

Habraken promoted a radical shift in decision-making for mass-customization in housing and a new way to harness the power of industrial production.

Habraken introduced the term ‘support’ (or: base building) and infill (customized functionalities). John Habraken, who created the basis for Open Building with his book De Dragers en de Mensen (The Supports and the People in English). The ideas of the Founding Partners of find their origins in the legacy of Professor N. Read more about the Open Building principles and our manifesto here. The principles of Open Building offer strategies and scenarios to work towards open and dynamic neighborhoods, affordable and comfortable housing and building innovation and circularity. The Founding Partners of acknowledge that ambition: together we must work on circular, flexible and adaptable structures and anchor them well to the urban context and society. The task for policymakers, architects and developers for the coming decades is clear: we need large numbers of sustainable homes. The infill represents the adaptable part of the building, or in other words the books. The support represent the most permanent parts of the building, like the structure and can be seen as a bookcase. In doing so, Open Buildings incorporate not only flexibility to move with social tendencies, climate change and new regulations, but also form the basis for a circular construction economy.

Open Building advocates a physical division of building components that have different life cycles. The infill is co-created with future users to encourage and consolidate inclusion and belonging. With distinct architecture, they contribute to a dynamic urban context.

Open Buildings are flexible, adaptable, circular and resilient. is a group of Dutch architects, engineers and developers dedicated to extending the lifespan of buildings, significantly lowering the ecological footprint and creating healthy communities.
