In the Netherlands, as in many other countries, urban and spatial planning often seem driven by good intentions, policy initiatives, and blueprints, and not by actual changes in the public’s way of life. When these kinds of ‘planning’ actually do come alive, when people find that something in their daily living environment has changed, they are not sure why. Seeking to shed some light on how spatial planning and daily life intersect, I worked with photographer Theo Baart and urban planner Tjerk Ruimschotel to create ‘ Atlas of Change’,  a portrait of the perpetually changing Netherlands.

This Atlas presents a picture of the new ‘cognitive map’ of the Netherlands’ inhabitants, a map that exchanges the traditional concentric socio-spatial structure (house-neighborhood-city) for a far more intricate overlap of perspectives on and perceptions of our environment, giving us great insight into the complexity of a national landscape on the move.