Life Under Occupation documents the lives of residents inside Cissie Gool House, a former hospital in Cape Town’s inner city that was reclaimed by families in 2017 through the Reclaim the City movement. Once abandoned and neglected, the building now shelters more than a thousand people, workers, students, mothers, elders,  forming one of the most visible acts of collective urban resistance in post-apartheid South Africa.

Cape Town faces one of the most severe housing crises in the country. Tens of thousands remain on government waiting lists, many for decades. The geography of apartheid still shapes the city: land and opportunity remain concentrated in affluent central areas, while historically marginalised communities are pushed to the outskirts, far from work, education, and essential services.

Cissie Gool House stands at the center of this unfinished history. Its occupation is not accidental — it is a direct response to exclusion.
This project looks closely at what it means to live inside that response. It moves beyond the language of crisis and protest, focusing instead on daily life within a building marked by both neglect and defiance. 

The structure itself carries layers of tension  between abandonment and care, instability and permanence, invisibility and visibility. 

Through portraiture, interiors, and environmental imagery, Life Under Occupation traces how community and solidarity are built within contested space. It explores how people create dignity in uncertainty, how agency is reclaimed through collective presence, and how resistance can take the form of simply staying.