Schoterboshof 123 (semi-public parking lot)

This parking lot is almost empty. The original purpose is to store people's cars safely, while they don't use them. The higher levels are only accessible with a key to the building. The ground level looks neglected. It's basically empty except for a few broken bikes, a broken scooter, glass bottles, a dead bird, empty cups, and some small pieces of paper and plastic. The top levels are empty most of the time and look cleaner.


On my site visits, I noticed that the ground level is used by young people for whom the city is an important place to socialize and be themselves outside of their home environment. It gives them some sort of privacy, away from home and school or work (which can both be highly controlled or uncomfortable environments with little freedom for personal expression).

These spaces should be used more effectively to provide exactly that instead of holding on to their original purpose which became obsolete for most people (who it was made for).

Liminal spaces are often overlooked spaces, used to pass by only, people often pass through liminal spaces at a fast pace. They are also semi-public. By putting something personal that signifies rest, privacy, and intimacy into an anonymous, fast passing environment, creates a contrast.

The parking lot is a semi-public space, mostly used by youngsters, young adults, and homeless people as a social or semi-private spot. I witnessed people socializing with each other, watching something on the phone in their car, gathering objects they can find around etc. The hardness and neglect of the place create a contrast between the softness, and intimacy of a pillow. Through my intervention with the pillow, I want to bring something intimate and soft into a space that is used in this way but isn't kept up to serve this purpose.

In addition to that, I'm doing interventions in green areas, a park, or around benches with trees. Public spaces which were originally meant to slow down and rest. Spaces which are built with the purpose of being comfortable?

My starting point was the parking lot. From there, I'm doing interventions and photoshoots in other locations too. I think it's important to do the interventions in different locations that were built with varying purposes in order to see how the results vary in relation to the site. Each site has a different meaning and connotation which changes the context of the object which I'm moving around. A combination of interventions in these spaces could lead to interesting and very different results.