'Bouwen op woongeschiedenis:
van verzet tot vernieuwing'
/
'Building on Housing History:
From Resistance to Renewal'
2025
Exhibition
Space: Arcam, Amsterdam
Curators: Wouter Stroet (Noord), Sophia Holst/ Tayfun Balçik (Nieuw-West), Wouter Pocornie (Zuidoost, final output Arcam)
Programmation: Andreas Nikolopoulos, Arcam
Exhibition- /Graphic design: Arcam
Scenography: Dérive practice
Photography by: Maarten Nauw
Supported by: Gemeente Amsterdam, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, BPD Cultuurfonds and Arcam-sponsors
The exhibition showcases the impact of housing protests and housing policy on historical and contemporary urban renewal in Amsterdam’s North, Southeast, and New West districts. On display at Arcam throughout 2025, the exhibition connects the past and present of these three districts through historical images, (alternative) timelines, audio stories, and podcasts. Residents share personal experiences—such as in Soumeya Bazi’s audio stories about New West and Wouter Stroet’s podcast series on eco-gentrification in the North. This multifaceted material illustrates social struggles in the context of architectural transformations and encourages reflection on the relationship between housing protests, policy, and urban renewal.
The specific focus on New West was developed in collaboration with historian, journalist, and engaged local resident Tayfun Balçic and architect-researcher Sophia Holst. Together, they gathered historical and contemporary stories about Amsterdam’s transformation, tracing a route that extends from the Johan Pietbuurt in New West—where Tayfun grew up—to the home in Amsterdam’s city center where he was born. Tayfun calls such journeys ‘Back to the Future.’ The route—which was also cycled and discussed in public—highlights, among other things, the struggles faced by people with a migration background, questioning the link between Amsterdam’s housing policy, poor living conditions, internal migration towards the city’s peripheral districts, gentrification and urban renewal policies over the years.
This exhibition was part of the 'Hervertellingen' program of Arcam 2024/2025. With a lecture series, thematic bike tours and bookclubs, a symposium at Pakhuis de Zwijger, etc.