Beyond
Social

Magazine
Investigating
Social Art and Design

Issue 1 Redesigning Business

Section: Projects
Topics: Transformation Strategies

This is my border this is my space

Liza Koch and Lou Muuse

Consider how many doors you have to pass through from the street to your bedroom. Every door is an opening to a different space; it's one step closer to your most private area: your bed.

In our project in the minor Cultural Diversity, we visualised territorial behaviour from the front yard to the bunk bed. We came up with six different income categories by defining their private borders. Most of the time the size of your private space is associated with affluence. The lower the financial resources you have, the less space you have. The space you have is divided into different zones leading to the ultimate private spot: the bed.

Quote villa resident & zones between public space and private bedroom, with in bold his private space
Quote villa resident & zones between public space and private bedroom, with in bold his private space
Quote rejected asylum seeker & zones between public space and private bedroom, with in bold his private space
Quote rejected asylum seeker & zones between public space and private bedroom, with in bold his private space

The need for privacy is universal yet individually diverse. And over the years much has changed in how people interact with space. Today, in western culture, the bathroom and toilet are an intimate place, but this wasn't always the case. In other cultures these spaces may be experienced as less intimate. In contradiction to the toilet and bathroom, the bedroom has never changed in terms of intimacy. The sexual meaning has always been the same and therefore this space is always shielded, visible or invisible. The most effective way to create some kind of privacy is to obscure the view. Visibility can be removed by very primitive means, for example by pulling a blanket over your head or hanging a cloth or curtain. For this project we broke through different boundaries and photographed the individuals in their most intimate place in their residence: their beds.

Free standing house
Free standing house
House with front garden
House with front garden
Row house without front garden
Row house without front garden
Apartment complex
Apartment complex
Student house
Student house
Retirement home
Retirement home
Homeless
Homeless
Rejected asylum seeker
Rejected asylum seeker
Cloth as private border
Cloth as private border
Border made of suitcases
Border made of suitcases
Private border of a row house without front garden from two sides
Private border of a row house without front garden from two sides
Private border apartment complex from two sides
Private border apartment complex from two sides
Private border Homeless from two sides, the border is not visible
Private border Homeless from two sides, the border is not visible
Exhibition in garage Kralingen
Exhibition in garage Kralingen
Exhibition Rejected asylum seeker
Exhibition Rejected asylum seeker

A project by [http://www.lizakoch.nl| Liza Koch] and [http://www.loumuuse.com| Lou Muuse]. Both studying at the Willem de Kooning Academy, with a minor in Cultural Diversity.