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De Wachtkamer

Studio Antidote

Designing shelters with privacy and dignity

With the design project The Waiting Room, Anneloes de Koff (architect) and Nanne Wytze Brouwer (social designer), along with designers who have lived experience, aim to design practical solutions to provide privacy and dignity for residents of Dutch asylum shelters.

About The Waiting Room

In the Netherlands, over 30.000 people live in temporary shelters like vacant offices, military facilities and tents. The team behind The Waiting Room is committed to showing where the Dutch asylum system falls short and to demonstrate that you can take very concrete steps together with the residents of asylum shelters to improve their living conditions. De Wachtkamer serves as an example of intensive co-creative design with vulnerable and unheard groups, and shows how a design community can design with care and knowledge in collaboration with end users.

De Wachtkamer developed a modular shell around the standard bunk beds which are found in almost all shelters. The design provides storage space for personal belongings, improves acoustics and creates privacy on multiple levels. The design is currently being tested by 60 residents of an emergency near Rotterdam.

About Anneloes de Koff

I use architecture as an ‘antidote’ to change, through sustainable, well-designed buildings that endure and remain meaningful over time. Together with communities and colleagues, I strive to address social challenges and build environments that are positive, sustainable, and meaningful.