Bianca Koerts

A montage of home in a neighborhood that is slowly transforming

In many neighborhoods being renovated, changes happen quickly. Homes are demolished, new construction appears, and new residents take their place. But for the people who already live there, it takes time to say goodbye, to let go, and to come to terms with a new situation.

In the Indische neighborhood in Zwolle, around Javastraat and Bankastraat, this is palpable. It is a working-class neighborhood where people know each other and where a strong social network exists. The municipality has demolition plans for part of this neighborhood. New homes will replace them. For the current residents, this means they must leave their homes. Banners hang on facades from residents speaking out, out of anger but also out of concern. Not only for their homes, but for what lies behind them: their home, their neighbors, their daily lives.

What inspires me in this is not just that anger, but what lies beneath it. The value of a place that cannot simply be replaced. That underlying layer of emotion is difficult to make visible, yet it is precisely what determines how a place is experienced.

To understand that emotion, I watch film. I am fascinated by film. Not only by what is told, but by how it is told. Film shows that emotion does not arise by chance. It is built up. Directed. Composed.

A glance that lingers a little too long.

A space that grows darker.

A silence after a moment of tension.

Through editing, moments are connected into an experience that you feel physically. This way of thinking aligns with my view of architecture. For space, too, is experienced in motion. Meaning does not arise in a single place, but in the transition between them.

My project explores how that change can be different. Not an abrupt break, but a transformation over time. Residents stay in the neighborhood, move temporarily, and return. The neighborhood moves, but does not fall apart. I do not design standalone buildings, but an montage of space.

I have deconstructed scenes of farewell, coming home, and starting over. Not to recreate them literally, but to understand what happens in such a moment. What your body does. How your gaze changes when you step back, when something comes close. I have translated those feelings into spaces. Not a literal translation, but a design that creates conditions in which a moment can arise where we relate anew to what we feel. Spaces that do not tell you what to do, but set something in motion.

As you move through the neighborhood, moments follow one another like scenes in a film. This creates a neighborhood that not only changes, but in which that change can be felt. Architecture that does not explain, but allows you to experience. A place that gives space to what happens inside people. To letting go, searching, reconnecting, and feeling at home.

Because ultimately, I believe that architecture, just like film, can touch us. Not by explaining something. But by letting us go through something.

Hallobiancakoerts@gmail.com

Telefoon: 06 83454014