Ludo Groen is a doctoral candidate in the history and theory of architecture (gta) at ETH Zürich, while practicing architecture from his eponymous studio. His doctoral research, part of the SNSF-funded research project “Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral,” documents the architecture of Swiss banking before and after 1968.
        Between 2018 and 2021, he worked as a researcher at The Berlage at Delft University of Technology and Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch institute for architecture, design, and digital culture. At The Berlage he was involved in the organisation of lectures, master classes, teaching, and various book projects. At Het Nieuwe Instituut, he contributed to various exhibitions and research projects, including Automated Landscapes, which will be published in the forhcoming book Automated Landscapes, documenting the emerging automated architectures of dairy farms, greenhouses, data centers, and factories, in the Netherlands and beyond.
        Ludo holds a master degree in architecture from Delft University of Technology and a post-master degree from The Berlage.
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Home of Capital
Het Nieuwe Instituut
Contribution*
July, 2021
Every day, the Instagram account Funda Makeovers shares a home whose market value is significantly boosted with the help of a few aesthetic interventions. Using the hashtag #ziedepotentie (‘see the potential’), it presents before and after images of apartments, floors and houses that have been posted twice within a year on Funda, the Netherlands' largest real estate platform. Stripped-down interiors undergo a restyling featuring herringbone parquet, steel window frames, and, ideally, black taps. These makeovers can be considered part of the phenomenon of 'house flipping', a popular practice among private investors. They buy dilapidated houses, renovate them using their magic box of stylistic products, and then sell them on immediately at a substantial profit. Funda Makeovers exposes a phenomenon in which the home is above all a home for capital.




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