In the exhibition The Machinery of Public Housing which can be seen in the Atrium City Hall from January 30 until February 13, Carlijn Kingma maps out the causes of the ongoing housing crisis with a giant drawing.

Housing is a basic human need. But somehow, this important fact was forgotten. Years of cutbacks and privatizations have transformed a policy domain that once ensured everyone a roof over their heads, into a roulette table full of winners and losers.

What was once a proud pillar of post‑war Netherlands has become a speculative market in which everyone has to participate just to keep up. Many miss out, while others grow rich in their sleep.

What is the connection between money creation for mortgages, the scarce availability of building land and sky-high house prices? Why are there still housing shortages despite governments spending large amounts of money, why does sustainability lag behind, and why do we not know the real causes of the affordability crisis?

Carlijn Kingma shows that the solutions to our housing problems are there for the taking. But are we prepared to give something up and topple the sacred cows that stand in the way of a solution?

Carlijn Kingma (Zutphen, 1991)
Carlijn Kingma is a Dutch artist, architectural researcher, and cartographer. She is best known for her architectural pen and ink drawings of utopias, which she describes as maps.
www.carlijnkingma.com

Made possible
This work was made possible by the Province of South Holland, Triodos Bank, BNG Bank, transition agency Squarewise, the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, Platform Woonopgave, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, the Dutch Green Building Council and investigative journalism platform Follow the Money and with the collaboration of Thomas Bollen and Joost Kingma.