Kijk & Luister

Wednesday late afternoon film: De Drager

Sonja Lüthi en Marc Schwarz made a documentary about architect John Habraken, his vision, his mission, and the legacy.

In his book De Dragers en de Mensen – Het einde van de massawoningbouw (1961, which was published in English as Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing in 1972) John Habraken introduced a totally new vision for residential construction. A vision that is still relevant today; Habraken argues for more say by dwellers about the design of their homes and their neighbourhood. To achieve he makes a strict separation between the ‘support’ – the base building – and the ‘infill’. In Habraken’s view the community is responsible for the design and realisation the support, the infill should be done by the dwellers themselves.