#Citizens & Living
Experiences

Policy innovation through collaboration between private, public and civic partners together with knowledge institutions is increasingly seen as the best way to address complex urban challenges. One way to this is through so called “Urban Living Labs” where residents, companies, governments, students and researchers collectively tackle metropolitan problems by immersing themselves in the solution as it is being developed. What are the benefits and pitfalls of these types of living labs? In this session we share the experience and lessons accumulated by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences with innovating through Urban Living Labs and provide specific examples and lessons learned from several projects in Amsterdam.

Policy innovation through collaboration between private, public and civic partners together with knowledge institutions is increasingly seen as the best way to address complex urban challenges. One way to this is through so called “Urban Living Labs” where residents, companies, governments, students and researchers collectively tackle metropolitan problems by immersing themselves in the solution as it is being developed. What are the benefits and pitfalls of these types of living labs? In this session we share the experience and lessons accumulated by Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences with innovating through Urban Living Labs and provide specific examples and lessons learned from several projects in Amsterdam.

Learning from the places you visit and directly applying this to your own challenges

Featured photo: Anke Teunissen - Smart Bricks CC BY <https://www.flickr.com/photos/maakjestad/40860380292/>

The Amsterdam Approach is famed for creating a comprehensive innovation ecosystem for addressing urban challenges. As the former European Capital of Innovation, Amsterdam aims to create a level playing field in which the municipality, corporations, knowledge institutions and citizens collaborate for innovation. But how do we actually do that in Amsterdam?

Social innovation-think tank Kennisland and design research agency STBY observed how many curious visitors are struggling to learn and benefit from the Amsterdam Approach. Translating the experiences and lessons to their own context proves to be difficult for many international delegations and organisations that are keen to learn. Therefore, Kennisland and STBY designed the Innovation Trail, aimed at learning from the places you visit and directly applying this to your own challenges. We help you to understand what you are going to do differently the moment you get back home, and how you are going to do it.

For many of the complex challenges that cities and societies face there are no easy answers. Luckily, there are many examples of people and organisations that have overcome struggles by creating new opportunities to address complex challenges and simply trying things out. We help you to learn from them, and apply your insights to your own organisation or initiative, using three principles:

• Go where the action is. To learn from innovation approaches, you need to understand the context it is happening in and the people who are creating breakthroughs. Being innovative means broadening your perspective and going beyond your usual limits. We get you there with visits to social innovators around Amsterdam who broken through limits too.
• Learn and reflect in context. Understanding the action is your next goal. Our guidance helps you to reflect on how other people innovate, and draw your own lessons from that. We create tools for you based on, for instance, the Experience Tour tool and Problem Definition tool, to work systematically and apply lessons to your own work immediately.
• Tailor the Innovation Trail. Whether you are an industry, government or NGO delegation, whatever phase of the innovation spiral you are in with your work, we will customise your trail to allow for the learning goals you have. We can help you reframe problems, explore opportunities, and even aim for systemic change.

The Amsterdam Innovation Trail combines exciting visits with active learning and network opportunities. At the beginning and end of each excursion day, your team meets for preparation, discussion and reflection under our guidance. These small workshops are based on cases from the extensive practice of Kennisland and STBY of more than a decade, and introduce the tools you will work with during the visits. At the sites, teams are encouraged to use these tools to deepen their understanding of the initiatives and to foster conversations that go beyond a simple introduction, to look at issues such as new business models, impact claims and reframing mechanisms. The hosts of the sites share their stories, successes and challenges.

See an example of an Innovation Trail Kennisland and STBY organised for Finnish city makers from Sitra. The 4-day event was focused on ‘reframing societal challenges’, and was evaluated by the participants as “excellent”.

Based in a home for radical innovation Spring House, Kennisland and STBY are networked and tuned into the latest developments in (social) innovation in the Netherlands. We have a track record in creating learning environments for city makers, teachers, directors and many other players in society and industry. We combine this extensive experience with our deep understanding of dilemmas around (social) innovation internationally to create the Amsterdam Innovation Trail.

The duration of the trail can be anything from a day to five days, and topics can be thematic (health, data, smart cities, social innovation or circular economy, for instance) or process-focused (reframing, scaling, disrupting, for instance).

For more information on the possibilities of the Amsterdam Innovation Trail contact Tessa de Geus from Kennisland (<a>tg@kl.nl</a> / +31 614153916) or Shay Raviv from STBY (<a>shay@stby.eu</a> / +31 6 48579739)

Explore housing strategies through an interactive gaming method

Learn about housing policies through the Play the City method. We welcome teams that a have a serious interest in housing affordability. In an interactive, multi-actor environment you can test your ideas, build housing scenarios and exchange knowledge with your peers.

Are you a housing provider, investor, project developer, city official or a non-profit organization? Would you like to know how Dublin and Amsterdam engage influential stakeholders in addressing their housing affordability through a city game?

City gaming is a working method that allows participants to collaborate, learn and experiment in a realistic yet safe environment. This method allows experts to step outside their usual environment to think freely about ideas and scenarios that might help overcome the barriers to providing sufficient, good quality affordable housing in their city.

There are no prescriptive scenarios or solutions. The game training serves players who, with their real-life expertise and experience, create scenarios based on tested policies. Then they assess their decision with and against other players. It is fast-paced and competitive, yet there are no winners and losers — everyone learns!

In this training, we present the Affordable Housing Game - a policy-making game for developing an implementable agenda for affordable housing across European Cities.

By learning about this method, you will:

*Enhance effective decision-making
*Learn from real world cases while networking with professionals from diverse sectors
*Learn how to adapt to and take action in multidisciplinary environments*Elaborate on the new role of government, companies and communities
*Learn about your own negotiation skills, how they are perceived by other professionals and how you can improve them

If your team is interested in playing with another team from a particular stakeholder group, we can engage actors from municipalities, city-networks, universities, companies and citizen groups to test-play with your team for more diverse knowledge-exchange.

You may choose to book:
Demo session - lasts 1.50 hours
Full training session - lasts 3 hours

More info about Play the City’s practice: www.playthecity.nl
The Affordable Housing Game is developed in collaboration with Urban Land Institute Europe.

architour organizes high-quality guided tours to architecture and urbanism in the Netherlands, guided by local architects.

architour organizes programmes, tours and lectures for groups, focussing on architecture and urbanism in Amsterdam and beyond.

We offer a range of ready-to-book tours, but also develop customized programmes according to your wishes. Lectures on city development, visits with local stakeholders, tours on specific themes - everything is possible. You'll be accompanied by an expert local architect, who will give you a first-hand insight into the Dutch approach to urban issues.

Europe's largest innovation ecosystem, focused on international scale-ups, corporate innovation and public-private partnerships to accelerate international business growth.

Do you want to learn from the largest start-up and innovation ecosystem in Europe? Make sure to visit B. Amsterdam, an innovation hub covering 40.000m2.

B. Building Business offers a tour to share insights on how government, start-ups, corporates, investors and incubators co-build this innovation- and tech ecosystem on a global scale.

Our programs focus on building a global startup ecosystem, future talent and corporate innovation. Interested? Click the link to B.visits and fill in the request form to book a tour now!

Costs for a 1 hour tour + introduction about B. Amsterdam:
Commercial group (max. 20 persons) - 300 euro (excl. VAT)
Non-commercial group (max. 20 persons) - 200 euro (excl. VAT)

*Due to high demand, we kindly ask you to share your request at least 2 weeks before your visit.

Architecture and urban planning tours in Amsterdam

De Gebouwengids organizes tours in the field of architecture and urban planning. The organization is founded fifteen years ago and has developed a professional and passionate way to guide you through the city of Amsterdam. Redevelopment, sustainability and future development are central themes.Check here the broad offer of tours, through musea, parks, different neighbourhoods in the city, and much more.

Sparking inspiring discussions, connections, creativity, bottom up initiatives and innovation

There is no place in Amsterdam like Pakhuis de Zwijger, an independent and cultural warehouse that is all about sparking inspiring discussions, connections, creativity, bottom up initiatives and innovation. PDZ invites live speakers and hosts many events devoted to creative industries and urban city development. The magic does not only happen on stage; the discussions and unexpected connections that follow are key. Since PDZ opened its doors in September 2006, it has grown a big community that tunes in on a regular basis for network meetings, lectures, discussions and workshops that are linked to creation and innovation.

Be surprised by the cultural-historic heritage of Amsterdam

Find out more about the reconstruction architecture and art of Amsterdam

The Van Eesterenmuseum let you meet the cultural-historic heritage of the urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren. His work is one of the highlights of the postwar urban planning and architecture in Amsterdam. In New-West, Buitenveldert and parts of Amsterdam North, the interesting spatial plan is still in place.

The Van Eesterenmuseum is the information point about special urban planning. There is a museum outside, a museum inside, and a nineteen fifties museum house. The museum organizes many different walks, excursions, talks and many other activities.

Work on an actual urban project through a serious game.

What if you could test your development strategies against otherstakeholders in an interactive environment? The best way to learn about consensusbuilding is experiencing it. This is why Play the City offers monthly GameTraining in the City Simulation Room, hosted by Pakhuis de Zwijger. Through anexclusive afternoon program, you can choose to join a game session addressingone of two city making scenarios:

a. Inner-City Redevelopment about the area Amsterdam Noord

b. Off-Grid City about the area Almere Ooosterwold

A game session gives you the chance to network withother curious designers, planners, gaming enthusiasts.

A tour through De Hallen Amsterdam is a nice way to get to know more about the past and the present of the former tram depot.

Since 2010 De Dakdokters (The Roofdoctors) transform the roofs of Amsterdam. Let us show you some of our most interesting solutions and be inspired by our vision.

An excursion takes between 1,5 and 5 hours, depending on the number of roofs.