#Buildings and Construction
Projects

Almost in every metropolitan city in the world exists a Chinatown where Chinese diasporic communities live and conduct commercial activities. In recent years, many countries have started listing and conserving Chinese diasporic heritage as their dynamic cultural resources that represent human migration histories and cultural diversity.

Chinese diasporic communities came to the Netherlands in the early 20th century. The Chinatown in Amsterdam is one of the main Chinatowns in the Netherlands, and is well-known in Europe. However, very few studies in the field of heritage management reveal and discuss the cultural significance (heritage attributes, values from various stakeholders) and management models.

We are researchers from the UNESCO chair in Heritage and Values, TU Delft. We are now looking for participants for a research project on Chinese diasporic heritage in the Netherlands, also called “共同保育我們的唐人街遺產” in Chinese. If you:
- come from a Chinese family with a migration background
- (used to) live in/work in/have emotional connections to Chinatown areas
- would like to share your stories/interests about Chinese diasporic heritage in the Dutch Context
......
Join us for this initiative for understanding, documenting and mapping the place where we all belong! You will be able to tell your own heritage, histories and stories, and encounter dynamic groups of heritage enthusiasts. Your participation will help us understand further the vibrant cultural legacy, which is valuable for keeping and telling future generations.

Feel free to fill in or share this participant form. We contact you and organize further activities (e.g. interview, focus group meeting, workshop, etc.) in the future.

For more information, you can also reach us through:
- Email: yan.zhou@tudelft.nl
- Tel: +31(0)647824405
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yan-zhou-45a79b290
_____________________________________________________________
Yan ZHOU (PhD researcher)
Dr. Ana PEREIRA RODERS (Professor)
Dr. Lidwine SPOORMANS (researcher & lecturer)
TU Delft – UNESCO Chair in Heritage and Values
Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment 

On Thursday, March 17 Grisha Zotov pitched some of the dilemmas his team encountered during the process of urban design. Among others, he touched upon densification and building height as aspects that influence intensity of human interaction.

Located in the former industrial zone, Schinkelkwartier is an example of inclusive and interdisciplinary redevelopment. Destined to be a diverse mix-use hub, Schinkelkwartier will develop in several phases during 25 years. At an early stage local stakeholders and neighbors of the area were involved.

On behalf of Architectural Prescription Grisha raised questions about opportunities and risks offered by water-related location and complexity due to the amount of interested parties.

Suggestions, ideas and feedback are always welcome.

Local or guest, reach out and share what you think!

Building the largest interactive LEGO model of the future city ever!

Imagine a model of the city; however, instead of a literal representation, this is a sculpture that holds ideas and dreams from citizens, policymakers, entrepreneurs and visitors about what the city might be like after we solve major transitional challenges (e.g. sustainability, energy, equality, smart).

What would it feel like to be in this city? What do people wish this future city to become?

the goal
A model of the city that contains the ideas that a diverse group of people have about how the city might emerge from major transitional change like climate adaptation, sustainability, equality, smart. Imagine the city from what might be and what opportunity change offers.

the form
A room-sized model built with LEGO in a public space and with interactivity (e.g. app / QR link / AR) to share the stories that this model contains.

the process
Lego is an powerful way to evoke and capture stories about how people think about something. Through a series of workshops, people from all parts of the city will be invited to share how they think about the future of the city and capture their stories in a collective model. An interactive installation opens up those stories to passers-by and other participants.

partners
finance, organisational, tech

call to action
Get in touch if you want to contribute to the realisation of the largest LEGO city vision model ever!

De taskforce Communication Alliance for a Circular Region (CACR) wil de circulaire economie in de Metropoolregio Amsterdam versnellen met praktische verhalen voor en over ondernemers en bedrijven. We nodigen iedereen uit mee te doen met de discussie op amsterdamsmartcity.com. De CACR bestaat uit: Hogeschool van Amsterdam | Gemeente Amsterdam | Amsterdam Economic Board | Amsterdam Smart City | Metabolic en AMS Institute.

Artikelen 'Circulaire economie en data'

• Volop kansen in de nieuwe circulaire werkelijkheid / Data zijn de zuurstof van de circulaire economie: deel 1
• Slim datagebruik in de circulaire economie: de drie belangrijkste redenen / Data zijn de zuurstof van de circulaire economie: deel 2
• 100.000 bedrijven restafvalvrij in 2025
• Slim datagebruik in de circulaire economie: dit is wat bedrijven zelf kunnen doen / Data zijn de zuurstof van de circulaire economie: deel 3

Artikelen circular strategies

Maak je bedrijf toekomstbestendig met deze circulaire strategieën

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The taskforce Communication Alliance for a Circular Region (CACR) is working to accelerate the circular economy in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, sharing practical stories for and about entrepreneurs and businesses. The CACR is an initiative by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences | City of Amsterdam | Amsterdam Economic Board | Amsterdam Smart City | Metabolic | AMS Institute.

Articles 'Circular economy and data'

• A wealth of opportunities in the new circular reality / Data is the oxygen that the circular economy thrives on: part 1
• Smart data usage in the circular economy: 3 key reasons / Data is the oxygen that the circular economy thrives on: part 2
• 100,000 companies residual waste-free by 2025
• Smart data use in the circular economy: this is what companies can do themselves / Data is the oxygen that the circular economy thrives on: part 3

Articles: Future-proof your business using circular strategies

Future-proof your busness using these circualr strategies

Te wicked? Niet voor ons.

Wij werken allemaal aan urgente, complexe, maatschappelijke uitdagingen. Issues die schier onoplosbaar lijken, van dilemma’s en paradoxen omgeven, nog niet duidelijk hoe het moet. Wel is duidelijk dát het moet, dat we elkaar nodig
hebben en dat we er NU aan moeten beginnen. Om met de woorden van Jan Rotmans te spreken; we leven niet in een tijdperk van verandering maar in een verandering van tijdperk. En hier hoort een nieuwe gereedschapskist bij.

En of je nou aan energietransitie werkt, andere mobiliteitssystemen, creëren van waterstofhubs, peer to peer autodeelsystemen, het maakt niet uit, we zien dat al deze opgaven op enig moment tegen gelijksoortige barrières aanlopen. Op samenwerking, financiering, privacy, onvoldoende aansluiting op de maatschappij, om maar een paar voorbeelden te noemen.

Unieke samenwerking
Als Amsterdam Smart City netwerk willen en kunnen we deze opgaven niet laten liggen. Door het bundelen van onze kennis en expertise kunnen we als netwerk iets unieks bieden en de wil en durf tonen om deze barrières te doorbreken. De betrokken partners die dit uitdenken en begeleiden zijn RHDHV, Kennisland, Drift, NEMO, Arcadis, Alliander, HvA en Metabolic. Zij bundelen hun expertise en ervaring om de echte vragen boven tafel te krijgen, tot nieuwe manieren van samenwerken te komen en barrières te doorbreken. We richten ons met name op de start van de samenwerking. Gezamenlijk ontwikkelen we een ‘wicked problem aanpak’. Op een nieuwe manier, lerend door te doen, exploratief.

Waar moet je aan denken?
Wat is eigenlijk het echte probleem? Wiens probleem is dit? Hoe kijken anderen er tegenaan? Welke andere partijen lijken nodig? Hoe vind je ze? Hoe ga je om met eigenaarschap en botsende frames? Hoe zorg je dat je al in
een vroeg stadium de maatschappij (bewoners, ondernemers, werknemers, etc) betrekt en hun ervaringen in het project trekt? Het wicked problem team zet nieuwe methoden in voor het beantwoorden van deze vragen. En het creëren van de benodigde commitment om het vraagstuk aan te pakken. Niets staat van te voren vast, want we passen ons aan aan wat we tegenkomen. Met elkaar ontwikkelen we een nieuwe aanpak om de barrières te doorbreken.

In the Upcyclecentrum we make the circular economy and the upcycle process visible and tangible. We don’t do this alone. Our residents provide us with raw materials by properly separating their waste, the entrepreneurs (startups) upcycle these raw materials into new products and inspiring workshops are organized in our circular designed experience center. Waste = raw material in the circular economy; this is the central theme of all our activities.

Follow us on instagram on www.instagram.com/upcyclecentrum
#upcyclecentrum

You would like to connect with Urban Environmental Sustainability practitioners and researchers in China and exchange your approaches to green transport, clean energy, compact urban development, water and solid waste management, green buildings and municipal finance? Then sign up to the EC-Link platform! The platform links Eco Cities across Europe and China, offering inspiring examples from both sides of Eurasia and enabling direct contacts to the innovators. With the help of an integrated translation tool, posts can be translated into Chinese and English with just one click. Use of the platform is free of charge: http://eclink.org/bbs/#/?lang=en

A description of how the platform works can be downloaded here: http://eclink.org/ec_platform/upload/document/EC-Link_Users'%20Guide-EN.pdf

EC Link

Creating the next-generation renewable energy digital platform, focusing on machine learning-based consulting and sustainable community. Additionally, it provides engineering consultancy which is 100% digital through machine learning optimization. Furthermore, it also transforms the data to solve unique to our client need and it embarks a lifelong companion for clients to grow from installation to decommissioning.

Ever since the 20th century most of the countries across the globe are still using the traditional way of farming and it’s still going on for the demand and supply of people. As we all know that by the year 2050, the 80 % estimation of the world population will have been living in urban areas which can lead the total population of the world to increase by 3 billion people. With this large amount of increase in population, scientists and researchers are quite worried about the farmland which will be required to generate such a huge demand for food supply to fulfill the necessity to survive. Noticing this fact in mind as what would be the future source of alternative solutions to solve such a type of problem a concept was proposed named “In-House Farming”.

Our children are growing on paved, 2 dimentional and disconnected school environments. We are here to change that. With our passion Permaculture concept, we designed and created a new style of school garden, which doesn't exist in Amsterdam and if we are not wrong in the Netherlands. It was not the first of our school design/implementation. Laterna Magica School in IJburg Amsterdam is also another example.

You can find further info, photos, videos on our website. We need help from all aware people to inform schools about our services that we can have more impact on our environment and children's connection with nature

The Data Centre Industry has grown rapidly and generates a large volume of e-waste / WEEE. The current infrastructure for dealing with this waste is underdeveloped and consequently, there is a real and urgent need to address this now. CEDaCI will build a Circular Economy for the Data Centre Industry by bringing together stakeholders from all equipment life cycle stages to turn this waste into a useful resource and support the ongoing rapid growth of the DCI.

The Kaskantine will implement together with the neighboorhood its design for closing local resource loops: a kitchen with closed water cycle, preventing local food waste, introduce neighbourhood composting, and organise repair cafe's, sport and musique workshops, etc. Data will be gathered to monitor the resource cycling and methods will be tested to make it more socially and culturally inclusive.

User-created nature-based solutions in an urban environment;

The case of the KasKantine (Greenhouse Cantina), Amsterdam

Historically landscape architecture and infrastructural planning have assigned physical separated functions to landscape in order to upscale and manage resource flows cost efficiently. Rather than monosectoral and large scale linear production systems we can now see a shift to decentralized and locally integrated solutions to close resource loops. In these solutions also citizens can play a more (pro)active role. After being more prominent in rural areas, landscape architecture is now also more active as a lead design principle in urban neighbourhoods. Local integrated solutions for resource cycling efficiency give rise to multiple value production rather than to an increase of local financial income. Either way it increases citizen driven (semi)professional activities in resource management in urban neighbourhoods, as well in its creation and in management.

We see enormous potential in this approach: it can reconnect citizens to nature, it can facilitate in changing lifestyles AND produce the right technology to face our climate and resource crisis. But before it can become mainstream, we see the following challenges and questions, mainly to do with creating sufficient local political support and accessibility to these technological and economic opportunities.

• How can actors on local level on one side and central sectoral level at the other side co-create and redesign effectively the landscape, necessary to close resource loops locally with sufficient democratic legitimacy?
• How could citizen-driven services in resource management be held accountable to a broader public and the public sector?
• How can these nature-based solutions be culturally and socially inclusive?
• How can socio-economically marginal(ized|) groups profit from this increased multiple-values production?

We can try to answer those questions for one specific case to see how it could work out in practice. The Kaskantine is a not-for-profit volunteer driven garden- restaurant - food coop which has as its main objective to show that more autonomous, off the grid nature based solutions for climate adaptive working and living in urban areas are possible and can be at the same time a new lifestyle. It is a small village of refurbished shipping containers, recycled greenhouses and (roof top)gardens. The Kaskantine is currently being built on its fourth location and is negotiating a 7 years ground lease with the municipality of Amsterdam.

The Kaskantine managed to grow from only one container and a one-man company, 5 years ago, to a cooperative with over 30 volunteers with 13 containers. A second village is being planned of 7 containers in the east of Amsterdam. This has been realised without any external capital investment or subsidies. The strategy has always been: find a solution with the least possible financial costs and turn untapped local resources into value.

In doing so the Kaskantine discovered that although real estate prices in Amsterdam skyrocket, there is still a lot of underutilised land and water, that is without use for people and for nature. Lots of plots are “waiting” to be developed, or are underdeveloped: for one function while there could be double or triple functionalities. We could call this “real estate waste”. The Kaskantine could use land for free because there was no direct market value of that land. And the same counts for other important resources: (rain)water, (solar)energy, food (waste and own production), labour (volunteers) and (natural and waste) materials. The Kaskantine is able to operate with zero fixed costs and therefore able to survive.

Furthermore, with its installations it is trying to integrate all received good and services in local loops. Maximum in, minimum out. This is optimized by integrating different resource loops in one management system.

An abundance of one flow of resources can be absorbed by other resource cycles: Peak solar energy can be used in extra ventilation, aeration and irrigation. Sudden food surpluses are redistributed for free and create network solidarity. The Kaskantine is also able to use resources in all phases of their life cycle, like wood: from construction to fire wood. Or being able by using rest heat in storing it in mass or other spaces, or filtering waste water for irrigation. We call this adaptive capacity: the capacity to buffer abundance and use it later or in an alternative way.

Finally, an alternative lifestyle is embraced, one that is appreciating the value of abundance of local resources, rather than the value of market choice.

We could argue that the Kaskantine is thriving in an alternative economy, that can exist thanks to and despite of the mainstream economy that they are trying to transform. We call this abundance or give economy, in contrast with economy based on consumption and the organisation of scarcity.

Abundance economy as being a sum of relatively autonomous integrated projects in mainstream economy.

Because of its ability to expand autonomously within mainstream economy, and because its abundance economy is not a zero-sum game as long as local resources and waste are underutilised, the Kaskantine is very open for participation. There is no economic argument against including more neighborhood activities, on the contrary. More participation seems therefore to depend more on the capability of cultural inclusiveness: if people feel comfortable within the network of the Kaskantine, or if people feel comfortable to start a sort of “kaskantine” on their own.

First, the opportunity to integrate has been ”built in” into the design of the Kaskantine by a step-in approach. From experience as a guest (exchange, tasting, get inspired, etc) to participation in the design, creation and operation of the Kaskantine and Kaskantine related projects.

Secondly, the Kaskantine is also active in the neighbourhood centre and within a network of community organisations, with a step-out approach. In this case the Kaskantine offers through free workshops a learning curve to adopt small scale installations, like vertical gardens and worm composting, and participate in food saving and storage at home in order to take a step back from mainstream economy into the abundance economy.

An important ambition of the Kaskantine is to negotiate with the municipality a land lease contract in which the landuser takes responsibility for its development and environmental control of the land. This cheaper land rent will hopefully give other “kaskantines” the opportunity to arise.

The Kaskantine has free energy to spend on helping other groups in joining this movement because it can operate autonomously and with low fixed costs. This creates hopeful opportunities for inclusiveness of the proposed solutions. Whether this is done in some kind of co-creation with more central institutions depends more on their own capability to work with local small scale initiatives and on their willingness to change or compensate the negative effects of their lineair production models and on their willingness and capability to change sectoral into integrated policies.

The EU-UIA funded the programme RESILIO, a project that aims to realize 10.000 square meters of blue-green roofs in four city districts in Amsterdam. The consortium of both public and private partners aims to build an interconnected network of smart roofs, in which sensors and state-of-the-art equipment enable micro-water management on rooftops. This contributes to urban climate adaption and resilience, and can potentially evolve into a scalable solution for water management on rooftops.

This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.

<https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-cities/amsterdam>

Biochar is a soil amendment made typically from bio-mass through a process called pyrolysis with low-oxygen. By using a low-cost, easy-to-make biochar stove, communities can arrange to turn common waste products into biochar.
The vision behind this project is for healthy and resilient communities. This means that I prefer methods that promote local, DIY and community approach, so that it can quickly scale and adapt to different towns/cities.

Most importantly, carbon being the element behind Life has tremendous versatility. It can be used to filter water and then used as a soil amendment. Or it can be mixed to make better concrete composites for roads (asphalt) and concrete. It can improve manufacturing by making carbon fiber alloys.
Last but not least, it is done through a circular model of using waste such as wood sticks, bio-mass, paper, saw dust mills, anything with carbon, even plastics. The output heat can be captured for heating buildings and cooking stoves. The opportunities are endless.
Sizes of stove vary in function of available supply/demand dynamics. For more information, check the biochar-international.org or Ithaka International.
Thank you.

PS: Stockholm, Sweden has achieved this recently. If the Swedes can do it, we can learn from them and improve together!
http://www.nordregio.org/sustainable_cities/stockholm-biochar-project/

Some guidelines for background and context
https://www.biochar-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IBI_Pyrolysis_Plant_Guidelines.pdf

A global network of shared equity rent-to-own properties, offering liquid equity transferring to other properties globally. This will be as if the tenant is co-investing into a 'green REIT' fund along with CSR programs and NGOs, which we will use the crowdfund purchasing new properties, or reinvesting into sustainable urban development, and social entrepreneurs. The vision is to make a new type of bank persay, that offers an AirBnB+WeWork but connected with more community initiatives, like co-living spaces do, however we want to focus on spurring economic development and sustainability for low-medium income communities.

Looking for collaborators to work together and spread this vision.

Add me on LinkedIn and let's chat:

linkedin.com/in/alanjgreenspan

With the Roadmap Circular Land Tendering, Amsterdam developed an instrument with which a contractor can secure circular building. The municipality will use the Roadmap this year and early next year for the issue of residential building plots and a non-residential building plot. Later, the instrument will also be used for tenders in the area of transformation, renovation and demolition.

The Roadmap will be evaluated later on based on the practical experience with the tenders. The municipality wants to contribute to the development of a national standard for circular building. From the evaluation, the recommendation also emerges whether and to what extent circular tendering will become policy in Amsterdam.

The Roadmap has been composed by Metabolic and SGS Search, together with the municipality, market parties and external experts.
You can find the Roadmap here: https://www.amsterdam.nl/wonen-leefomgeving/duurzaam-amsterdam/amsterdam-circulair/wereldprimeur/
Later on, probably after the evaluation, it will be translated in English.

Click here to read the roadmap (in Dutch)

On a location in Haarlem we focus on co-creational development of circular solutions for businesses.

Every year, more than 8 million tons of plastic pollution ends up in our oceans of which 60-80% originates from rivers. Plastic does not biodegrade and causes great harm to the environment. Marine life gets entangled in plastics, vessels get damaged and microplastics form a health hazard for the smallest to the largest organisms. The Great Bubble Barrier has developed a technology which can intercept plastic pollution in rivers before it reaches the ocean: the Bubble Barrier, a bubble curtain with a catchment system.

The first long-term Bubble Barrier in the world was placed in November 2019 at Westerdok in Amsterdam.

Watch the video of Bubble Barrier Amsterdam.

THE BUBBLE BARRIER SYSTEM: HOW DOES IT WORK?
The bubble curtain is created by pumping air through a perforated tube on the bottom of the waterway. We make use of the natural flow of the river. The plastic waste will be directed to the side and into our catchment system at the riverbank, where it will be retained and removed from the water.

- It does not hinder ship traffic
- It covers the full width and depth of the waterway
- It allows fish to pass

Visit the Bubble Barrier Amsterdam at Westerdoksplein.

Will the next Bubble Barrier be in your river or city? Send The Great Bubble Barrier a message!

How will we provide food to growing cities with a shrinking amount of agricultural land? How can we provide enough fresh water for everyone? Just as relevant: how should we make the transfer to a safe, clean and reliable energy supply?

How will we provide food to growing cities with a shrinking amount of agricultural land? How can we provide enough fresh water for everyone? Just as relevant: how should we make the transfer to a safe, clean and reliable energy supply?

The large amount of CO2 put into the atmosphere because of human activity causes climate change, threatening our quality of life and security and that of future generations. This has been acknowledged by (inter)national governments – for instance at the COP21 in Paris in 2015 -; They pledge large emission reductions. In the Netherlands, we aim for a reduction of 85-95 percent by the year 2050.

So, we have to reduce CO2 by expansive measures, and everyone should feel the responsibility to work on this challenge as effectively as possible. However, perceiving this issue as only a problem, by incrementally reducing CO2, will not lead to a satisfying end result. We should instead approach this as a huge opportunity for the Dutch economy. Our statement?

CO2 IS NOT ONLY A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS WASTE MATERIAL, IT IS ALSO A IMPORTANT ASSET FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

What is the situation?

CO2 is a raw material in for instance the horticulture and the chemical industry. This is a business case with growth potential.

What do we want to do?

Use CO2 in a smart way so we can reduce the use of raw materials of fossil origin.