1/2 Leonie Sanders in her ‘cute’ house (photo: Noël van Hooft)
Fifteen houses in Den Bosch may have to make way for the Design Museum. The residents declared the Citadelhofje a museum on Saturday afternoon. They believe that their houses, which are more than a hundred years old, have enough history to see them as a museum.
“Boycott this insane and anti-social plan and go for it to turn it into a national monument”, shouts Bosschenaar Frans van Gaal during the opening of the fun museum.
And that is how thirteen of the fifteen families who have to fear for their house think about it. “They want to demolish my house for a museum and they don’t think about us. That is not possible, there is enough space to place a museum somewhere else”, Leonie Sanders begins.
“Fifteen families live here, you can’t flatten that for a museum, can you?”
She is standing with her keys in hand to show us her house. Just before that, two residents opened the ‘Museum Citadel’. Photos and newspaper articles are hung behind the windows of the houses to show the history to everyone. On Saturday, passers-by could even look inside.
The houses on the Citadelhofje are a stone’s throw from the city center. Leonie lives there with her husband and two dogs. They are small, ‘cute’ houses. “I really wouldn’t want to leave here. I’ve lived here for twenty years. We turned it into a palace,” says Leonie as she shows her living room.
“This is just a monument. Fifteen families live here, you can’t flatten that for a museum, can you? I have no idea where else to go.” The residents don’t want to leave for several reasons. Perhaps the most important reason: you can’t live that cheap anywhere else.
“This breathes history.”
Bram Roovers is chairman of SP Den Bosch. He gives three reasons to stop the wrecking ball. “This courtyard was built in 1920, so it is 103 years old. It was built as one of the first urban expansions of Den Bosch. It is simply a beautiful piece of Bossche history. It breathes history”, begins the SP member.
“In addition, it is a close-knit community here, which you don’t see anywhere else. So you not only break down stones, but also a community.” The SP believes that in this housing crisis, social rental homes should only be demolished if there is a very strong need for this. “And there just isn’t.”
Leonie can only hope that the ‘insane’ plan is off the table very soon. “This part of Den Bosch is so special that it is actually a museum already. And you should stay away from that.”
And where should the Design Museum go? If it is up to the local SP, you can go to the old V&D building in the center of the city. There is now a clothing store Koopman.
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