Haven

Sem Langendijk witnessed the disruptive effects of gentrification during his upbringing in a peripheral area of a large city. For nearly 30 years, he lost his connection to the place where he lived. His work therefore involves examining the identity of a place and the relation people have with their environment. His first book, ‘Haven’, tells the coming of age story of a boy in a rapidly changing place – a long-term research project into shifting demographics, waterfront development, and the dynamics of gentrification. Here Langendijk looks at the environments of different port cities in a documentary fiction, emphasising the transformation of disused docklands and the communities that reside there.