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After World War II, the City of Amsterdam created Jongensland, in an attempt to keep the city’s children from running wild. Located on an island, Jongensland grew into a settlement constructed experimentally from scrap metal, where children developed a – perhaps surprisingly – self-sustaining sociality, cooking, keeping animals and trading. Architectural photographer Ursula Schulz-Dornburg discovered Jongensland through her two young children in 1969, and made a series of photographs of the buildings created by its occupants, as well as the builders themselves: they stand beside fires, perch on top of their ramshackle constructions, build extensions and make repairs. The houses launch themselves blockily into the sky or squat on the ground, flappy with boards, each a singular expression of its creators’ intuitive and original architectural intelligence. ◉