to 50 people, office space for 13 small businesses and organisations, event space, give-away shop and monthly restaurant.