Home-Made Modernity
Planned space vs lived reality
A.W.A.M.A. Bruins Slot (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
E.P.N. Schreurs – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
This thesis explores how the doorzonwoning, a Dutch post-war housing type, was transformed by its residents over time. In the years following World War II, the Netherlands faced a severe housing crisis. In response, the government launched a large-scale effort to provide efficient, affordable homes using new techniques such as system building and prefabrication. Using Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, this research challenges the traditional divide between planned and lived space, and reframes the inhabitant as an active cocreator of architecture. Through a case study in Amerongen, the thesis investigates how residents adapted and transformed their homes over time. Drawing from archival records and personal testimonies, it reveals how negotiated modifications, from dormers to kitchen extensions, blurred the line between government planning and personal appropriation. Ultimately, the thesis argues that the doorzonwoning is not only a product of its time but also a dynamic, living architectural form that has remained relevant precisely because of its capacity to change.