Residential Hyperspace

What is it about?

Throughout the last two decades, Dutch housing policy has shifted to become more market-oriented and neoliberal. This sea change is reflected in the architecture of owner-occupied houses, whose production has been increasingly accompanied by theming. Theming has often been criticized as an action to maximize profit through the commercialization of spaces and the resulting hyperreal, and hence fake-architecture. In the Netherlands, building professionals also develop theming in order to realize inward-looking, hyperreal residential spaces with an ambience that opposes the surrounding ‘real’ space. Besides that they invent new strategies to engage with home buyers’ unconscious thoughts on manageable community life and feelings of insecurity. The reference to the traditional small town, whether of Western or non-Western origin, seems to be particularly purposeful to meet these needs. However, despite these efforts, the actual practice of theming appears to be less clear-cut due to profit-making. First, the realization of different themed ambiences for a number of disparate target groups challenges the effectively organized and standardized housing production and requires investment in a number of new marketing strategies. Second, the building agents struggle with the need to perfect a ‘convincing ambience’ in order to ensure a safe and manageable community life for prospective residents on the one hand, and the creation of fake-architecture which they fear will cause them to lose respectability with respect to their colleagues on the other.

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