A Community Out of the Box: Understanding Flexibility and Justice through Self-organised Housing in the Netherlands

Abstract

The article examines the Roma community at De Witte Plas, Netherlands, as a case study of informal, self-organised housing practices that resist dominant corporate systems. Through a combination of fieldwork, design-driven research, and collaborative workshops, the study explores how community members creatively reconfigure containerised housing using recycled materials and digital platforms. Framed through the dual meaning of flexibility, the article argues for informality as a strategic, emancipatory paradigm. It proposes a reconceptualisation of migrant workers’ housing that highlights user autonomy, adaptability, and social embeddedness, challenging the limitations of institutionally regulated models like flexwoningen.