Lifehouse: Community Led Property Development

Community Led Property Development

For over twelve years, City in the Making (Stad in de Maak) has set up temporary sites in Rotterdam that act as focal points for communities – places where people can gather, live, work, support each other, and feel rooted. To casual visitors, these sites often appear both refreshing and somewhat puzzling: a blend of inventive hacks, upcycled materials, and abundant community activity gives them unexpected charm and vitality. They give something many have longed for: a renewed sense of community and belonging. If only these spaces could withstand the pressure of time…

Now, City in the Making is seeking to set up their first permanent site. No longer on borrowed time, or in borrowed property, but secured for times to come and for futures yet to arrive! To make this work, City in the Making needs access to unusual buildings: properties that are too run-down, too entangled, or too stuck to be claimed by today’s overheated property market.

In this workshop we looked at ways that there places can become safe havens - sites where one dares to imagine and experiment with a different reality on which to build a life. Places that help endure an abrasive, exhausting present and face the storms to come: some already visible, such as the climate crisis, others still unknown. Fragile for now, they nevertheless hold the promise of persistence and mutual care.

In June 2026, the independent School for the City and City in the making, gathered a group of 15 participants to explore these option trough a specific case study: an abandoned warehouse in Vlaardingen. Together we looked if and how this building could be transformed into what Adam Greenfield calls 'a Lifehouse' - an institution or place at the heart of a neighbourhood for solidarity and support. This could be a modest yet daring space where a messy workshop meets an open floor, community kitchen, workspaces, a neighbourhood survival pack, and – who knows – even living spaces. Together we've be looking for ways to get this started, designed and financed and, moreover, to keep it going, even when the lights around us go out.

The studio began with a presentation by Ana and Marc on the origins and practice of Stad in de Maak, followed by a visit to one of their early sites in Rotterdam. To strengthen connections within the group, we ended the day with a shared meal and informal conversations. On the second day, we travelled to Vlaardingen to visit other projects by City in the Making such as a residential apartment used as a shared space for neighbours, hosting art exhibitions, workshops, language lessons and other gatherings. We then continued to three garages that were transformed into a cinema, a ping-pong room, a bicycle workshop and coffee space. These sites showed how small interventions can unlock new forms of collective use.

Finally, we visited the main case study of our workshop: an abandoned 1903 warehouse in the Koningin Wilhelminahaven, where the group was asked to envision how this place could develop into a Lifehouse in 2033. The discussion was open and speculative. Participants reflected on what defines a Lifehouse in practice, and whether design should respond to extreme scenarios such as hurricanes or 37 degree summers. They also considered the role of small, even “silly” victories in building community cohesion, inspired by the film Samenwonen: het verhaal van De Warren. A shared understanding emerged that such spaces rely on dedication, purpose, social capital and a strong sense of shared responsibility, and that where there is a will there is a way.

While it remains difficult to anticipate which future extremes will define our cities, the studio remained grounded in optimism, focusing on practical ideas that could already create value for people in need today. More than anything, the studio became an example of what happens when strangers come together around a shared challenge: new connections form, and a temporary community emerges through collective making and thinking.

About City in the Making

City in the Making is a foundation that enables new, socially inclusive forms of urban living since 2013. The organisation activates vacant buildings, encourages collective self-management, and works towards a more inclusive city. It manages properties where diverse groups live collectively, with one third of the space dedicated to commons: shared facilities and spaces managed for residents, the neighbourhood, and social organisations. Its approach is based on taking properties off the market, providing affordable living and working spaces, collective ownership or use, rent-free commons, and economic, social, and ecological sustainability. The organisation is largely self-organised and runs its own micro investment fund.

Course Programme

FRIDAY, 19 JUNE 2026
Start at Independent School for the City. Welcome by Independent School for the City and introduction on City in the Making by Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen
12:30 - 14:00 lunch break and moving to City in The Making, Rotterdam Noord.
14:00 - 15:00 Visiting the first SidM site.
15:00 - 16:30 Conversation: How much can we take and what can we bring.
16:45 - 17:30 Inspiration presentation: lifehouse examples around us
18:00 - 20:00 Collective DIY Dinner @SidM

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SATURDAY, 20 JUNE 2026
Start at City in the Making, Vlaardingen

10.30 -12.30 Visiting three commons locations in oversight by Stad in the Maak
12:30 - 13:30 lunch @SidM, travel to warehouse Wilhelminahaven.
13:30 - 16:00 Groupwork: Development of Lifehouse concepts.
16:00 - 17:00 First inventory of concepts, presentations by participants and feedback.

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FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2026
Start at Independent School for the City

10:00 - 12:30 Film screening: Living together - the story of the Warren + conversation.
12:30 - 13:30 lunch break
13:30 - 16:00 Bringing a Lifehouse to life, where do we start, what steps to take
16:00 - 17:00 Short presentations by participants and feedback

17:00 - 19:30 Dinner break

19:30 - 22:00 School’s Out! #60 With Holly Smith and Alva Gotby, about the politics of housing and homeliness

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SATURDAY, 27 JUNE 2026
Start at Independent School for the City

10:00 - 12:30 Groupwork: Putting together the storylines for the year 2033
12:30 - 13:30 lunch break
13:30 - 15:00 Groupwork: Prepare background setting for the scenarios
15:00 - 17:00 Presentation of Lifehouse voices from 2033