Life in Nagele

Living modern heritage

Nagele is one of the most distinctive villages in the Netherlands. Designed after the Second World War by some of the leading modernist architects of the time, it is internationally recognised as an icon of modern planning and architecture. Today, Nagele holds the status of national heritage and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

Often, Nagele is discussed through drawings, models, and architectural principles. This project starts somewhere else: with the people who live there now.

The exhibition presents a series of portraits of current residents of Nagele, photographed in their everyday environment. Not as abstract users of a masterplan, but as individuals who shape and inhabit this modernist village in their own way. The result is an intimate and contemporary perspective on heritage: one that shows Nagele not only as a designed ideal, but as a lived place.

The photographs are made by Thijs Wolzak, whose work focuses on people in relation to their surroundings. His portraits are calm, precise, and attentive, capturing the subtle relationship between individuals and the spaces they inhabit. In Nagele, his approach reveals how modernist architecture and daily life intersect, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes with gentle tension.

Together, the exhibition brings modern heritage back to a human scale. It invites visitors to look beyond the architectural canon and connect with Nagele as it exists today: shaped by design, but defined by the people who call it home.

My role: concept and project management
Photography: Thijs Wolzak
Exhibition design: Kinkorn