Francine Houben about her childhood

Francine Houben didn’t plan to become a world-famous architect when she chose architecture as a career, but that is exactly what happened. She tells us more about her childhood.

A safe home

My surname is Houben, but I think I would have preferred my mother’s last name, Cappetti. Not only because I like it, but also because I see how important she’s been for me and the family I grew up in. My mother was born in 1924, the only girl in a family of six boys. Her brothers were allowed to go to high school in the city, but she was sent to the housekeeping school in the village. During the Second World War, she was active in the resistance, as were her brothers and parents. She served as a courier and cycled, eighteen years old, from the east of the Netherlands all the way to Amsterdam (roughly 80 km/50 miles). After the war, she met my father and they married and had five children. I’m the fourth. My mother never had an official job; she ran the house and managed the family affairs, and did so with enthusiasm.

Because of my father’s work, we moved a lot and she was the one who always organized everything: finding a house, putting contractors to work, doing the paperwork, looking for new schools. She wasn’t one to watch our hockey games or talk to the teacher if there was a problem; we had to do that ourselves. She was there for us in a very natural way. It felt safe at home. This contributed to my happy childhood. I found moving around inspiring: going to new places and making them your own. And because I was the fourth child, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. I was the youngest daughter and perhaps the apple of my father’s eye, who was away for business a lot.