2021

Jacoba van Beierenlaan was my first home in the Netherlands. I designed and curated an exhibition about this student housing complex to show lessons about living together in a place often dismissed for its messiness and drunkenness. Through photographs from residents of different generations and analytical drawings from an international drawing competition I organised, the exhibition explored how groups of 16-18 students self organise, share resources, and maintain communities.

Built in 1966 in Delft, Jacoba van Beierenlaan was one of the first large scale student complexes in the Netherlands, with a strong communal programme. Each flat shares a kitchen, common room, bar area, showers, and laundry space. The water surrounding the complex holds a graveyard of objects, from broken furniture to shopping carts, skateboards, and beer bottles. In the summer, the staircases are taken over by DJ sets, inflatable swimming pools and BBQs creating a continuous daytime festival.

Watch a video of JVB Expo

As a resident, I followed these communities for two years. Beneath the parties, I observed a remarkable ability to self organise, significant degree of cohesion, collective decision making and collective management of shared resources. The project became a beautiful collaboration with residents of different generations, students who contributed drawings, and partners such as the housing association, the municipality, university researchers, and funding bodies.