The seventh episode of Architecture City is dedicated to architect Johan Niegeman, one of the few Dutch teachers at Bauhaus who, together with Mart Stam, designed and build several social housing projects in the Soviet Union. He believed designers should always design for the most precarious citizens in society.
Niegeman attempted to design a better quality of housing for the masses that lived in poor conditions, in particular working class citizens. The University of Applied Arts in Arnhem initiated a project in 2018 based on this idea called Designing for Precarious Citizens. Three contemporary designers took on the challenge to translate Niegeman’s ideas to today’s society. Artist Giuditta Vendrame, interaction designer Klasien van de Zandschulp and speculative designer Frank Kolkman all developed an installation aimed at three completely different precarious groups.
All three designers took completely different approaches. Kolkman researched the consequences of the platform economy for social housing tenants. Van de Zandschulp considered people at home, specially in the kitchen, as a growing precarious group as a consequence of the growing automatisation of the home. And finally, Vendrame looked at the precariousness of people residing on water as an unstable ground for living conditions in relation to citizenship.
Listen to the interviews with three designers and initiator, professor of product-design and interior architecture Jeroen van den Eijnde, on the Architecture City-channel on soundcloud (below).
