A tiny house of one square meter is for sale in the middle of the city center of Den Bosch. As a playful action, five young people converted a mobile Dixi toilet into a home to draw attention to the housing crisis. “Nowadays you have to live smaller and smaller for more and more money. We wanted to make something affordable for young people,” says 26-year-old Wesley, of the design collective Company de Liefde.
He knows his friends Iris, Floris, Tijn and Sanne from his studies at the Avans in Den Bosch. They noticed how overheated the housing market is. “Rental prices are skyrocketing. As young people, we cannot afford to buy houses at all.
With this playful campaign we want to show people that for many it is not obvious to get a house”, explains Wesley.
After months of brainstorming and DIY, the toilet cubicle with garden is now located in the middle of Amadeiroplein in the city center of Bossche. From a fridge and hob to a sink and shower. Nothing is missing in the small house. “Maybe young people can buy this,” Wesley jokes.
“We know there are many harrowing stories.”
Everyone who enters the house sees normal household items. Many pieces of furniture and utensils have special texts in blue letters. For example, the milk in the refrigerator is not normal milk, but ‘house milk’. In the spice rack is a jar with ‘ground headaches’. And there is a wooden spatula above the hob for the ‘garbage cake’.
“People are more or less forced to think about the housing crisis, but also about their own living situation,” says the 26-year-old designer. “We hope that this will make it easier for people to share their personal living problems. We know there are many harrowing stories. We try to get those stories out.”
“No one lives in a Dixi and that will never happen in Den Bosch.”
When you leave the house, there is a guest book ready. Everyone can write down their living experiences in it. For example, young people who are unable to find their own place. But also elderly people who are not looking for an apartment building or new neighborhood in ‘their backyard’.
In the end, the book with stories of the residents of Den Bosch is handed over to Pieter Paul Slikker, the Alderman for Housing. “I really like this move. Politics should serve a general interest and that will only work if people make their own voices heard. Nobody lives in a Dixi and that will of course never happen in Den Bosch. But it’s a good way to show how dire the housing market is for first-time buyers and people with lower incomes.”
“We hope that a slum landlord or buyer will make an offer for our dixi.”
The designers collective has another goal with their campaign. “We hope that a slum landlord or buyer will make an offer for our Dixi,” says Wesley.
But how much does a house of one square meter cost? “In Den Bosch, a house costs an average of 3958 euros per square metre. So that would be the asking price, but we also have a garden and there is a lot of outbid on every house these days.” The five friends hope that someone has a bag of money for the house.
The small house will be on the Amadeiroplein in Den Bosch until Saturday.
